Jump to content

What do you want from a newsletter/information website?


Tex

Recommended Posts

Howdy, everybody. I'm posting this thread to sort of test the waters for a potential idea I had. The question of the day is this: What do you want to see from a newspaper/news website/other form of information source about current affairs?

Naturally, I would want to see a news source give facts only, with no leanings towards any particular ideology. I want the whos, whats, whens, wheres, and whys answered, without affiliation to any interest. In my opinion, that is what journalism is meant to be- reporting of the facts, and that's it. What do you fine kerbonauts think?

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The 1940s called and want their ethical journalism practices back.

No just joking, but I really think that - sadly - the time of trusted news sources is done. People trust news that conforms to what they already think, and will reject any that doesn't. If they reject it they're not viewing ads, and any website that doesn't cater to a popular demographic will therefore fail.

Sorry to sound down on it, but that's what it is.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You're always going to have to make choices about which stories to publish and which parts of the 400-page governmental report to excerpt in your article. You'll decide that based on your opinion of what's important, which is very hard to divorce from whatever your personal ideology might be. So it's not really possible to operate on "just facts." Now if you meant you would avoid publishing things you know to be false, that sounds great, but I think all the current news sites already have policies like that, at least on paper.

What do I want to see? I guess I'm not looking for a new public affairs news site right now. Any "big" story that happens is everywhere instantly and infiltrates things I'm already reading (e.g. memes about it start appearing on the front page of Imgur), and from there I can try to track down the primary sources that actually have some credibility (usually a press release or a paper/study). Most of the time it's not important enough to bother.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1. "Just 100" and "at least 100" both mean "about 100".

2. Geometric mean value almost always rules. If one liar says "1", and another one says "100", truth is mostly somewhere about (x1*x2*...xn)1/n = (1 * 100)1/2 = 10.
Just because one of them tries to say it's K times greater, while another one that it's K times lesser.
Of course, be aware about 0's.

3. (Don't know who's author.)
Avoid emotional texts. Remember: if your soul flies to the sky, probably somebody tries to possess your body on ground.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My opinion in very simple words: news these days are mostly generated to server a purpose, as a medium for money making or to transport a political or religious message. This may sound somewhat paranoiac, but i am glad that the public is slowly getting aware, especially since the last year.

If i would want to get more information on the actions of our governments (don't care which one), my question would be: how can you be sure that what you get from the news agencies is actually true ? How can you avoid falling for "news" generated to server a purpose (in my opinion 90%), governmental "alternative facts", political or religious influence ? In my opinion your task as a news page provider would be to secure a certain quality and transparency, what i would like to see is a really independent news source. But it might happen that such a source is quickly cut off from news supply or even declared illegal if it gets too uncomfortable ... see the leak-pages.

 

Ah ... these are not the times for a revolution, i am 100 years too late :-)))))

 

Edited by Green Baron
Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 hours ago, Tex said:

What do you want to see from a newspaper/news website/other form of information source about current affairs?

I want to see an echo chamber for my preconceived ideas, where I don't have to think about new ideas, but in a way that makes me feel like I'm open minded and learning new things.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm appreciating the views I'm getting so far, and I would like to try a different phrasing to better guide responses:

If you were to open up a news website, what information would you want to be presented with? Current affairs articles? Articles about different nonfiction topics? Interviews with authors and other media figures? What would your perfect news site look like?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Tex said:

I'm appreciating the views I'm getting so far, and I would like to try a different phrasing to better guide responses:

If you were to open up a news website, what information would you want to be presented with? Current affairs articles? Articles about different nonfiction topics? Interviews with authors and other media figures? What would your perfect news site look like?

Well for me, I'd like a ton of unbiased facts about current events, with citations shown in the articles with links. Interviews would be pretty cool, maybe have interview interest checks by a poll so the readers can choose what who they would like to be interviewed. I don't think it should give opinions about current events, just facts. Opinions will lead to cherry-picking stuff and just becoming the same thing most mainstream media outlets have become, I guess.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Tex said:

If you were to open up a news website, what information would you want to be presented with? Current affairs articles? Articles about different nonfiction topics? Interviews with authors and other media figures? What would your perfect news site look like?

My perfect news site can never exist.

I would rather have five sites to go to. Two that present facts and context based on conflicting (but but not extremes) views of what is important, and two that provide opinions and interpretations on the facts and context from different viewpoints. The last one is just an extended funnies page.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, Green Baron said:

My opinion in very simple words: news these days are mostly generated to server a purpose, as a medium for money making or to transport a political or religious message. This may sound somewhat paranoiac, but i am glad that the public is slowly getting aware, especially since the last year.

[Edited by adsii1970 for relevant content I want to discuss]

 

15 hours ago, 5thHorseman said:

No just joking, but I really think that - sadly - the time of trusted news sources is done. People trust news that conforms to what they already think, and will reject any that doesn't. If they reject it they're not viewing ads, and any website that doesn't cater to a popular demographic will therefore fail.

[Edited by adsii1970 for relevant content I want to discuss]

By my vocation, I am a professional historian who also teaches at a local university and at a community college. In response to @Green Baron, this has always been the case and is not new. Within American history, and beginning in the 1890s, (ever heard of Yellow Journalism?) the American media began to realize the true power it had to shape public opinion. Since that time, we've been pulled into the Spanish American War and World War I where the United States had no real national security interests until the American public became convinced of the necessity of both wars. Then, in the Vietnam War, Americans were led to believe by the American media that the war was lost after the U.S. "defeat" during the Tet Offensive... which from a military standpoint was simply not true.

The American media sees itself as the kingmakers and kingbreakers of what it considers proper political conduct and the "real issues." I cannot go into all the particulars here because it would be a FORUM 2.2 violation, but if you are really interested, private message me and we can go into greater details...  The media has an inflated sense of it's own self-worth and the efforts to promote net neutrality and now the call to go against "fake news sources" is an attempt to reclaim its relevancy in American society. In 2016, the American public sent a very clear message to the American mainstream media: "we don't trust you, we do not trust your interpretation of facts, and you do not represent our best interests..." The media still doesn't know how to react on this...

@5thHorseman's comments also focuses on something interesting - but it is a concept we already see happening in Internet based news sources for the past ten years. Space.Com created a niche for itself. It is a non-partisan news clearing house for all things space-based. Where CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, ABC, CBS, and others fail is they try to appeal to ALL and be an all-news clearinghouse and that model has been dead now for about five years, the news media doesn't know how to handle it. For example, why go to MSNBC when you can look up the raw news feeds via the Associated Press page (AP News) or the United Press International (UPI) without literally half the political slant as the major news networks have? I for one, use five sources, three of which are foreign news services, when I begin to do research for projects I am working on.

There's been large segments of the population that have been aware of the media manipulation for years. Even in my lifetime, I've been amazed that as the world burned, the American media was more interested in Paris Hilton, the big butt of Kim Kardashian, or the political views of old and dried out singers and actors than it was in reporting what has been going on around the world. These same people realized the media doesn't care about people making independent decisions based on a complete data picture, but in people following the interpretation of facts presented by the mainstream media and acting out what the media claims is in the best interests of the nation. Again, it has been this way since the 1870s and is finally in decline now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm sorry, but media bias is not the topic of this thread. I do understand that there are more serious opinions about the media and what it has been/is becoming, but again, I have to redirect the thread. The topic of this thread is: What do you personally want to see from a news outlet?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This thread is quite old. Please consider starting a new thread rather than reviving this one.

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...