An American Peculiarity
November 17, 2024 1:15 PM Subscribe
“Since political communication research is predominantly US-centric, there is a tendency to apply American findings directly to the Asian context,” Kobayashi added. “Our study challenges this tendency and demonstrates the importance of research tailored to the Asian context.” By examining news consumption in Japan and Hong Kong alongside the US, the researchers aimed to understand if selective exposure is a universal behavior or if specific national and cultural factors shape it. from Americans Are More Likely to Choose News That Supports Their Beliefs. This New Study Reveals Why. [The Debrief]
"To believe is to know you believe, and to know you believe is not to believe" - Jean-Paul Sartre
posted by grokus at 1:28 PM on November 17 [4 favorites]
posted by grokus at 1:28 PM on November 17 [4 favorites]
I prefer my news to be news. Who, what, when and where. Keep your opinions and prognostications to yourself or the editorial pages. Best I can cobble together on the web is equal measures of the PBS News Hour and NPR News. But then again, I'm old...
posted by jim in austin at 1:30 PM on November 17 [2 favorites]
posted by jim in austin at 1:30 PM on November 17 [2 favorites]
Let's not act like both sides have "news that supports their beliefs
I’ve seen people (it feels like increasingly) posting factually dubious but worldview-reinforcing takes from a liberal perspective right on this website. I’d never pretend it’s equal on both sides but come on.
posted by atoxyl at 2:01 PM on November 17 [8 favorites]
I’ve seen people (it feels like increasingly) posting factually dubious but worldview-reinforcing takes from a liberal perspective right on this website. I’d never pretend it’s equal on both sides but come on.
posted by atoxyl at 2:01 PM on November 17 [8 favorites]
Immigrants "invading"...
"Invading" is obviously loaded (or rather, racist) language, but I haven't been under the impression that people on metafilter are generally aware of the large amount of immigration that's occurred since covid.
posted by ropeladder at 2:15 PM on November 17 [2 favorites]
"Invading" is obviously loaded (or rather, racist) language, but I haven't been under the impression that people on metafilter are generally aware of the large amount of immigration that's occurred since covid.
posted by ropeladder at 2:15 PM on November 17 [2 favorites]
For the curious and new addicted, there are news aggregators out there who try to identify and link to media according to bias.
https://adfontesmedia.com/interactive-media-bias-chart/
https://www.allsides.com/unbiased-balanced-news
https://ground.news/
Good on Japan, I suppose, but it's not as if plenty of other western countries besides the US don't have clearly biased news sources, and always have. To say nothing of deciding which news is fit to print, which to ignore.
Journalists like to say that they are the first draft of history. Fair enough. But any serious writer will tell you that their first drafts are invariably thrown out. And their second. And so on, and even after publication accepting that anything in print is subject to correction.
posted by BWA at 2:18 PM on November 17 [2 favorites]
https://adfontesmedia.com/interactive-media-bias-chart/
https://www.allsides.com/unbiased-balanced-news
https://ground.news/
Good on Japan, I suppose, but it's not as if plenty of other western countries besides the US don't have clearly biased news sources, and always have. To say nothing of deciding which news is fit to print, which to ignore.
Journalists like to say that they are the first draft of history. Fair enough. But any serious writer will tell you that their first drafts are invariably thrown out. And their second. And so on, and even after publication accepting that anything in print is subject to correction.
posted by BWA at 2:18 PM on November 17 [2 favorites]
I know few U.S. people with actual balanced news intake. Conservative or liberal. And a lot of people really get riled up when you talk about a news source or platform that doesn't align with their worldview, just right out of the gate shit on the NYT, Substack, WSJ, Nextdoor, the local paper, whatever as invalid.
Some MeFites do go hard on this, too, for sure. There have been times I haven't known that a given source had X or Y problem, but wow the responses from the people who know can be intense. Makes it hard to talk about things sometimes.
Plenty of left-leaning folks I know, well-educated folks who in some cases are professionally involved in teaching information literacy, regularly repost truthy-sounding liberal conspiracy theory stuff. Constantly. It all tends to be in service of things I agree with (saving trans lives; protecting democracy; etc.), but when I've quietly, gently asked a few of my peeps about their sharing truly bizarre/questionable stuff, the response has usually been a combination of "the other side is doing it worse," "it feels true and is probably true somewhere," or silence (sometimes followed by deleting the post, sometimes not).
posted by cupcakeninja at 2:24 PM on November 17 [2 favorites]
Some MeFites do go hard on this, too, for sure. There have been times I haven't known that a given source had X or Y problem, but wow the responses from the people who know can be intense. Makes it hard to talk about things sometimes.
Plenty of left-leaning folks I know, well-educated folks who in some cases are professionally involved in teaching information literacy, regularly repost truthy-sounding liberal conspiracy theory stuff. Constantly. It all tends to be in service of things I agree with (saving trans lives; protecting democracy; etc.), but when I've quietly, gently asked a few of my peeps about their sharing truly bizarre/questionable stuff, the response has usually been a combination of "the other side is doing it worse," "it feels true and is probably true somewhere," or silence (sometimes followed by deleting the post, sometimes not).
posted by cupcakeninja at 2:24 PM on November 17 [2 favorites]
The actual research is paywalled, but a lot of media critics (to say nothing of philosophers or literary critics) would deny that any source is actually objective or unbiased. E.g. take a claim like this, from the Debrief article:
Japan’s political climate is less polarized, and its news outlets tend to be more neutral
I'm sure that's true... but Japan has also been dominated since 1945 by the Liberal Democratic Party (and its predecessors)— other parties have ruled, but only for short times.
