Have the considered using the one weird trick that increases audience engagement and burns belly fat?
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I think this analysis is unreasonably dismissive of the capacity of news readers to be open-minded. I was very excited when al Jazeera announced they would be entering the U.S. news market, and then discovered that the only way to get their news was on cable TV. I donât have cable TV, and Iâm not going to get it. Essentially, they have a product that would be most attractive to early adopters and young people, and then delivered it on a medium that is most attractive to late adopters and old folks. Not a recipe for success.
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Much if not all of their TV content is available for free on their website. Thereâs also an XBMC add-on that streams the channel live.
Well, I guess that one author took the lesson to heart. That shit was light. on. content. I wouldnât say that the author âexplored the psychologyâ so much as gave a mini TEDX marketing talk to wannabe buzzfeed investors. Comparing raw quantities of reads of one digital product to another completely unrelated product? Taking clicks from a website and spinning that into bold pop psychobabble claims while ignoring the mountains of intervening and complicating variables? Saying that people say they want to read more Atlantic long reads and then read buzzfeed listicles (how big is the venn diagram between the content of these two that justifies comparing them?) is like saying that most people say they want to buy a home and get a thirty year mortgage, but end up mostly playing scrabble and calling their families on the phone. Unrelated in both content and scale.
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This! I miss Al Jazeera English - I learned so much from it during Libya and other crazinessesâŚ
Fluency also explains one of the truisms of political news: That most liberals prefer to read and watch liberals (because it feels easy), while conservatives prefer to read and watch conservatives (because it feels easy).
This liberal prefers not to suffer conservatives because theyâre overwhelmingly full of shit. In fact, Iâm almost certainly more interested than I would otherwise be, when I come across a conservative who isnât full of shit, because it makes for such a refreshing change.
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Iâm guessing the cat just realized that people arenât wearing enough hats.
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Do youse get Russia Today?
If it is true that people prefer the familiar, letâs not get all psychiatrist/neuro-sciency and talk about how this is hardwired into us. Do a massive cross-cultural study that shows it doesnât vary from culture to culture and we can start jumping to conclusions. Somehow I doubt youâd actually get that result.
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Weâve had the AJ-English app since they first started. Thereâs also a video option, but I prefer to read my news.
Seconding your recommendation to read the work â The Authoritarians by Bob Altemeyer â thatâs linked in your post. My guess is most people will overlook that link, so Iâm drawing attention to it.
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I call your carefully considered, scientifically valid socio-cultural research and raise you a quippy analogy and an emphatically punctuated buzzword!
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The sad reality is, they would have done much better with a different name than âAl Jazeeraâ.
That name has a murkily bad association with saying unAmerican things during the 2000âs Iraq war, and is all-around just to foreignyâŚ
At least those who want information can seek it out on the Internet.
I got through about two thirds of this today. I had really been working on the assumption that this was how most people thought and had guessed that people who opinions I thought were reasonable were just as likely to be essentially anti-reason and aggressive and the people who disagreed with me. This book seems pretty eye opening on the subject.
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the news people are merely trying to sell us cars , and soap , and patent medicines and the like ~ and , by and large { oooh shiney } it works , ehy ? ***{ good kitteh ; yummy excess carbs , too much fat , and overabundant salt } ***
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The cable companies that carry Al Jazeera America would not pay for the channel if there was Al Jazeera English available free online. It is a cable company contract issue - not a ploy of Al Jazeera to force you into something.
Thirding!
Seriously, excellent read. Itâs free online and Bob Altemeyer is amazing.
While only consuming media that suits you is a universal problem, not all sides of the issue are even vaguely equivalent.
Groovy people (My term for non-authoritarian types) donât condone mass murder/war and value taking care of those in need over profit. They can handle targeted media without screwing everything up for everyone else. Most Limbaugh fans canât.
You can eat all of the jellybeans some of the timeâŚ
