Media

The News

|

I was thinking this morning it’s been over a week since I last listened to the news at all. 📰 📻

I do check the NPR website for headlines maybe once or twice a day but I find myself rarely following the local news that is about hyped up crime and it just seems like the national news these days is basically junk food. Do I really need to hear more about people complaining about how bad the world is?

Maybe I should care more about my community but I don’t because I don’t expect to live in this area much longer and honestly on my experience local news rarely reports on community issues but instead focuses on hyped up stories of crime and corruption, along with local sports and weather.

Probably my biggest source of news these days is podcasts and syndicated NPR shows on podcasts along with all the content my off-grid and farm followed channels on YouTube are posting. And most of that stuff isn’t news but the reality of life living off the land. The mud and manure, blood and bones of ordinary life.

Demonizing Dungeons & Dragons

|

Demonizing Dungeons & Dragons

4/16/21 by Pushkin Industries

Web player: https://podcastaddict.com/episode/121847347
Episode: https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/chtbl.com/track/39E17/traffic.megaphone.fm/HSW6856942660.mp3?updated=1618335892

When James Dallas Egbert III was reported missing from his college dorm – one of America’s most flamboyant private detectives was summoned to solve the case. “Dallas” had many of the same problems that most teenagers face – but P.I. William Dear stoked fears that he might have fallen under the evil spell of a mysterious and sinister game…. Dungeons & Dragons. The global panic about the dangers the role-playing game posed to impressionable young minds may seem quaint 40 years on – but again and again we show how fearful we are of creative endeavours we don’t quite understand. Read more about Tim’s work at http://timharford.com/ Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

NPR

|

Misleading Facts Evade Social Media Moderation, Fuel Covid Misinformation : NPR

"This is something that we see repeatedly with human cognition," Freelon said. "It's the emphasis on the breathless anecdote and then the discounting of statistics that are much more representative."

The news media relies heavily on "breathless anecdote", it's essential for healthy corporate profits and selling more cars and laundry soap. 

Become less of a political junkie 💉

|

New Years Resolution: Become less of a political junkie 💉

A junkie is defined on Merriam Websters as a narcotics peddler or addict in the most absolute sense of the world. It’s so easy to consume hours and hours of the latest political news and intrigue by just turning on the radio or following virtually any news channel or politician’s social media feeds. But like a heroin addict’s untimely death, I think it has become a bit overwhelming and bad for my health and well-being.

While I’m not going to stop listening to the news on the radio or visiting NPR’s website, I am no longer going to consume news or politics on social media. I am not going to follow blow by blow every political debate or every controversy. Instead I’m going to spend more time trying to understand the world around me – nature, physics, electricity, farming and conservation.

No longer am I going to consume endless hours of media trash – that talks about the politics of climate change or mask wearing but instead try to understand how the changing climate or COVID is effecting me personally. I don’t want to be – and I’m not going to be – an agent of change so I’d rather focus more on myself and understanding the real world and not the politics around me.

NPR

|

Newsmax Rises On Resentment Of Trump Fans Toward Fox News : NPR

Right now, Newsmax TV is trying to outfox Fox News.

No media outlet has done more to bolster President Trump over the past four years than Fox News. Yet the acknowledgment by Fox's reporters, anchors and even many opinion hosts that Democratic nominee Joe Biden won the election has provided an opening for the network's much smaller rival to peel off Trump's fans.