8 ms·

I was glad to see a bit of a decline in the “Worrying Trend: (a dozen) People (on Twitter) are saying [controversial thing]!” type of articles filter down throu

I was glad to see a bit of a decline in the “Worrying Trend: (a dozen) People (on Twitter) are saying [controversial thing]!” type of articles filter down through whatever algorithm I was subject to at the moment, but notes they’ve just replaced it with TikTok.

jchw 2mo ago
I swear to God there are articles on news sites (glorified blogs, but you know) that are along the lines of "people on twitter are saying this" and then if you actually look there is literally one (or perhaps two if you're lucky) person saying it and their post isn't even that popular. It's not that I'm surprised it's just that I know 98-99% of people are just going to take that at face value, and either allow it to confirm their pre-existing notions, or perhaps they will see it and shake their heads disapprovingly. I think this over time leads to people having distorted views of sentiment on issues, sometimes leading to really weird situations where literally most people disagree but nobody wants to be the one to say it.
- ggregoryarms 2mo ago
  Yeah it really flips things upside down when a journalist has so much access to info that they can essentially pick their own story from the data. Maybe they can't credibly fudge the numbers, but they can find enough data to agenda-set pretty much anything.
- DrewADesign 2mo ago
  Yeah it’s really just depressing. It’s like every news outlet wants to be just a ‘little bit’ “national enquirer” but still have everyone take them seriously. Our news industry is abjectly sensationalist.
- deleted 2mo ago
  [deleted]
Gigachad 2mo ago
This always felt like way to work around libel laws. Where they can claim "People on twitter are saying x", as an indirect way of making a claim without having to be liable for it.
- DrewADesign 2mo ago
  I think, more broadly, it just allows them to get scandal clicks for controversial things while being able to completely disown it.

jchw 2mo ago

I swear to God there are articles on news sites (glorified blogs, but you know) that are along the lines of "people on twitter are saying this" and then if you actually look there is literally one (or perhaps two if you're lucky) person saying it and their post isn't even that popular. It's not that I'm surprised it's just that I know 98-99% of people are just going to take that at face value, and either allow it to confirm their pre-existing notions, or perhaps they will see it and shake their heads disapprovingly. I think this over time leads to people having distorted views of sentiment on issues, sometimes leading to really weird situations where literally most people disagree but nobody wants to be the one to say it.

ggregoryarms 2mo ago
Yeah it really flips things upside down when a journalist has so much access to info that they can essentially pick their own story from the data. Maybe they can't credibly fudge the numbers, but they can find enough data to agenda-set pretty much anything.
DrewADesign 2mo ago
Yeah it’s really just depressing. It’s like every news outlet wants to be just a ‘little bit’ “national enquirer” but still have everyone take them seriously. Our news industry is abjectly sensationalist.
deleted 2mo ago
[deleted]

Gigachad 2mo ago

This always felt like way to work around libel laws. Where they can claim "People on twitter are saying x", as an indirect way of making a claim without having to be liable for it.

DrewADesign 2mo ago
I think, more broadly, it just allows them to get scandal clicks for controversial things while being able to completely disown it.