Media Bias

[Joe]

The news shows are like watching a bad movie. I can get caught up in them, despite knowing some of the more obvious '4th wall' breaks.

Do yourself a favor. Turn it off. Don't follow the news. It rots the brain.

Interesting article. Indeed, if all you are doing is reading the news stories then you are doing yourself no service whatsoever. Original sources are best especially in so-called science reporting. The beat news has links to original sources. News sources that don’t link to original sources are usually untrustworthy.

Yeah, reporting on science is hard because most news organizations don't have reporters with the requisite background to make sense of it for the layman. Television news is far too sensationalist and conflict based to be of any use. As one former newsman put it, they value heat over light. Even my daily newspaper succumbs to this regularly.

I've found long form magazine articles and books to be useful for getting context and the rise of YouTube has made available lectures and panel discussions that used to be available only to a privileged few.

What's amazing to me is how many people don't take advantage of these resources.

I am managing a little light reading though, a book about Trump's buddy.

I have a subscription to NewScientist, which I find fits the bill very well. It has had some excellent articles on coronavirus recently. When I was 15, and my Dad realised I was interested in science, he started to buy them for me (and he would read them too). So I've been a NewScientist reader for over 50 years!

I took a look at their website and it looks like good stuff.

Sadly, I don't have a lot of subscriptions because I'm still working and reading time is scarce. However, my youngest just finished her junior year of college, so things may ease up in another year or so.

I am managing a little light reading though. I'm reading a book about Trump's BFF.

[BarnettNewman]

The news shows are like watching a bad movie. I can get caught up in them, despite knowing some of the more obvious '4th wall' breaks.

Do yourself a favor. Turn it off. Don't follow the news. It rots the brain.

Interesting article. Indeed, if all you are doing is reading the news stories then you are doing yourself no service whatsoever. Original sources are best especially in so-called science reporting. The beat news has links to original sources. News sources that don’t link to original sources are usually untrustworthy.

Yeah, reporting on science is hard because most news organizations don't have reporters with the requisite background to make sense of it for the layman. Television news is far too sensationalist and conflict based to be of any use. As one former newsman put it, they value heat over light. Even my daily newspaper succumbs to this regularly.

I've found long form magazine articles and books to be useful for getting context and the rise of YouTube has made available lectures and panel discussions that used to be available only to a privileged few.

What's amazing to me is how many people don't take advantage of these resources.

Yep. The worst thing to happen to news was the 24 hour news channel.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[L'Emmerdeur]

The EurekAlert site is good for science news, in my opinion. The press releases from university science departments seem to be mostly matter of fact and attempt to present the results accurately. When following a science story I often find science journalists base their coverage on the press release, perhaps supplemented by soliciting comment from other scientists in the field. That can have good results and sometimes not so good.

[JimC]

The coronavirus crisis has seen a flood of reporting, along a continuum from straight-forward science news by good science reporters based on real science, through to really fake news and pseudo-scientific garbage. News media tend to be somewhat indiscriminate, and the general public can easily be swayed by snake-oil merchants...

[Cunt]

The coronavirus crisis has seen a flood of reporting, along a continuum from straight-forward science news by good science reporters based on real science, through to really fake news and pseudo-scientific garbage. News media tend to be somewhat indiscriminate, and the general public can easily be swayed by snake-oil merchants...

Don't worry. Not only is facebook microsoft and google protecting you, some are even granting awards for smart coders who can find ways to remove harmful memes.

Interesting question, JimC:

Do you think the US military uses memes?

[Brian Peacock]

The coronavirus crisis has seen a flood of reporting, along a continuum from straight-forward science news by good science reporters based on real science, through to really fake news and pseudo-scientific garbage. News media tend to be somewhat indiscriminate, and the general public can easily be swayed by snake-oil merchants...

I think we tend to think of science journalism as being of a different kind or order to 'regular' journalism because we see the product of scientific endeavour, basic core info, as somehow being socially, politically, or economic neutral. I think that's somewhat the case, and somewhat not. At the moment a huge amount of scientific research is paid for by entities with a vested interest in the outcome, and lazy journalists writing up press releases as 'discoveries' are really just another aspect of corporate PR and investment planning.

[JimC]

The coronavirus crisis has seen a flood of reporting, along a continuum from straight-forward science news by good science reporters based on real science, through to really fake news and pseudo-scientific garbage. News media tend to be somewhat indiscriminate, and the general public can easily be swayed by snake-oil merchants...

I think we tend to think of science journalism as being of a different kind or order to 'regular' journalism because we see the product of scientific endeavour, basic core info, as somehow being socially, politically, or economic neutral. I think that's somewhat the case, and somewhat not. At the moment a huge amount of scientific research is paid for by entities with a vested interest in the outcome, and lazy journalists writing up press releases as 'discoveries' are really just another aspect of corporate PR and investment planning.

A lot of it is to do with the release of pre-press versions of science papers before they have gone through peer review. In quieter times, the media takes little notice of these, and they are properly winnowed by reviews before the media gets to them. But now, some media people are treating them as the same as a truly peer reviewed paper...

[Animavore]

Fox News is telling its employees to work from home for at least another month while its TV hosts push for businesses to reopen

https://www.businessinsider.com/fox-new ... ?r=US&IR=T

[Cunt]

In which states?

See, the US is a big country, with each state being big like your wee countries over in Europe...

[Brian Peacock]

Presumably they're pushing for businesses to open in all states.

[Joe]

Well, they can let businesses open, but that won't save the economy if people stay home.

“Confidence” is the secret sauce needed for Americans to get back to public life once the deadly coronavirus pandemic ebbs and as restrictions on movement are gradually lifted.

A range of policy-makers and elected officials spoke Sunday of what it will take to get the economy moving again as weeks of mandatory shelter-in-place orders give way to a tentative reopening, even as thousands of new cases are diagnosed each day.

“The economy’s not going to open no matter what we do, whatever we order, unless people have confidence. And we’re trying to give them confidence,” Ohio Governor Mike DeWine said on “Fox News Sunday.”

Ohio moved against the virus early, instigating a stay-at-home order in mid-March. A phased reopening is under way that will have much of the state’s businesses open by the end of this week.

At the same time we’re telling them, look, the virus is still out there, it’s still very, very dangerous. We have to keep the distancing,” said DeWine, a Republican. “We can’t let up.”

Neel Kashkari, president of the Minneapolis Fed, said instilling confidence for Americans will be tied closely to medical advances.

“I would love to see robust economy, but that would require a breakthrough in vaccines, a breakthrough in widespread testing, a breakthrough in therapies to give all of us confidence that it’s safe to go back,” Kashkari said on ABC’s “This Week.”

“I don’t know when we’re going to have that confidence, and ultimately the American people are going to decide how long the shutdown is,” said Kashkari, a voting member of the Federal Reserve’s policy-setting body this year.

Economics was one of the specializations for my degree, and this is consistent with what I remember. "We have nothing to fear but fear itself" may not be completely true, but it's at least truthy.

[Seabass]

[Hermit]

^^^ ^^^

[Brian Peacock]

'...pictures of Obama hiding under and umbrella' !

[rainbow]

SkyNews.com.au

What is that about? Like a Strine version of Fox?