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Can You Trust Mainstream Media?

2017-04-28 · letter vlog · Hank · 3:43 · watch on YouTube

Topic: US politics & society (also: Internet & YouTube) · mode: Personal essay

Hank argues that the growing sense that all expertise is false is dangerous: news media and feeds reward hot takes and drama, but actual mainstream journalism remains valuable, expert-driven truth-telling, and the blame lies partly with readers, himself included, who choose the hot takes.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — The spreading sense that all expertise is false; Dear Hank and John questions; what experts are for

  • ★★★ Hank says he is watching a scary, fairly new sense spread among his peers and friends that all expertise is false: government, media, scientists and even charities can't be trusted. (hedged) — 00:00:02
  • ★★ Hank says Dear Hank and John gets a dozen questions a week from people who feel they must get to the bottom of every story themselves because no one can be trusted. — 00:00:13 · Dear Hank and John
  • ★★★ Hank says if no one can be trusted we are screwed: no one can get to the bottom of everything, which is what experts (journalists, international organizations, scientists, government) are tasked by society to do. — 00:00:21

00:00:29 — Causes: confirmation bias, government and news media credibility, collapse of journalism's model and editorial control

  • ★★ Hank says we increasingly feel we cannot trust these experts, so we trust whatever narrative we already signed up for, spreading what fits and quietly ignoring what doesn't. (hedged) — 00:00:37
  • ★★ Hank names plentiful causes: human nature, a fractured system of information sharing, and government damaging its own credibility by focusing more on winning than governing. — 00:00:47
  • ★★★ Hank says news media destroyed its own and everyone else's credibility by focusing on cheap, easy content: opinion pieces and shouting matches between people paid to disagree. — 00:00:58 · sensationalism
  • ★★★ Hank attributes this at least partly to the simultaneous collapse of the financial model that supported journalism and of newspapers' editorial control over what people saw first. (hedged) — 00:01:10

00:01:13 — Feeds and the hive mind replace the front page with drama and hot takes

  • ★★★ Hank says online we see our feed rather than a front page, and feeds are controlled not by experts but often by our worst instincts: the hive mind turns the front page into drama, controversy and demonization. — 00:01:17 · recommender system

00:01:42 — Real mainstream news is expert truth-telling; hold journalists accountable but don't throw them out

  • ★★★ Hank says the front page of an actual mainstream newspaper or a magazine like The Economist holds valuable, expensive, expert-driven truth-telling, such as news on Venezuela, Yemen or why Americans are dying younger. — 00:01:42
  • ★★★ Hank says that if you read peer-reviewed articles, talk with a politician or actually read mainstream news, by and large you find that experts really are experts. — 00:02:02
  • ★★★ Hank says reporting is sometimes bad, but a bad Wall Street Journal piece doesn't make the whole paper or every newspaper garbage: hold journalists accountable, don't throw them out, we need them. — 00:02:15

00:02:32 — Media critics, the destruction of expertise, Hank's own fault; good journalism is buried on the front page; sign-off

  • ★★ Hank feels media critics are becoming the news themselves: people who attack expertise with no desire or ability to replace it, letting us feel better than the experts. (hedged) — 00:02:32
  • ★★ Hank grants news media has problems to fix but is sick of people ignoring the tremendous value journalists provide for the country and the world. — 00:02:50
  • ★★★ Hank says the destruction of expertise and its results, from feeling ill-informed to electing a reality TV star president to denying the biggest crisis humanity has faced, is all our fault. — 00:03:01 · Donald Trump
  • ★★ Hank admits he prefers op-eds and hot takes and chooses to read 'the crap' while claiming he can't trust mainstream media; outlets supply it because people read it. — 00:03:14
  • ★★★ Hank concludes that trustworthy, expertise-driven journalism exists, right where nobody will read it: on the front page. — 00:03:32

In the description and comments

  • ★★★ Hank says large news institutions have far more protections against false stories and responsibility to the truth than 'non-mainstream' options, which are driven by ideology or profit yet have broken down the credibility of the press and of truth itself. — video description
  • ★★★ Answering the title, Hank says actual news (not op-eds) in mainstream media can be trusted far more than almost anything else, and he stands up for an institution we would be screwed without, despite its recent swipes at YouTube. — video description · YouTube

Threads in this video

  • restate · Should people trust scientific consensus? — Hank says that if you read peer-reviewed articles, talk with a politician or actually read mainstream news, by and large you find that experts really are experts. (00:02:02)
  • restate · Can news media be trusted to inform us accurately? — Hank says reporting is sometimes bad, but a bad Wall Street Journal piece doesn't make the whole paper or every newspaper garbage: hold journalists accountable, don't throw them out, we need them. (00:02:15)
  • restate · Is the internet, including social media, good for people? — Hank says online we see our feed rather than a front page, and feeds are controlled not by experts but often by our worst instincts: the hive mind turns the front page into drama, controversy and demonization. (00:01:17)
  • restate · How serious is climate change? — Hank calls continued denial of 'the biggest crisis humanity has ever faced' one of the terrible results of the destruction of expertise. (00:03:08)
  • restate · Is outrage useful? — Hank says online we see our feed rather than a front page, and feeds are controlled not by experts but often by our worst instincts: the hive mind turns the front page into drama, controversy and demonization. (00:01:17)

Mentioned

Central: distrust of expertise · expert

Also: People: Donald Trump

Projects: Dear Hank and John

Organizations: The Economist · The Wall Street Journal

Concepts: climate change denial · confirmation bias · division of cognitive labour · human nature · life expectancy · peer review · recommender system · sensationalism

Places: Venezuela · Yemen

Only in the description or credits: YouTube

Also centred on distrust of expertise: Populism, Media Revolutions, and Our Terrible Moment

Also centred on expert: Trust and Fire - Thoughts from the Smoke · Things I'm Finding Encouraging · you'll never know

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