Conversation

Notices

1. Embed this notice
   Tokyo Outsider (337ppm) (tokyo_0@mas.to)'s status on Saturday, 24-Jun-2023 02:48:41 JST Tokyo Outsider (337ppm)

   • Thomas 🔭🕹️
   • Minoru Saba

   @thomasfuchs You don't remember when news used to actually be about significant events of local, national or world importance? Rather than just bait for a 24-hour cycle most of which is redundant? Why won't "news" publications change? If the financial structure that incentivizes this toxicity changes, the news will change, too. Telling people to be uninformed isn't the answer, and neither is telling yourself "nothing can be done" (ie "I absolve myself of doing anything"). @minorusaba

   • Embed this notice
     Loman-Feusagach (lomanfeusagach@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 23-Jun-2023 23:53:05 JST Loman-Feusagach

     • Thomas 🔭🕹️

     @thomasfuchs but why are migrants dying not an emotional story?

   • Embed this notice
     RevJeber 🫶🏼 (jeber@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 24-Jun-2023 00:00:47 JST RevJeber 🫶🏼

     • Thomas 🔭🕹️

     @thomasfuchs
     It seems to me that our society is losing more of its empathy every day. We can only sympathize with a few people at a time. Large numbers of victims are beyond our ability to grasp.

   • Embed this notice
     RevJeber 🫶🏼 (jeber@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 24-Jun-2023 00:07:12 JST RevJeber 🫶🏼

     • Thomas 🔭🕹️

     @thomasfuchs
     True, but IMHO there was a period in the 60s where it seemed the youth of America were starting to appreciate the suffering of masses of people in other countries. The Peace Corps was an example of growing empathy. Even the WPA showed an awareness of the needs of others. Then it all went to hell in the 70s and 80s.

   • Embed this notice
     sike (sike@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 24-Jun-2023 01:52:58 JST sike

     in reply to

     • Thomas 🔭🕹️
     • Luca Hammer

     @luca @thomasfuchs Very true and on point, I would also add that its familiarity due to the Titanic being the most famous shipwreck. Another unfortunate point is that migrant death stories are often enough that most people consider it a dull affair, like we saw with COVID deaths during the pandemic

   • Embed this notice
     Luca Hammer (luca@social.luca.run)'s status on Saturday, 24-Jun-2023 01:52:59 JST Luca Hammer

     • Thomas 🔭🕹️

     @thomasfuchs Communication studies call it the news values theory. It's mostly what people are more drawn to (journalists are people, editors are people, audience consists of people).

     Unexpectedness: Sub incident occurred suddenly and for the first time.
     Personalization: Specific people.
     Eliteness: Rich people.
     Superlativeness: So deep, so stupid.
     Proximity: Cultural.
     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_values

     That it is expected that it gets more coverage, should not stop us from using it to draw attention to other important issues.

   • Embed this notice
     Chris Hokanson (hokanson@hachyderm.io)'s status on Saturday, 24-Jun-2023 02:48:41 JST Chris Hokanson

     in reply to

     • Thomas 🔭🕹️
     • Minoru Saba

     @tokyo_0 @thomasfuchs @minorusaba News nostalgia is still blind nostalgia. It’s always been this way, even before 24-hour news. The for-profit news media will always chase exciting, emotional stories - My parents followed the 1987 “Baby Jessica Falls Down a Well” story so much, they even bought the follow-up Made-for-TV movie.
     24-hour news didn’t create the problem, it just amplified it.