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How to objectively follow news / politics?

3 points by random_kris ↗ HN
So I am in the time when I am growing up, making up my mind about what is important to me.. etc.

Atleast in my country I noticed there aren't any "objective" newspapers. Either they are right or left leaning. Behind every news I can see some ulterior motive.

It would also be possible for me to not follow anything and just live my life in my own little bubble? Any tips ?

3 comments

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raxxorrax
In times of crisis and too much information, I tend to just read real "news papers" (well, in a digital format).

The quality difference to online journalism is incredible. That isn't an indictment against online journalists, since it is just the sad state of their industry and I think it just might not be possible to convey accurate news on the same day. If you want researched facts, you will have to wait at least a few days. And it often isn't just facts alone, but you require a larger context to put the info in perspective.

Classical journalism still makes a good job here, although reading different editors is still a good idea.

> Behind every news I can see some ulterior motive.

In online journalism I think that is mostly decided by readers. Especially controversial topics get a lot of hits. Guess which topics are going to be on the table for articles next week? If you think an article is basically just a troll, you shouldn't click it. I often make the same mistake, even if I just want to read the comments.

There are better and worse papers, but I don't have any specific recommendations for the anglosphere.

CyberFonic
The media is big business and for that reason every avenue tends to follow the preferences of the financiers. You might want to research the principles of "critical thinking", once you have some skills with that you can take news from both the left and right and make up your own mind.

In general, bad news sells, so there tends to be a lot of fear mongering. You could decide on what aspects of life, society and your community are relevant to you and filter out all the non-relevant news.