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The Surprising Truth About FLORIDA MAN!

2015-10-09 · explainer · Hank · 3:53 · watch on YouTube

Topic: US politics & society (also: History & curiosities, Internet & YouTube) · mode: Explainer

Hank argues that Florida's reputation for weird 'Florida Man' news is not about Floridians but about Florida's open-government law, which hands police reports to journalists on request, combined with the state's size and journalism's economic squeeze.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Both brothers are partly Floridians; Florida's good points: key lime pie, Cuban sandwiches, manatees, Cape Canaveral, Disney World, thunderstorms, third-largest state, the Miami Heat

  • ★ Hank says John and he are both at least partly Floridians, and Florida has a lot going for it: key lime pie, Cuban sandwiches, manatees, Cape Canaveral, Disney World, thunderstorms. — 00:00:01 · Florida
  • ★★ Hank says Florida is the third largest US state by population, with great cultural, wildlife and habitat diversity. — 00:00:18 · Florida

00:00:29 — Florida as the nation's laughing stock: Fark's 'Florida' category, Florida Man headlines, the Florida Man Twitter account

  • ★★ Hank says Florida is also, weirdly, kind of the laughing stock of the nation. — 00:00:29 · Florida
  • ★★ Hank says Fark.com, where he spent time as a teenager, sorts outrageous headlines into categories like scary, fail and facepalm, and one category is simply Florida. — 00:00:36 · Florida
  • ★★ Hank says it is objectively true that far more weird news stories come out of Florida than any other state. — 00:00:52 · Florida
  • ★★ After reading three Florida Man headlines, Hank says the Florida Man headline has become a cliche, with a Twitter account devoted to Florida Man's adventures. — 00:01:15 · Florida Man, Twitter, Florida

00:01:22 — Rejected theories, then the real reason: the Government in the Sunshine law and open records, plus population and struggling journalism

  • ★★ Hank lists theories he has read for Florida's oddness (Miami party culture, the income gap, a mix of cultures where no one is really from Florida) and says all are wrong. — 00:01:27 · Florida
  • ★★★ Hank says the simple, uninteresting reason Florida Man exists is a law he calls the Government in the Sunshine Act, part of Florida's almost unparalleled history of open government. — 00:01:45 · Florida Man, Florida
  • ★★★ Hank says Florida government emails are public record, the public must be notified when two members of government meet, and all police paperwork is available to journalists on request. — 00:01:59 · Florida
  • ★★ Hank calls the policy fairly admirable but questionable for the rights of people arrested but not convicted, reported on before due process; one reason other states have different rules. — 00:02:16
  • ★★★ Hank says the law, plus Florida being the third most populous state and journalism being in an economically difficult place, yields many sensationalist Florida Man headlines. — 00:02:31 · sensationalism, Florida Man, Florida
  • ★★ Hank's example: a journalist who hears of a man in a Thor costume eating knishes from a smashed deli case just calls police for detailed reports; elsewhere such a story would not be worth the hoops. (hypothetical) — 00:02:44

00:03:12 — Hank's pet theory: Florida lacked a stereotype, and pattern-seeking brains latched onto weird headlines

  • ★★ Hank's pet theory: lacking a stereotype for Florida like those for Californians, New Yorkers and Texans, pattern-recognizing brains seized on its weird headlines: 'weird news capital'. (hedged) — 00:03:12 · Florida, New York City

00:03:33 — Sign-off; thanks to Chescaleigh for the idea; video pre-recorded because of NerdCon in Minneapolis

  • ★ Hank thanks the YouTuber who told him about this fluke of history and points viewers to her channel. — 00:03:35
  • ★ Hank says he pre-recorded the video because of too much going on in Minneapolis with NerdCon, so recent events go unmentioned. — 00:03:43

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Florida · Florida Man · Florida Sunshine Law · sensationalism

Also: Projects: NerdCon: Stories

Organizations: Fark · Miami Heat · Twitter

Concepts: due process · open government · pattern recognition (psychology) · stereotype

Places: California · Cape Canaveral · Miami · Minneapolis · New York City · Texas · Walt Disney World

Only in the description or credits: Franchesca Ramsey

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