Hey Jessie's Tribe of danger and excellence
Welcome to my latest blog post, the only place on the steem blockchain where there is ten times more dancing and fun and the ladies ain't half bad once you're 2 beers in! Basically, a place you can call home or like the Irish like to call it the Pub.
What I'd like to ramble on about today while you finish your cheeseburger is news, not really fake news, since most news is fake to a degree but just how you should take news you read with a pinch on the butt and maybe some salt over the right shoulder.
It's 90% bullshit
But it's entertaining and that's why I read it. Just like I read fiction, I read biographies, I read comics, I read indie writing they're all bullshit, half-truths, whole lies and assumptions with a few facts you can pull out if you're so inclined.
The reason news is 90% bullshit is because of the environment we've set up to feed us bullshit and in fact, we encourage it. It's a self-perpetuating system, this is not me being woke it's just pretty obvious and when you realise it you can enjoy what you read and understand it a bit better.
The current ecosystem of news dissemination online or otherwise is made up of the following or affected by the following.
- Fake news - Probably the most obvious of late, this is news written with the intent to spark conversation, spread misinformation, rile up people and whatever agenda or even cover-ups. The value and use of fake news are endless and it's not going anywhere.
- Online publishing incentives - Online and to an extent offline publishers remain alive due to the readership, impressions, views, when you compete on this basis, being factual plays second to everything else. A misprint used to be something a news outlet would hate now they don't mind it due to the views and engagement they get from it. The current incentive structure doesn't encourage good quality content its encourages provocation.
- Lazy journalism - In the past journos used to actually go out and do some investigative reporting. Now they just sit online google a bunch of shit or have access to priority newsfeeds where the source of info are placed for them to grab from and regurgitate an article. You can't really give a unique view or opinion if you're all drawing from the same fact pool
- Opinion matters more than fact - Due to our need to value some sort of fake authority, we would rather emphasis who said something rather than the actual fact. Instead of us looking at facts, we publish pieces on what politicians or celebrities had to say on the topic and not the actual topic, spending time deep diving into the real issue, we pad it with opinions and quotes from people no smarter or informed than we are.
- Biases will always creep in - Human nature, we all know a journo is human and affected by what they see, their political ideologies etc
- Strong arming and ties - A journo if not an independent one can't really take risks, the content is edited and mediated to fit a narrative set by the network, those who own it etc. Each news outlet is only an echo chamber and sounding board for the ones paying the salaries.
I'm sure there are more factors at play, you can drop them in the comments.
Denzel said it best and If you need the scene I'm referring to for context here you go! Also if you have not seen the movie, please do so or we cannot be in contact. Why would you not want to see an Oscar-winning performance?
May I read my papers?
Give me your best bullshit
Now that you can read your news without Rose coloured arses, I mean glasses do you feel a bit better? A little less enraged? A little more entertained?
ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED? is that not why you are here?
Have your say
If you have some entertaining bullshit you think I would like to read, it could be your post or an article from another site, then drop it in the comments.
Holla at me in the comments! All my commenters I will now refer to as Jessie. Jessie is a good friend of mine, but Jessies got a girl, and I want to make her mine.
So have at it my Jessies! If you don't have something to comment, simply comment "I am a Jessie."
Let's connect
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