Reducing the Input

constant escape

winter withered, warm
One thing I'm currently convinced of is that watching the news lulls people into a sense of having done something without really doing anything. That being "informed" - if that's even a possibility these days - has a tangible effect in its own right.
Especially when those "informing" them also formulate opinions for them. It is like something is being siphoned from the viewer in that respect, almost in a way that is beyond their control. I don't want to solidify this position, but do think the skepticism you seem to be expressing is warranted.
 

luka

Well-known member
If you're particularly fastidious, like my dad was, and like Werner Herzog, you might extend that to watching celebrity big brother and love island and so on. Get a feel for the gestalt
 

constant escape

winter withered, warm
Certain talking heads / reporters gesturing their disgust at the events of today - however justified their feelings may be, it makes it harder for the viewer to come to an actually informed decision/opinion. The packaging of the information affects how the information is processed, at least to some extent.

Granted these may be exceptional times - but they very well could become the new norm.
 

woops

is not like other people
until this lockdown i lived without home broadband for about 10 years or maybe more, i forget when i last had it
 

sufi

lala
Certain talking heads / reporters gesturing their disgust at the events of today - however justified their feelings may be, it makes it harder for the viewer to come to an actually informed decision/opinion. The packaging of the information affects how the information is processed, at least to some extent.

Granted these may be exceptional times - but they very well could become the new norm.
this is all different from news though isn't it,
there's fuck all that directly affects me on the news, just loads of stuffed suits commenting, forcing their faces and careers upon us,
just one thing that was actually important - don't go out for three months - in my news feed this year
the rest is entertainment, special entertainment that makes us sick and miserable and deactivated
 

sufi

lala
ths idea that somehow it's good or dutiful or educational to keep abreast of current affairs is fucked up
 

sufi

lala
the next item that i will pay attention to is when they say its time to hang up boris on a lamppost by his heels
 

version

Well-known member
Certain talking heads / reporters gesturing their disgust at the events of today - however justified their feelings may be, it makes it harder for the viewer to come to an actually informed decision/opinion. The packaging of the information affects how the information is processed, at least to some extent.

Granted these may be exceptional times - but they very well could become the new norm.

This was something which came to mind whilst watching one of the climbing documentaries I was on about earlier. The media got hold of the story and camped out at the foot of El Cap and the stuff they were saying was just mindnumbing. Once you'd been following the two guys on the wall and what had actually been happening for days, their reporting of it really exposed just how false and bizarre and clueless the media are. They were saying the most inane things, using photos of the wrong location, had correspondents in harnesses on indoor climbing walls. It was laughable. They also started trying to stir up shit when one of the guys was struggling on a certain pitch for days, running stories about how he could ruin it for both of them etc to the point where one of the guys on the wall "dropped" his phone and couldn't look at or answer it anymore.
 

constant escape

winter withered, warm
this is all different from news though isn't it,
there's fuck all that directly affects me on the news, just loads of stuffed suits commenting, forcing their faces and careers upon us,
just one thing that was actually important - don't go out for three months - in my news feed this year
the rest is entertainment, special entertainment that makes us sick and miserable and deactivated
As much as I can get behind what you seem to be saying, would you not say that there are plenty of people who are, subtly or explicitly, affected by the news? Especially now, right?
 

constant escape

winter withered, warm
This was something which came to mind whilst watching one of the climbing documentaries I was on about earlier. The media got hold of the story and camped out at the foot of El Cap and the stuff they were saying was just mindnumbing. Once you'd been following the two guys on the wall and what had actually been happening for days, their reporting of it really exposed just how false and bizarre and clueless the media are. They were saying the most inane things, using photos of the wrong location, had correspondents in harnesses on indoor climbing walls. It was laughable. They also started trying to stir up shit when one of the guys was struggling on a certain pitch for days, running stories about how he could ruin it for both of them etc to the point where one of the guys on the wall "dropped" his phone and couldn't look at or answer it anymore.
Do you think this is because the viewer comes to the channel under some thin pretext of a duty and being informed, and then is coaxed into staying by sensationalized deliveries of the news? It is like, as you said, the viewer gets some sense of having fulfilled a duty of being informed - and yet, they might as well be watching entertainment that doesn't dress itself up as news.
 

sufi

lala
i see what you mean, and it stretches my little brain to try and think past it, but it's all symbolic really isnt it, there's no actual revolution, just demonstrations on both sides, posturing and posing
 

sufi

lala
Do you think this is because the viewer comes to the channel under some thin pretext of a duty and being informed, and then is coaxed into staying by sensationalized deliveries of the news? It is like, as you said, the viewer gets some sense of having fulfilled a duty of being informed - and yet, they might as well be watching entertainment that doesn't dress itself up as news.
it's a kick, a hit
a complex habit - part is fomo, part is neophilia, the biggest part is straight up sick voyeuristic snuff
 

sufi

lala
it's a kick, a hit
a complex habit - part is fomo, part is neophilia, the biggest part is straight up sick voyeuristic snuff
our bodies have a programmed attraction towards warm viscera, our channels are built on that
 

version

Well-known member
This is the sincerity argument coming back into play. I don't feel much of anything I get via the media - social or THE media - to be sincere or genuine or real. I get the same feeling I get when I watch Boris or some other figure give a speech about the "horrific" events which have taken place during whatever incident they're responding to at the time. There's just nothing there.
 

sufi

lala
news is a level up from regular entertainment, in terms of that thrill of reality shit fan impacts
and social media is like that slap unburdened by substance, pure dreck
 

constant escape

winter withered, warm
In all fairness, it does seem like very few people would watch the news if it wasn't at least a little sugarcoated. But is there an optimum balance there as well?

Don't want to derail this into sincerity completely, but do you think the language of sincerity, or at least the how-tos of being sincere, is less and less known? If you were never exposed to public, sincere interfacing, or very rarely exposed to it, you would reasonably feel more inclined to cover up the parts of you that would otherwise manifest as sincerity - seeing as that isn't what people do.

This is what would set the stage for a "new sincerity", seeing as it would become something to be rediscovered: "Wait, these feelings that I have been treating as negligible and fruitless can actually be expressed directly, honestly, openly? I don't have to relegate underground and juggle them between holding tanks?"

If we are exposed to people forcing/contriving certain emotions, do we learn to force/contrive them as well? As this pertains to the news, how does this forced/contrived emotional reaction alienate us from the real goings-on?
 
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