Watching Fox News/MSNBC worse than no news at all.

sharkboy1200

sharkboy1200

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Sep 11, 2013
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Media outlets such as Fox News and MSNBC have a negative impact on people’s current events knowledge, while NPR and Sunday morning political talk shows are the most informative sources of news, according to Fairleigh Dickinson University’s newest PublicMind survey.

Researchers asked 1,185 random nationwide respondents what news sources they had consumed in the past week and then asked them questions about events in the U.S. and abroad. On average, people correctly answered 1.6 of five questions about domestic affairs.

Because the aim of the study was to isolate the effects of each type of news source, they then controlled for variables such as other news sources, partisanship, education, and other demographic factors.

They found that someone who watched only Fox News would be expected to answer 1.04 domestic questions correctly compared to 1.22 for those who watched no news at all. Those watching only The Daily Show with Jon Stewart answered 1.42 questions correctly, and people who only listened to NPR or only watched Sunday morning political talk shows answered 1.51 questions correctly. In terms of international news, people correctly answered an average of 1.8 of four questions.
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With all else being equal, people who watched no news were expected to answer 1.28 correctly, those watching only Sunday morning shows figured at 1.52, those watching only The Daily Showfigured at 1.60, and those just listening to NPR were expected to correctly answer 1.97 international questions.

Those watching only MSNBC were expected to correctly answer only 1.23 out of four, while viewers of only Fox News figured at 1.08. The study noted that the effects of Fox News, MSNBC, and talk radio depended on the ideology of the consumer.

"Ideological news sources, like Fox and MSNBC, are really just talking to one audience," political scientist and poll analyst Dan Cassino said in a press release. "This is solid evidence that if you’re not in that audience, you’re not going to get anything out of watching them."
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http://www.slate.com/blogs/business...watching_fox_news_make_you_less_informed.html

I love not watching news. Reading about it is much better for info gathering in my opinion. Much quicker too. Plus, a good chunk of it is just personal opinions. I find that people who watch Fox News or MSNBC exclusively do so with the intention of having that mental support for their beliefs. If this man/woman is saying it, then it's pure fact.
 
So we got some news from slate.com that news is bad for you. Does anyone else see the implications from this? o_O
 
Kassen said:
So we got some news from slate.com that news is bad for you. Does anyone else see the implications from this? o_O
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Is it? I read it once in a while when I see an article from it pop up on facebook or fark, but I never heard anyone talk smack about it. What's bad about it? Do they misrepresent facts? Try to take a strict conservative or liberal stance?
 
sharkboy1200 said:
Is it? I read it once in a while when I see an article from it pop up on facebook or fark, but I never heard anyone talk smack about it. What's bad about it? Do they misrepresent facts? Try to take a strict conservative or liberal stance?
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Your bias is bleeding through.
 
Kassen said:
Your bias is bleeding through.
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Wow, so I ask a question, try to be unbiased, but essentially get told I'm an a****** in a polite way. I honestly don't know much about slate. Don't go there very often. Is it comedy journalism like the Onion? Is there a joke I'm missing?
 
correlation.... causation..... /thread.

Most people have no clue what the three branches of government are, why they are important and why some are screaming about all stuff that is going on in our country. Most people are stupid and those that base their ideas on one source of information are well trained idiots.
 
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I've always wondered why people can't seem to separate news segments from the commentary ones. I am of a more conservative bent.. But I can still get news on msnbc. I understand when someone is reporting fact versus giving me an opinion . I really don't know how some people make it through a conversation with another human being sometimes...
 
Pureshooter said:
No news IS in fact good news.
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That's how I live my life essentially. Never watch the news, and will on occasion just look at CNN front page to see what the top story is, but I don't really care about the story usually. If it's about politics or the government in any way, I generally don't care about it.
 
The most bizarro world thing to me is these same assclowns also often serve as Presidential Debate Moderators.

So the same fukwits who report the news are put in a position where they are influencing and creating the news. Hello... conflict of interest here?

This one thing by itself feels like a major red flag to me when considering how this country's political system functions. Or maybe facing a panel of real Academic Phds on Science, Economics, History, and foreign policy would be to boring for Americans? Or more likely no candidate could survive that level of educated panelists.
 
Videodrome said:
The most bizarro world thing to me is these same assclowns also often serve as Presidential Debate Moderators.

So the same fukwits who report the news are put in a position where they are influencing and creating the news. Hello... conflict of interest here?

This one thing by itself feels like a major red flag to me when considering how this country's political system functions. Or maybe facing a panel of real Academic Phds on Science, Economics, History, and foreign policy would be to boring for Americans? Or more likely no candidate could survive that level of educated panelists.
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Aren't most Presidential candidates who make it far enough that they are on televised debates usually Academic Phds in Science, Economics, or History? Or if not Phds, at least have a high level background in those subjects. So I would have to assume they'd be ok.
 
If you mean let previous Presidents be the Debate Moderators I think that could be a really interesting idea.

What I don't like is how Carl Cameron or Chris Wallace on FOX News can be a debate moderator as well as News Anchor. I don't like how an individual can wear both those hats. The media should only report on the debates, not actively control and influence them by also being moderators. I didn't really want to get into a weird tangent about Presidential Debates here though.

The other main thing I see is there seem to be few Journalists and many more of what I'd called News Jockeys. The News Jockey's main job is to hold your attention with their speech style and personality. The content of the words coming out of their mouth does not have as much importance as their antics and behavior with other guests and panelists. Kind of like a strange cousin to the Disc Jockey that people unfortunately take seriously. Or at least just enough to give these guys ratings. At that point, they take themselves seriously and now you have something really ridiculous like Bill O'reilly.


Strip away the fancy graphics and visuals though and you have Talk Radio. It tends to have some of the same behavior, but it really needs to have substance to to make up for the lack of visuals. I do think Talk Radio has a greater tendency to be Objective, while television is much more Subjective.
 
Z A C K said:
That's how I live my life essentially. Never watch the news, and will on occasion just look at CNN front page to see what the top story is, but I don't really care about the story usually. If it's about politics or the government in any way, I generally don't care about it.
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Please tell me you don't vote.
 
Out of the main TV channels I watch CNN the most. Daily Show is great as well. I listen to NPR as well or following their stories on a phone app/Facebook. Looks like I'm in the clear!
 
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