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The introduction of 24 hour news networks has increased the need for new content. One of the ways that the news networks addressed the issue was with the inclusion of shows that spin the news in order to influence viewers to align their values, especially their political values, with the values of the network.
To evaluate the validity of this argument, take a step back, and ask yourself whether the values of the majority of today's conservatives and liberals significantly deviate from the rhetoric of their preferred news network. I think you'll find that the answer to that question is no. So why is it so hard for us to realize that this is what's going on? One reason is perhaps that rhetoric uses speech designed to influence us by eliciting an emotional response, and we all know that emotions can sometimes override our rational mind.
So if we value our right to form our own beliefs, and values; we must critically evaluate the foundations of our individual beliefs. No one is saying that it will be easy to take the time to critically evaluate issues for ourselves, but it is vital process in ensuring our freedom of thought. I think if more of us start doing this, we may come to the realization that our values and beliefs may not be as different as we once thought.
You are right that there is a growing divisiveness in our society.
The source is not the fact that news channels run 24 hours a day or that the Internet is always on.
If you look at headlines from 50 years ago, you will find newspapers, radio and TV using the same dirty tricks to gain partisan advantage through division. These tricks have been around since antiquity.
For example, the Unity Paradox is well known. The political class identifies an enemy. They then seek power by uniting people against the enemy.
Political leaders might spew forth flowery prose about unity. Partisan speeches about unity usually have the effect of uniting people against each other and creating deeper division. One can find thousands of speeches about unity preceding extremely divisive wars.
But, lets get back to the claim that divisiveness comes from 24 hour news.
It just so happens that the the world is a sphere that revolves and rotates around a sun. It is noon at one point on the planet every moment of the day. It is midnight on the exact opposite of the globe. We split the day into 24 hours just to have a convenient method of measurement.
Now lets look at broadcasting. It takes a lot of money to create a system that broadcasts news. A lot of this investment is in equipment that stays on throughout the day. Imagine a satellite floating in space.
It takes more effort to turn that satellite off and back on to keep in on a 9 to 5 schedule. The very idea of keeping a satellite on a nine to five schedule is absurd when one asks which timezone should be the determining time zone.
HIVE is one twenty four hours a day. There is nothing gained by trying to turn it off.
Complaints that news can be broadcast 24 hours a day is absurd because we are on a spinning sphere that rotates around the sun.
I thought about talking more about the source of the divisiveness in the world today, but the comment is getting too long.
I guess it is enough to point out that around the clock news is not the problem for a species that lives on a sphere. But you are right that the solution comes from people examining their individual beliefs.
Though I feel like it's a significant factor, I didn't intend to oversimplify the issue by implying that 24 hr news was the only factor, so thank you for addressing that, and I'll be sure to convey that point better in the future.
Anyways, I do agree with some of your points, and it's true that these tactics have been around since antiquity. But though the tactics have been around for a long time, the 24 hour news is arguably more effective at manipulating the public psyche. In the past, people didn't have access to the same level of information that they have access to today. Additionally, the type of news people were consuming, and the amount of exposure they had to the spin on the news was comparatively limited as well.
The level of exposure an individual has to ideas they find convincing, tends to be correlated with the level of influence that these ideas have on that individual's thought process.
In the end, it is true that this is an incredibly complex topic that can't possibly covered in its entirety in a short post, and it wasn't my intent to do so.
Again I appreciate you taking the time to comment.
Take care.
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Congratulations @stirringmind! You received a personal badge!
You can view your badges on your board And compare to others on the Ranking
Do not miss the last post from @hivebuzz:
Welcome to HIVE.
I didn't realize this was your very first post. I like to make sure new users are aware of a helpful resource.
HIVE is a social media platform built around a blockchain. The site Hiveblocks.com show all of the raw transactions on the blockchain. This is your link:
https://hiveblocks.com/@stirringmind
The resources for your account is controlled by the HIVE POWER in your account. You only have 5.3 HP. That gives you enough resources to write 4 comments in a 5 day period. Once you have more HP, you will have more HP.
A good way to get HP is to write a post with the tag #introduceyourself . There are some large accounts that upvote new accounts that use that tag.
Good luck on HIVE.
Thank you for the tip, I'll do that
Most accounts fail to buy HIVE POWER. After studying the platform I decided that the best path for success would be to start an account by buying $500 worth of HIVE POWER and then work to double the value of the account.
The Upvote Calculator shows the value of an upvote for a given amount of HIVE POWER.
The voting rewards come from fixed interest on HIVE. The value of a given upvote is determined by current price of HIVE, the amount of HIVE POWER in one's account and the number of people voting.
The calculator says that, If you were to Power Up the HIVE in your account, the value of your upvote would be $0.0152.
The risk of powering up is that it takes 13 weeks to power down. The price of HIVE might drop. When I joined the platform, the price was over $4. I bought some HIVE when the price dropped to a dime.
Great, thank you again.
Congratulations @stirringmind!
You raised your level and are now a Minnow!
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