First of all, thank you for the constructive comment.
The reason I consider journalism propaganda isn’t that it’s false; it’s because of where the data comes from. In my experience, journalism is largely derived from press releases and similar information sources. In the extreme case, an article is effectively written by a corporation, and then laundered by a journalist. I agree that news in the AP and Reuters tends to be factually true, but what matters to me is the sampling bias caused by the economics of how they get their information.
I also agree that “a solid understanding of how wars start and progress based on many detailed examples will help us prepare and react sensibly when that happens”. However, I haven’t gotten this from reading the news. I’ve gotten this from reading history, and watching explanations by specialists such as Perun.
I think there’s a difference though between propaganda and the mix of selection effects that decides what gets attention in profit driven mass media news. Actual intentional propaganda efforts exist. But in general what makes news frustrating is the latter, which is a more organic and less centralised effort.
First of all, thank you for the constructive comment.
The reason I consider journalism propaganda isn’t that it’s false; it’s because of where the data comes from. In my experience, journalism is largely derived from press releases and similar information sources. In the extreme case, an article is effectively written by a corporation, and then laundered by a journalist. I agree that news in the AP and Reuters tends to be factually true, but what matters to me is the sampling bias caused by the economics of how they get their information.
I also agree that “a solid understanding of how wars start and progress based on many detailed examples will help us prepare and react sensibly when that happens”. However, I haven’t gotten this from reading the news. I’ve gotten this from reading history, and watching explanations by specialists such as Perun.
I think there’s a difference though between propaganda and the mix of selection effects that decides what gets attention in profit driven mass media news. Actual intentional propaganda efforts exist. But in general what makes news frustrating is the latter, which is a more organic and less centralised effort.