hack-the-media

Two observations: 1. There isn't a single media (often, when your tribe is against another, you view the opposition as monolithic rather than a spectrum composed of different viewpoints) 2. And they're not insane, editors and social media algorithms are rational and reacting to reader incentives (but it is "insane" to mistake media sources for a rational human, because most media is about covering extreme events[1]) More in my media literacy guide: https://github.com/nemild/hack-the-media/blob/master/README.... [1] The deaths that are most covered are a tiny fraction (<1%) of the way we die https://www.nemil.com/s/part3-horror-films.html

Words like this drive engagement. Many journalists also don't have statistical training. I wrote a financial media literacy guide for precisely this reason: > Extreme Language: Articles use extreme language to represent price movements, as these engage readers (e.g., meltdown, bloodbath, crash, massacre, topple), but are often statistically suspect https://github.com/nemild/hack-the-media/blob/master/financi... Some other good notes in this article: Context Matters. The Stock Market Drop Is Less Scary Than It Seems. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/05/upshot/context-matters-th...

Always value contributors to my media literacy guide. This message is a key point that underpins all the examples I list. https://github.com/nemild/hack-the-media/blob/master/README.... There's also one for engineers in the tech industry: https://github.com/nemild/hack-the-media/blob/master/softwar...

That hype in software is the reason I wrote a media literacy guide for software engineers. Hype makes it easy to get free marketing and also drives clicks for media and social networks. https://github.com/nemild/hack-the-media/blob/master/softwar...

I spend so much of my time on media literacy issues, and one thing I'd be careful of: most of these prognostications you cite should really be considered marketing. They are not thoughtful views of cryptocurrency. If you're a software developer, I'd really dismiss lots of what you read about new technology, whether it be crypto or MongoDB. Here's my media literacy guide for software engineers: https://github.com/nemild/hack-the-media/blob/master/softwar... (It's kinda fun to realize that by getting excited about cryptocurrency, I also got excited about the financial incentives behind the media ecosystem) Also, be careful about throwing the baby (unfounded hype and speculation and charlatanism) with the bathwater (programmable money, open financial systems, digital scarcity).

I loved Paul Buccheit’s (of YC) quote on social media: “[Twitter] is like a game where you get 1 point for being fair and thoughtful and 1000 points for character assassination.” https://mobile.twitter.com/paultoo/status/110014488287253299... (He said it about Twitter, but I think the spirit was about social media generally) Paul also helped brainstorm “Don’t Be Evil” at an early Google. Personally, I don’t blame the media alone (as some in this thread do). All of us are a product of the incentives we face, and feed algorithms play a huge role (including for the journalists at media outlets). And as always, I will shill my media literacy guide (there’s also a version for software engineers): https://github.com/nemild/hack-the-media/blob/master/README.... https://github.com/nemild/hack-the-media/blob/master/softwar...

Yes, but the partisanship is likely getting worse, because we each individually get the exact information that is "relevant" to us and therefore feeds our confirmation bias. It's a different form of tribalism from 1950s mass media partisanship. There's actually research (James Hamilton @ Stanford) that shows when capital costs for printing presses were higher, newspapers became less partisan because you had to appeal to everyone to be profitable. The internet, cable news, are helping to unwind that period. As background, I've spent years writing on social media (and used to work in it): My Media literacy guide: http://github.com/nemild/hack-the-media/blob/master/README.m... A piece I did for Quartz on Selective Facts: https://qz.com/1130094/todays-biggest-threat-to-democracy-is... And my data analysis of the NY Times (with an example in s

A recent quote I loved from YC's Paul Buccheit (who helped inspired "Don't be Evil at an early Google"): “[Social media] is like a game where you get 1 point for being fair and thoughtful and 1000 points for character assassination” https://twitter.com/paultoo/status/1100144882872532992 This is partly why I spent so much time writing a media literacy guide to explain the incentives behind what we see in our feeds and our newspapers: https://github.com/nemild/hack-the-media/blob/master/README....

Ezra Taft Benson: "One must select wisely a source of news; otherwise it would be better to be uninformed than misinformed." My own view is that you should reduce consumption dramatically, but still read some publications. And realize that in software, we have our own form of “news” that this missive applies to. Here’s my media literacy guide: https://github.com/nemild/hack-the-media/blob/master/README.... And one just for the tech industry (including HN): https://github.com/nemild/hack-the-media/blob/master/softwar...

I hope not. I’d be curious who’s telling you to treat them as sainted inviduals. Here’s my media literacy guide that catalogs all the biases (contributions welcome): https://github.com/nemild/hack-the-media/blob/master/README....

In that vein, I'm looking for contributors to my financial media literacy guide: https://github.com/nemild/hack-the-media/blob/master/financi... It's a new version of my broader software eng media literacy guide: https://github.com/nemild/hack-the-media/blob/master/softwar...

I disagree. Both sides can have issues, and it's not primarily the fault of "managers." You can see some issues that I list elsewhere in this thread. The part I do agree with is that responsibility to address the issues often is in management. I do wonder if every tribe thinks they're good, and it's the other side at fault? ... I think about this a lot in my media literacy work, where I explore the empathy gap: https://www.nemil.com/s/part2-terrorism.html https://github.com/nemild/hack-the-media/blob/master/README....

I took a Master in Margarita class in college during my study abroad, with each class physically exploring a key Moscow scene from the novel. Our first class started at Патриаршие пруды (Patriarch's Pond), near where Anushka drops the oil: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriarch_Ponds Now years later, I do data analysis to show how media can give us a skewed view of the world — and can be used to manipulate our beliefs: How Media Fuels our Fear of Western Terrorism https://www.nemil.com/s/part2-terrorism.html Today’s biggest threat to democracy isn’t fake news—it’s selective facts https://qz.com/1130094/todays-biggest-threat-to-democracy-is... And write a media literacy guide on Github: Hack the Media https://github.com/nemild/hack-the-media/blob/master/README....