human filters

nadav points at What Was Once A Village Paved In Gold Is Now A Metropolis With Rat-infested Ghettos […]

nadav points at What Was Once A Village Paved In Gold Is Now A Metropolis With Rat-infested Ghettos which is interesting to me both as a history of a company’s evolution, but also as a consequence of what happens on a site where you let your customers review products: at some point the product they review will be you.

It also makes me realize that I’m getting most of my news through a human filter (except, of course the holy two hours on sunday morning with the newspaper and iht) and I’m happy about it. I’ve long doubted the existence of “journalist objectivity” and by receiving all my news through blogs and the like, every single piece of news is so very clearly slanted, I feel free– no, obligated– to form my own opinions on the matter. I question what I see, I have to think, I search for other opinions… the “untrustworthy narrator” makes reading an interactive rather than a passive activity.

feel free to disagree.

a short note on the exception: I have loved the International Herald Tribune for years, and have always wished I could get it in America (I buy it when I’m traveling). Their website is all the things the paper is: succinct news with a world view presented elegantly.

3 Comments

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  1. 1
    Peter Merholz

    (Though, if you read that particular review, you’re getting a VERY skewed perspective. The active members of the Epinions community tend to be the least grounded in an accepted reality.)

  2. 2
    Lynn D.

    that is theirs, is good. Agreed, objective journalism is getting harder to find, not because there aren’t good, objective journalists out there, but because they write for papers, TV programs and magazines that are primarily concerned with ad revenues, not good journalism. Which says a lot about the American public’s appetitie for objective reporting of serious or relevant issues.

  3. 3
    christina

    editing is an art in itself. in the case of IHT, I’d say that is what makes it great: the best stories are selected that show the most complete picure.

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