Most Americans would probably consider the three-network era of the 1960s to be "less polarized", and it was in some sense, but part of that was marginalizing any but the mainstream point of view.
posted by zompist at 2:46 PM on November 17 [4 favorites]
Japan’s political climate is less polarized, and its news outlets tend to be more neutral
I'm sure that's true... but Japan has also been dominated since 1945 by the Liberal Democratic Party (and its predecessors)— other parties have ruled, but only for short times.
Most Americans would probably consider the three-network era of the 1960s to be "less polarized", and it was in some sense, but part of that was marginalizing any but the mainstream point of view.
posted by zompist at 2:46 PM on November 17 [4 favorites]
Plenty of left-leaning folks I know, well-educated folks who in some cases are professionally involved in teaching information literacy, regularly repost truthy-sounding liberal conspiracy theory stuff.
We just had a (now deleted) election hacking theory post! I don’t even think the topic of voting security should be off limits but it was pretty “this looks weird therefore it must be fake” level analysis. Here and elsewhere I’ve been stunned (yes, I am preoccupied with this) by the number of election takes using very incomplete national vote totals to support whatever conclusion feels good to the take-giver. Left, right and center looking at the same fundamentally wrong numbers and each spinning their own (probably wrong, often conspiratorial) narratives!
posted by atoxyl at 3:11 PM on November 17 [2 favorites]
We just had a (now deleted) election hacking theory post! I don’t even think the topic of voting security should be off limits but it was pretty “this looks weird therefore it must be fake” level analysis. Here and elsewhere I’ve been stunned (yes, I am preoccupied with this) by the number of election takes using very incomplete national vote totals to support whatever conclusion feels good to the take-giver. Left, right and center looking at the same fundamentally wrong numbers and each spinning their own (probably wrong, often conspiratorial) narratives!
posted by atoxyl at 3:11 PM on November 17 [2 favorites]
I'm with rikschell. My red-hot take is that Ground News is bad and they should feel bad. There aren't two truths on most of these stories. There's the truth and what fascists say is the truth but is usually just superstition and racism. Tell that both sides story walking.
posted by ob1quixote at 3:20 PM on November 17 [2 favorites]
chavenet: “ Americans Are More Likely to Choose News That Supports Their Beliefs. ”Speaking of which, since Olbermann decided to cut back to twice a week, is there any program that can take his place during my morning routine? Looking for a soucon of news, some snark, and a funny story from a professional announcer and absolutely no banter.
posted by ob1quixote at 3:20 PM on November 17 [2 favorites]
Japan’s political climate is less polarized,
We're talking about a country where the reaction to everything that came out after one of their former PMs was assassinated was "wait, let's hear the assassin out - he has a point."
Japan's political climate isn't "less polarized", it's been stifled. Not to mention that they have their own equivalent of the alt-right that wields a lot of power there (there's literally a hotel chain that's owned by a member of such that puts revisionist history in the rooms like a bunch of twisted Gideons) and that leaks into the popular culture way too often to be comfortable.
posted by NoxAeternum at 3:31 PM on November 17 [1 favorite]
We're talking about a country where the reaction to everything that came out after one of their former PMs was assassinated was "wait, let's hear the assassin out - he has a point."
Japan's political climate isn't "less polarized", it's been stifled. Not to mention that they have their own equivalent of the alt-right that wields a lot of power there (there's literally a hotel chain that's owned by a member of such that puts revisionist history in the rooms like a bunch of twisted Gideons) and that leaks into the popular culture way too often to be comfortable.
posted by NoxAeternum at 3:31 PM on November 17 [1 favorite]
Anyone viewing any algorithmic feed is propagandized. Not just news feeds. This includes things like your browser home screen, if you haven't changed it.
Example: I have been really pleased by Ukraine's ongoing and effective resistance to the Russian invasion. Guess what? I see TONS of news articles about all the ways Ukraine is kicking Russia's butt. I never see ANY about the reverse. And yet the batte lines continue to creep slowly westward. With each new article I see, I feel a burst of dopamine, even as my heart sinks with the realization that I am being further propagandized.
posted by agentofselection at 3:44 PM on November 17 [2 favorites]
Example: I have been really pleased by Ukraine's ongoing and effective resistance to the Russian invasion. Guess what? I see TONS of news articles about all the ways Ukraine is kicking Russia's butt. I never see ANY about the reverse. And yet the batte lines continue to creep slowly westward. With each new article I see, I feel a burst of dopamine, even as my heart sinks with the realization that I am being further propagandized.
posted by agentofselection at 3:44 PM on November 17 [2 favorites]
The actual research is paywalled, but a lot of media critics (to say nothing of philosophers or literary critics) would deny that any source is actually objective or unbiased.
The problem is that too many people conflate bias with honesty. It is possible to be biased and still present your position in an honest manner. Conversely, there are a lot of "objective" sources who engage in outright deception like bothsidesism, sanewashing, etc. to maintain that facade of "objectivity" (while ignoring that the actual objective position is to not portray both sides as equal when they aren't.)
You are not having a healthy media diet if you're choosing to consume lies and disinformation in the name of "objectivity".
posted by NoxAeternum at 3:45 PM on November 17 [1 favorite]
The problem is that too many people conflate bias with honesty. It is possible to be biased and still present your position in an honest manner. Conversely, there are a lot of "objective" sources who engage in outright deception like bothsidesism, sanewashing, etc. to maintain that facade of "objectivity" (while ignoring that the actual objective position is to not portray both sides as equal when they aren't.)
You are not having a healthy media diet if you're choosing to consume lies and disinformation in the name of "objectivity".
posted by NoxAeternum at 3:45 PM on November 17 [1 favorite]
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posted by rikschell at 1:22 PM on November 17 [13 favorites]