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Let’s be fair… The media chases clicks and attention. News reading Americans rather read about “Is it China or aliens?”, the war in Ukraine, earthquake in Mid

Let’s be fair… The media chases clicks and attention. News reading Americans rather read about “Is it China or aliens?”, the war in Ukraine, earthquake in Middle East and the Super Bowl than small-town Ohio.

uoaei 4y ago
The media chases money, and clicks and attention work for that, but so does other stuff, eg, bribery.
yunwal 4y ago
In what way is a fiery train derailment and cows dropping dead all over the region not a good story for clicks and attention? I guess the balloon feels a bit more whimsical but it feels like the more boring story. In this instance, the simplest explanation really does seem to be financial conflict of interest.
- gruez 4y ago
  The balloon story is less about the balloon itself and more about the wider conflict between china and US.
  - yunwal 4y ago
    ”China conducts surveillance on US” is still not particularly exciting or novel news either way. Train derailment poisons an entire town is definitely the more eye-catching headline.
    - gruez 4y ago
      >”China conducts surveillance on US” is still not particularly exciting or novel news either way 1. ”China conducts surveillance on US” gets plenty of clicks/attention. Just look at tiktok, and before that huawei/ZTE. 2. In this case specifically it's not just "China conducts surveillance on US", it's also arguably violating the territorial integrity of the US. For americans that's strikes much closer to home than shadowy hackers hacking from china.
      - yunwal 4y ago
        > ”China conducts surveillance on US” gets plenty of clicks/attention. Does it? As far as I can tell, the “TikTok spies on people” stories have all been met with “yeah, so does Facebook”. This is across pretty much the entire political spectrum. It seems to me that only the political/media class actually find it significant. While it’s obviously too early to have non-anecdotal data on this, my instincts tell me very few people actually care or find it surprising that China “violated the territorial integrity of the U.S.” as if we’re not constantly flying drones over other world powers. It’s just standard operating procedure at this point.
  - XorNot 4y ago
    The balloon story is being propped up by UFO conspiracy theorists and let's not pretend it's anything but that. They are absolutely going nuts over every "unknown object" being shot down. Every single mention on it here on HN is filled with people talking about it.
lgbrandon 4y ago
They gonna care when the crops and livestock we depend on from that area quit producing. And prices go up even more. This was insanely horrid the toll it is going to take on that region and the Country.

uoaei 4y ago

The media chases money, and clicks and attention work for that, but so does other stuff, eg, bribery.

yunwal 4y ago

In what way is a fiery train derailment and cows dropping dead all over the region not a good story for clicks and attention? I guess the balloon feels a bit more whimsical but it feels like the more boring story. In this instance, the simplest explanation really does seem to be financial conflict of interest.

gruez 4y ago
The balloon story is less about the balloon itself and more about the wider conflict between china and US.
- yunwal 4y ago
  ”China conducts surveillance on US” is still not particularly exciting or novel news either way. Train derailment poisons an entire town is definitely the more eye-catching headline.
  - gruez 4y ago
    >”China conducts surveillance on US” is still not particularly exciting or novel news either way 1. ”China conducts surveillance on US” gets plenty of clicks/attention. Just look at tiktok, and before that huawei/ZTE. 2. In this case specifically it's not just "China conducts surveillance on US", it's also arguably violating the territorial integrity of the US. For americans that's strikes much closer to home than shadowy hackers hacking from china.
    - yunwal 4y ago
      > ”China conducts surveillance on US” gets plenty of clicks/attention. Does it? As far as I can tell, the “TikTok spies on people” stories have all been met with “yeah, so does Facebook”. This is across pretty much the entire political spectrum. It seems to me that only the political/media class actually find it significant. While it’s obviously too early to have non-anecdotal data on this, my instincts tell me very few people actually care or find it surprising that China “violated the territorial integrity of the U.S.” as if we’re not constantly flying drones over other world powers. It’s just standard operating procedure at this point.
- XorNot 4y ago
  The balloon story is being propped up by UFO conspiracy theorists and let's not pretend it's anything but that. They are absolutely going nuts over every "unknown object" being shot down. Every single mention on it here on HN is filled with people talking about it.

lgbrandon 4y ago

They gonna care when the crops and livestock we depend on from that area quit producing. And prices go up even more. This was insanely horrid the toll it is going to take on that region and the Country.