In an era of fake news

Started by Matty, January 10, 2018, 03:07:35

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Derron

It's your decision of where you take your news from.

https://news.google.com/news/search/section/q/Yemen
Seems things are still happening there...


Like said I am aware of the media being biased - and commercial media being more biased by what people are interested in. So if "Kanye's new baby" (dunno if that is the case) brings more audience than "25 killed in car bomb near XYZ in Yemen", then these things receive more attention time / bigger articles / longer videos.

Also of importance: while a nuclear strike is something which "could happen to you" too, a "car bomb" is less likely to happen near you (in most cases - if you are an US-American, Canadian, West-European, Australian or maybe Eastern-Europe/Asian one - so read: except in certain regions of Africa and Far East). If it happens, then you _know_ that this will rule news for weeks while hundreds of people are starving each day in Africa.
Why do we not read about them? Reading about things day for day makes you stone cold regarding the issues. You just do not really care anymore, you get "hard-boiled" for this matter. But if it happens here and there every "some months", then it works in a way more terrific way.
This is surely also a reason why bigger terroristic attacks do not happen day for day in "our" countries. Ok, a "month of terror" would terrify too, but somewhen you resignate and start to "come along" with it. That's why nobody is reporting about starving children - except for some kind of memorial days.

And a bit of this aspect might also guide how many things get reported about Ukraine, Yemen, ... or other crisis areas. Ok, and of course bigger medias tend to play nicely with Politics which is interested in friendly connections to our fellow international neighbours. Nonetheless not every media would knuckle down. The difference between media is often "the way they present things". How do they call "rebels" (you can call them rebel, resistance, ... how you like the audience to "perceive" something). But most of them still report about issues - because "not reporting" creates suspicion.


bye
Ron