Attribution studies attempt to connect individual weather events to climate change. But the ability to do that is so limited that the results are not meaningful. Repeated exaggeration and misreporting leads to skepticism – and serves no useful purpose.
Twitter is not good for one’s mental health. Studies show that Twitter (and some other social media) act as outrage amplifiers, creating more anger and more polarization.
American suburban life seems to regress to a mean of segregation. A 2011 analysis using Census Bureau data found that a “typical white” American lives in a neighborhood that’s 75 percent white. Source: A Tale Of Two Suburbs | FiveThirtyEight A real shocker – the “typical white American lives in a neighborhood that’s 75 percent white”. This is then interpreted by writer Clare Malone to mean that most white Americans live in segregated neighborhoods – in a country that is…
Numerous media reports, all sourced to social media posts, say Florida has food shortages due to Gov. Desantis’ policies. But they are showing photos and videos of empty store shelves that occurred in the past after hurricanes, or one video showed empty refrigerated goods section at Walmart. That actually happened – but it was due to a malfunctioning refrigeration system so food was temporarily removed while the unit was undergoing repairs. “Professional” media sourcing to anonymous items on social media tends to end badly.
From Wikipedia: “A weasel word, or anonymous authority, is an informal term for words and phrases aimed at creating an impression that something specific and meaningful has been said, when in fact only a vague or ambiguous claim has been communicated.” Media commonly uses weasel words in headlines to create scary scenarios out of relatively low confidence predictions.
Some one posts a TikTok video claiming “Baby boomers” never had to deal with inflation and had it easy finding jobs. She is factually and logically wrong, but the media turns this into a viral story, without noting the Tiktoker was wrong. The TikToker demonstrated she knows nothing of history without saying she knows nothing of history. It’s not a good look!
The Guardian invents a new term for climate topics: climate-wrecking emissions. They’ve invented many new terms that were never used by scientists or policy makers. Rather than report the news and let the facts speak for themselves, and let you think for yourself, The Guardian views its role and telling you what to think. See inside for a link to more examples of media invented terminology.
Trevor Jacob pretended to have an engine out failure in his light plane, jumping out by parachute as his plane gradually circled to impact into a hillside in a remote area. He then filmed his “harrowing” escape and hike out. He now admits the entire stunt was done for social media views and a promotional fee, and has pled guilty to charges. He may be sentenced to prison.
Experts claim that misinformation is the leading cause of death in the United States. Hah hah.
Most journalism in the U.S. today is “yellow journalism” that focuses on scandal, celebrity, “crisis”, the oppressed and fear and the prophets of doom – via scary headlines, and sample bias to cover stories that fit the yellow journalism narratives. Today, the most over used word in media is “crisis” – as you’ll see in this post, today, everything is a “crisis”.