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XIong Caroline

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Debate: News has no conection with most people's lives.

Some people believe thait it is a waste of time to read newspapers or watch news programs on TV.

What's your opinion? To what extent do you agree or disagree?

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Topics: society
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  • Lars Mews

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    Oct 20 2012: "News has no conection with most people's lives."
    I think that is true. For years i read a lot of news sources daily, until i realized that it just repeats every year. If you really read the news and remember them, then it is obvious that the number of relevant daily news goes up to maybe 1 or 2 news that might affect a person.

    Also, in my opinion the quality of journalism went constantly down, i never read that many grammar mistakes (and i am not picky about that, as my grammar is not perfect too) and more than that, mistakes in understanding simple facts. When i as a reader without acess to the many sources news agencies do have discover a false fact just by using google, than i think a journalist should be able too.

    And, if i look back, there is not that much relevant news i remember for the past years, maybe one or two things happened who really had an impact on the daily life, but most things stayed pretty much the same.

    Funny effect of not watching news media is that i get much more interested in what is going on in my town, and think a lot more about myself and my life.
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    Salim Solaiman 50+

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    Oct 20 2012: It is more connected with money and / power.

  • gale kooser 20+

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    Oct 19 2012: A waste of time? No! Not really. The news gives you their information & if you wish to learn more about an item-you research it.
    In several ways news does affect my daily life: The weather report is a major one, traffic report, and global news- cause that can effect everyone in various ways.
    Depending on the person: News can & does effect all of us.
    Rather be informed then live in a glass bubble.
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    Dejay Davison

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    TEDx Organizer
    Oct 18 2012: Man, I completely agree.
    Though it's necessary, I disagree with how negativity predominantly lingers in the content.
    Yes there is alot of 'bullshit' going on in this world, but half the stuff the news talks about is - as you said - unrelated to most people.

    The internet will, in some form revolutionize this I believe, people will follow their our curiosity, but this can't always be the best solution as i've seen a TED talk on here (forgot the name) about how internet search engines are manipulating the information we've been given without us knowing, giving us what they think we want.
    Maybe this ubiquitous problem is out of our control, therefor not worth worrying about!
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    David Hamilton 50+

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    Oct 18 2012: I would argue that News should have a connection with peoples lives. People should feel engaged in their political machine, and be working to fix it... Unfortunately, right now, the news has no connection with truth, or facts... So, there really isn't much point to it.
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    chen xin

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    Oct 18 2012: you dont know about chinese .culture decides what we are ,we fight with people ,you fight with knowledge.we are different .
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      Salim Solaiman 50+

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      Oct 20 2012: Each and every culture is different.......otherwise there can't be so many of it....
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    lynn eschbach 30+

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    Oct 18 2012: If one customarily watches, e.g., the 2 hour Good Morning America show (a network morning news and entertainment show), it ends up defining ones life. One goes forward in one's days with whatever bias has been presented. If this is one's routine, I feel it is important to tune into different shows from day to day, thereby allowing for a wider, more well-rounded perspective. This applies to newspapers as well.
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    Krisztián Pintér 200+

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    TED Translator
    Oct 18 2012: i would say it is like snack vs food. your body needs food, but a snack is more appealing. snack "hacks" the senses and provides supernatural stimuli. people buy snacks for ridiculously high prices, and nobody cares about their vitamin content. similarly, news don't have to be relevant, nor true. they have to provide the elevated stimuli people demand.
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    Feyisayo Anjorin 50+

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    Oct 18 2012: News does have a connection with people's life. It is the belief that only bad news is good news that results in the misrepresentation of reality and facts. No doubt there are evil people in the world and terrible things are happening. But there are also many good people and good deeds being done.

  • Sharon McCann 10+

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    Oct 17 2012: The old problem of "If it bleeds it leads." remains an issue. But, news falls into two separate categories these days:

    1.) most media is controlled by a very small number of massive multinational corporations. This is far more insidious than most people realize. China has no free press, there is not even a pretense of freedom there. In the US we think we have free press but we fail to recognize that media consolidation has taken things as far as it has while laws have eroded to ensure truth in our news.

    2.) Most young people now use the internet which means that it is really them that are "gatekeeping" their own information feed. They fail to see the bigger picture of how the rest of the world effects their daily lives and so they ignore it. People need to be taught to see the direct connection between themselves and the larger world. It is not instinctive. This self imposed gatekeeping is abetted by search engine algorithms that tend toward confirmation bias. You see only that which conforms to your pre-existing world view.

    We need to actively seek out contradictory view points. You need to work at seeing how the pieces of this global world all fit together.

    http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/2012/08/30/severe-droughts-drive-food-prices-higher-threatening-poor

    Articles like this are pretty clear about how drought in one part of the world effects prices elsewhere. But, you need to think through what could that mean for me? Are there problems that this will cause here? Are there opportunities?

    China is a rising economy. Why? What news shows it to you? What news shows you China's vulnerability? That broader world view can help you make better plans for yourself and your family.

  • carolyn mcauley 10+

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    Oct 17 2012: I have noticed that a major portion of news describes an insensitive world,full of fear and failure,betrayl and anger. If i look out my window I see woman with babies,a park and dogs being walked. If my cat is caught in a tree,many people assist. If someone falls off their bike,people rush to assist.There is a vast divide between what I experience as humanity,and the inflexibility of the news.I am unable to directly help most outside of a 25 yrd radius yet I am stressed about tragedies miles away regardless. I am suspicious of the news as a weapon of mass media propaganda to generate a sense of helplessness which is not how I experience anything in my own 25yrd radius.
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