5 ms·

Twitter isn't some closed ecosystem comprising only its own users talking to each other. Journalists are all on it looking for 'public opinion' that then makes

by owisd 4y ago

Twitter isn't some closed ecosystem comprising only its own users talking to each other. Journalists are all on it looking for 'public opinion' that then makes it into television and print, despite Twitter not being representative of public opinion at all.

johnchristopher 4y ago
I once heard a journalist saying almost these exact words, on air, and still blaming Twitter for spreading inaccuracies and misinformation (edit: and most importantly "a inaccurate assessment of the general opinion"). I am still baffled (Léa Salamé, for those who know).
deltarholamda 4y ago
Journalists, being people, are lazy. And if they can get away with never leaving their couch and still do something that can be called "journalism," then they will do it. Every few months, some journalist will drive out into the hinterlands of America and discover that other 97% of America that isn't on Twitter 10 hours a day. They then write some chin-stroking piece about "bubbles," go to sleep, wake up, and then go back to the couch and the Twitter app, having learned nothing. I get it. Nobody wants to become a journalist and cover spaghetti suppers for the baseball team's Booster Club. But in reality, that's something like 90+% of ordinary people's lives.
- cbozeman 4y ago
  Then they should all quit their jobs and learn to code. Being a journalist is supposed to be a hard job with a strict code of ethics, and journalists are supposed to police their own, coming hard exceptionally hard on lazy journalists.
  - ForHackernews 4y ago
    They do a better job of policing their own than the software people, at least. It turns out biting the hand that feeds (or may feed in the future) is not easy.
  - Banana699 4y ago
    >they should all quit their jobs and learn to code Please no. Can you imagine what they would write if they apply the same standards of quality to code that they do to journalism.
- seadan83 4y ago
  Less the journalists and more the newsrooms. Politico news is cheap and gets eyeballs. Far easier than paying for investigative journalism, let alone having an embedded reporter hundreds of miles away, the newsrooms have been demanding profits and so "man bites dog" leads the news coverage.

by owisd 4y ago

johnchristopher 4y ago

I once heard a journalist saying almost these exact words, on air, and still blaming Twitter for spreading inaccuracies and misinformation (edit: and most importantly "a inaccurate assessment of the general opinion"). I am still baffled (Léa Salamé, for those who know).

deltarholamda 4y ago

Journalists, being people, are lazy. And if they can get away with never leaving their couch and still do something that can be called "journalism," then they will do it. Every few months, some journalist will drive out into the hinterlands of America and discover that other 97% of America that isn't on Twitter 10 hours a day. They then write some chin-stroking piece about "bubbles," go to sleep, wake up, and then go back to the couch and the Twitter app, having learned nothing. I get it. Nobody wants to become a journalist and cover spaghetti suppers for the baseball team's Booster Club. But in reality, that's something like 90+% of ordinary people's lives.

cbozeman 4y ago
Then they should all quit their jobs and learn to code. Being a journalist is supposed to be a hard job with a strict code of ethics, and journalists are supposed to police their own, coming hard exceptionally hard on lazy journalists.
- ForHackernews 4y ago
  They do a better job of policing their own than the software people, at least. It turns out biting the hand that feeds (or may feed in the future) is not easy.
- Banana699 4y ago
  >they should all quit their jobs and learn to code Please no. Can you imagine what they would write if they apply the same standards of quality to code that they do to journalism.
seadan83 4y ago
Less the journalists and more the newsrooms. Politico news is cheap and gets eyeballs. Far easier than paying for investigative journalism, let alone having an embedded reporter hundreds of miles away, the newsrooms have been demanding profits and so "man bites dog" leads the news coverage.