In the hilarious book In A Sunburned Country (you can grab at the Painted Porch), Bill Bryson speaks of the joy of reading the news in Australia, a country many thousands of miles from his own. “It always amazes me how seldom visitors bother with local paper,” he writes, “I personally can think of nothing more exciting, certainly nothing you could do in a public place with a cup of coffee than to read newspapers from a part of the world you know almost nothing about. What a comfort it is to find a nation preoccupied by matters of no possible consequence to oneself. I love reading about scandals involving ministers of whom I have never heard, murder hunts in communities whose names sound dusty and remote, features on revered artists and thinkers whose achievements have never reached my ears, whose talents I must take on faith.”
I've seen several people here write that they need a break from the news. What Dr. Andrew Weil calls "news fasts". I've been feeling like I need one too. I found the above paragraph in an email...
I've seen several people here write that they need a break from the news. What Dr. Andrew Weil calls "news fasts". I've been feeling like I need one too. I found the above paragraph in an email list I am on.
I've taken peaks at "foreign news" and had similar experiences. It was nice to be able to say "not my circus, not my monkeys" and move on.
I have the pleasure of being to read the news in more than one language. Maybe it’s not related to the far-away view of the battlefield, but reading news about the US in German is a little less...
I have the pleasure of being to read the news in more than one language. Maybe it’s not related to the far-away view of the battlefield, but reading news about the US in German is a little less distressing for me for example. They tend to keep things flat, without much embellishment. If I read news about Berlin (I live here) from a US source, then it’s almost reassuring because it’s so much more headline-grabbing than what the local newspapers report (except for Bild, that’s basically German yellow journalism). You notice these cultural differences and learn to incorporate that into your internal analysis of what you just read.
So that’s another perspective on the idea of reading news from far off lands.
I don't know German, so I can't even theorize what about different languages would be a factor. I think American news, unfortunately, is built on "embellishment" as you put it. I've been addicted...
I don't know German, so I can't even theorize what about different languages would be a factor. I think American news, unfortunately, is built on "embellishment" as you put it. I've been addicted to scrolling through /r/politics near daily. Almost every political article in regards to U.S. politics that exists ends up in the thread list there. Most of the headlines are exaggerated. Most of the articles aren't facts, but rather suppositions "given that, this could happen, that could happen, etc.". The suppositions also tend to be extreme, perhaps to attract viewers and earn more money from advertisers. The articles tend to be bloated with tangentially related content instead of just getting to the facts. My guess is that might be about making articles longer to create more space for more advertisements ( more revenue ).
All of that is on top of many news outlets having strong political biases distorting the view of things on top of all of that.
Maybe I should start studying German so I can read the online German newspapers.
I wonder if you could benefit from swapping out your scrolling of /r/politics with News Minimalist? It’s a website that gets ChatGPT to read a bunch of articles from all over the world, summarise...
I wonder if you could benefit from swapping out your scrolling of /r/politics with News Minimalist? It’s a website that gets ChatGPT to read a bunch of articles from all over the world, summarise them in a much more neutral tone (that is to say, trying to remove click bait — I don’t know whether it tries to remove political bias, that’s a bigger claim that I’m willing to make)
It then also scores articles based on a number of metrics (my favourite being positivity bias — to try to counteract media negativity bias) and give you a filter to see all articles, or just articles ranked higher than 6.0 (the default option if you want to sign up for their newsletter), or all articles between 2.1 and 2.4, or whatever.
I was introduced to it by another tildes user, though I can’t remember who, and I love it as my source of global news with a positivity bias! I can feel better informed without being exposed to the kind of stuff that might spiral.
Some countries have news in English, in Germany there are some articles from Die Zeit. France has France 24 in English. That could be a start. I still like the articles in German though. I would...
Some countries have news in English, in Germany there are some articles from Die Zeit. France has France 24 in English. That could be a start.
I still like the articles in German though. I would say the tone depends on the audience and articles in German are for Germans. The ones in English are for international audiences, so there could be a difference.
I definitely get a similar vibe reading US news from within Germany (I also live in Berlin, in case we ever wanna start a Tildes Stammtisch!). I think reading news about Berlin from the US is a...
I definitely get a similar vibe reading US news from within Germany (I also live in Berlin, in case we ever wanna start a Tildes Stammtisch!). I think reading news about Berlin from the US is a little unfair because US news basically only reports on Berlin when it can catastrophize about it. I think the last thing my mom read in the news about Berlin was the terrorist attack on the Christmas market back in 2017, which does not paint an accurate picture for her of what the city is like lol. I have to be the source for more interesting local news like the aquarium exploding or the "lion" on the loose.
That said, I read English-language news here more often than I read in German, which probably makes my experience a bit worse bc it definitely sometimes errs a bit on that side. Still usually better than US equivalents, but realistically it'd be better for my German and my mood to read news here in German most likely.
So I've been a Financial Times reader since around 2001, because I wanted news that wasn't so freighted with American jingoism after the 9/11 attacks. I wish I could say that the "view from 10,000...
So I've been a Financial Times reader since around 2001, because I wanted news that wasn't so freighted with American jingoism after the 9/11 attacks.
I wish I could say that the "view from 10,000 feet" was reassuring or comforting in any way. However funny the Tory antics, corruption, and incompetence might be from afar, they managed to beggar (formerly "Great") Britain, isolating the nation politically and economically.
What I actually saw was the dreadful foreshadowing of how thoroughly plutocratic takeover could ruin the U.S.
