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The whole concept of "News" falls apart the moment you ask what its purpose is. The American public is being informed that twelve militants have been killed in

by p-e-w 3y ago

The whole concept of "News" falls apart the moment you ask what its purpose is. The American public is being informed that twelve militants have been killed in clashes in Sudan. Now what? What are they supposed to do with that information? Is there any possible benefit that can come to anyone by virtue of average Americans being told about that singular event? Did they even actually learn anything? Propaganda isn't the main problem. Neither is bias, or "fake news", or emotionalism, or framing, or echo chambers. The main problem is that even in its purest, ideal form, (global) news doesn't actually serve any clearly recognizable purpose.

echelon 3y ago
> The American public is being informed that twelve militants have been killed in clashes in Sudan. Now what? What are they supposed to do with that information? Is there any possible benefit that can come to anyone by virtue of average Americans being told about that singular event? Did they even actually learn anything? Neural weights updated: - "There are militants in Sudan" - "There is violence in Sudan" - "There is political instability in Sudan" - "It's probably unsafe to travel to Sudan" - ... Every single piece of news can do this. In consuming news, lots and lots of context gets built up, regularly refreshed, and becomes subconsciously useful across a broad spectrum of tasks. I find the news useful for understanding economics, geopolitics, finance, stock trading, and much more. You just need to make sure you consider the bias of your news sources and the relevance to the overall picture.
- vogon_laureate 3y ago
  In addition to the above, it could also prompt people to find out more about what’s going on there, why it is happening, who are the principal forces involved, etc. I now know far more about Ukraine and Russia than I ever did before because the news coverage led me to want to learn more.

by p-e-w 3y ago

echelon 3y ago

> The American public is being informed that twelve militants have been killed in clashes in Sudan. Now what? What are they supposed to do with that information? Is there any possible benefit that can come to anyone by virtue of average Americans being told about that singular event? Did they even actually learn anything? Neural weights updated: - "There are militants in Sudan" - "There is violence in Sudan" - "There is political instability in Sudan" - "It's probably unsafe to travel to Sudan" - ... Every single piece of news can do this. In consuming news, lots and lots of context gets built up, regularly refreshed, and becomes subconsciously useful across a broad spectrum of tasks. I find the news useful for understanding economics, geopolitics, finance, stock trading, and much more. You just need to make sure you consider the bias of your news sources and the relevance to the overall picture.

vogon_laureate 3y ago
In addition to the above, it could also prompt people to find out more about what’s going on there, why it is happening, who are the principal forces involved, etc. I now know far more about Ukraine and Russia than I ever did before because the news coverage led me to want to learn more.