Why the news sucks ass?

[Rigel]

In an effort to become a better citizen I've been shopping for news around where I live in canada(I am not familiar with US networks). I've been wanting to understand what's going on in the world but what I came around to is just insanity. I cannot, for the life of me, find a reliable & non-dramatizing network.

So I did a small amount of googling to understand why the news is such a negative, shit-slinging contest and I stumbled on this article: https://markmanson.net/why-you-should-quit-the-news

It's a good read. The author goes through some history of centralized & decentralized networks of information as well as what to do if you want actually useful and relevant information.

A few things I gathered from it:

-Prioritize long form news. If the thing takes 40mins to read, it wasn't just an emotional rant about somebody's opinion, but required probably days & months to research and write.

Quote

By high-value content, ask yourself how much that content cost in terms of the labor, research, expertise, production, etc. Long-form content is more expensive than short-form. Research and citations are more difficult to put together than just some old dude ranting. Something that explains the historical context and acknowledges multiple sides of an issue is more difficult and time-consuming than a partisan rant.

-Don't ever click on a clickbait.

-The news networks that make you pay for it will have better information. 

-You will not understand politics by consuming the news. Read a book about politics if you want good information on politics. The news is about the immediate term. It totally misses the big picture.

-You don't need a news anchor to tell you what to think about elections & such. Listen to the candidates themselves & decide for yourself which is the least-worst one.

~~~~~~~

Here's the bottom of the barrel: Murders, crimes, gangs, drugs & violence.

Most of the articles I came across that deal with those topics are worthless. Only there to turn people into emotional baboons. I see the war going on in the middle east right now as an exception. I am mostly talking about local stuff here.

Once in a blue moon I come across something cool but it's buried so deep in this thick crap that I am questioning whether it's worth it or not.

Am I being a shitty citizen if I just remove myself form consuming the news at all?

 

[Devin]

Consider it's target audience. It's not my thing either, if you socialize enough you'll hear the news.

Who cares what's going on anyways, it's always the same old same old, just monkeys out there monkeying around, would you read a weekly publication about the happenings in ape colonies?

[Thought Art]

CBCs the national generally does a good job of Canadian events

[PurpleTree]

because it’s from the ego

and the ego is scared