The slant of both FT and The Economist is generally free-market libertarian/right-wing - for me, reading them is about knowing the enemy. I'd love better English-language sources for global news....
The slant of both FT and The Economist is generally free-market libertarian/right-wing - for me, reading them is about knowing the enemy. I'd love better English-language sources for global news. [I used to be able to read German fairly fluently, but that "Translate" button was right there...]
TBH, I've recently dropped FT and most of my other newspaper/magazine subscriptions because a) they're not good for my mental health; b) the content quality is noticeably declining; and c) the billionaire ownership is getting intolerably intrusive (also responsible for b)).
I am very sad about the quality of The New York Times taking a nosedive AND the billionaire ownership of other newspapers as well. I usually thrive on discussing politics, but I have simply been...
I am very sad about the quality of The New York Times taking a nosedive AND the billionaire ownership of other newspapers as well.
I usually thrive on discussing politics, but I have simply been overwhelmed with the intense news connected with the 2024 election.
I've seen several people here write that they need a break from the news. What Dr. Andrew Weil calls "news fasts". I've been feeling like I need one too. I found the above paragraph in an email list I am on.
I've taken peaks at "foreign news" and had similar experiences. It was nice to be able to say "not my circus, not my monkeys" and move on.
I have the pleasure of being to read the news in more than one language. Maybe it’s not related to the far-away view of the battlefield, but reading news about the US in German is a little less distressing for me for example. They tend to keep things flat, without much embellishment. If I read news about Berlin (I live here) from a US source, then it’s almost reassuring because it’s so much more headline-grabbing than what the local newspapers report (except for Bild, that’s basically German yellow journalism). You notice these cultural differences and learn to incorporate that into your internal analysis of what you just read.
So that’s another perspective on the idea of reading news from far off lands.
I don't know German, so I can't even theorize what about different languages would be a factor. I think American news, unfortunately, is built on "embellishment" as you put it. I've been addicted to scrolling through /r/politics near daily. Almost every political article in regards to U.S. politics that exists ends up in the thread list there. Most of the headlines are exaggerated. Most of the articles aren't facts, but rather suppositions "given that, this could happen, that could happen, etc.". The suppositions also tend to be extreme, perhaps to attract viewers and earn more money from advertisers. The articles tend to be bloated with tangentially related content instead of just getting to the facts. My guess is that might be about making articles longer to create more space for more advertisements ( more revenue ).
All of that is on top of many news outlets having strong political biases distorting the view of things on top of all of that.
Maybe I should start studying German so I can read the online German newspapers.
I wonder if you could benefit from swapping out your scrolling of /r/politics with News Minimalist? It’s a website that gets ChatGPT to read a bunch of articles from all over the world, summarise them in a much more neutral tone (that is to say, trying to remove click bait — I don’t know whether it tries to remove political bias, that’s a bigger claim that I’m willing to make)
It then also scores articles based on a number of metrics (my favourite being positivity bias — to try to counteract media negativity bias) and give you a filter to see all articles, or just articles ranked higher than 6.0 (the default option if you want to sign up for their newsletter), or all articles between 2.1 and 2.4, or whatever.
I was introduced to it by another tildes user, though I can’t remember who, and I love it as my source of global news with a positivity bias! I can feel better informed without being exposed to the kind of stuff that might spiral.
Some countries have news in English, in Germany there are some articles from Die Zeit. France has France 24 in English. That could be a start.
I still like the articles in German though. I would say the tone depends on the audience and articles in German are for Germans. The ones in English are for international audiences, so there could be a difference.
Deutsche Welle (DW) has many articles in English:
https://www.dw.com/en/
I definitely get a similar vibe reading US news from within Germany (I also live in Berlin, in case we ever wanna start a Tildes Stammtisch!). I think reading news about Berlin from the US is a little unfair because US news basically only reports on Berlin when it can catastrophize about it. I think the last thing my mom read in the news about Berlin was the terrorist attack on the Christmas market back in 2017, which does not paint an accurate picture for her of what the city is like lol. I have to be the source for more interesting local news like the aquarium exploding or the "lion" on the loose.
That said, I read English-language news here more often than I read in German, which probably makes my experience a bit worse bc it definitely sometimes errs a bit on that side. Still usually better than US equivalents, but realistically it'd be better for my German and my mood to read news here in German most likely.
So I've been a Financial Times reader since around 2001, because I wanted news that wasn't so freighted with American jingoism after the 9/11 attacks.
I wish I could say that the "view from 10,000 feet" was reassuring or comforting in any way. However funny the Tory antics, corruption, and incompetence might be from afar, they managed to beggar (formerly "Great") Britain, isolating the nation politically and economically.
What I actually saw was the dreadful foreshadowing of how thoroughly plutocratic takeover could ruin the U.S.
I've felt the same way when I have tried reading The Economist, a publication with a good reputation, but I find the articles disturbing.
The slant of both FT and The Economist is generally free-market libertarian/right-wing - for me, reading them is about knowing the enemy. I'd love better English-language sources for global news. [I used to be able to read German fairly fluently, but that "Translate" button was right there...]
TBH, I've recently dropped FT and most of my other newspaper/magazine subscriptions because a) they're not good for my mental health; b) the content quality is noticeably declining; and c) the billionaire ownership is getting intolerably intrusive (also responsible for b)).
I am very sad about the quality of The New York Times taking a nosedive AND the billionaire ownership of other newspapers as well.
I usually thrive on discussing politics, but I have simply been overwhelmed with the intense news connected with the 2024 election.