Read good political magazines - don't rely on Facebook!

Higgins

I continue saying that I am not on Facebook and the following is one of the reasons why:

I've read recently an article about the downfall of the traditional political magazines and that Facebook for many people becomes the information source number one.

If you understand how Facebook works, you'll understand that it hardly complies to the standards of an information platform.

Informing people by journalist standards means to report and not to become a part of the story.
Informing means to check facts, sources and mention "the other side" as well.

Because people can only make informed choices when they know both sides of a story and not only one!

Problem with the internet is, that you basically find everything there - no matter it it's accurate or not.

So we all need a kind of filter and many people rely on Facebook to be that filter.

That's dangerous. If for example are reading articles about Playmobil, Facebook will notice that and will feed you mainly with informations about Playmobil. They may suggest other toys as well, but the tendency will be Playmobil and you get the impression that Playmobil is the big thing.

If - for example - you are reading mainly articles about how bad the political elites are , Facebook will mainly connect you to people who say the same. You won't hear often about what they are good for and who is not part of that system!
And this may reconfirm you in the opinion that all the political elites are bad.

But you should be the one making that decision and build that opinion - based on well-researched and unbiased facts! Facebook isn't!

So, what I am saying is: Trust the pros! Trust the competent and neutral journalists!
Subscribe with one or two serious newspapers or political magazines/journals to educated.

Don't let Facebook do that - you may end up being very opinionated and ill-informed!

{[] {[] {[]

Chriscoop

Facebook is just one medium in the dumbing down of society, I don't even watch the news these days due to the "news for idiots" we seem to have. I fear for my children that they will live in a society completely geared towards the lowest common denominator. I don't use any social media, if I want to learn more about anything I research in books and on the net always use various sources and reach my own conclusions.

Ornithologist

I agree about the dangers of relying on Facebook algorithms as a "filter" and the danger of settling in one's own separate political bubble.

However I don't think one can necessarily assume that traditional newspapers and the journalists who write for them are "competent and neutral". It is often hard to find anything on certain topics, and even harder to find good analysis or criticism of the government(s). It has always been the case that one needed to distinguish bullsh*t from the facts, and to do this one had to rely on multiple sources. The internet has simply increased the number of potential sources, which, if one is indeed looking for the truth, makes the readers' job harder rather than easier.

Number24

Perhaps we should make suggestions frop quality news outlets?
Personally I read ww.aftenposten.no ...... just kidding )

One of my favourites is https://www.theguardian.com/international

Jag

I generally agree, but it’s now always necessarily a bad thing that Facebook helps you find more things like the ones you’re already interested in – that’s how it’s supposed to work, and as long as we are aware of that, we should be fine. Facebook is not a news source and should not be taken as that.

Problem with traditional journalism, on the other hand, is that you have organisations like the Murdoch empire whose News Corp is hardly about news, it’s about propaganda. They don’t check facts, and they don’t mention the other side of the story, and yet still they pretend to be objective. They’re not. There are very few news organisations left that are still objective.

Loeffelholz

Jag wrote:

I generally agree, but it’s now always necessarily a bad thing that Facebook helps you find more things like the ones you’re already interested in – that’s how it’s supposed to work, and as long as we are aware of that, we should be fine. Facebook is not a news source and should not be taken as that.

Problem with traditional journalism, on the other hand, is that you have organisations like the Murdoch empire whose News Corp is hardly about news, it’s about propaganda. They don’t check facts, and they don’t mention the other side of the story, and yet still they pretend to be objective. They’re not. There are very few news organisations left that are still objective.

In fact, there are nearly none at all.

Higgins

Loeffelholz wrote:

In fact, there are nearly none at all.

That's half true but it pays off to search, treasure and support those that are still there.

Number24

www.bbc.co.uk/news is a first rate news source :007)