Comment by acd

4 years ago

Younger generations need to pay for news. Local news is important for democracy since local news feeds alerts national news.

Ad networks by providing news for free is destroying democracy.

29 comments

acd

Reply
mschuster91  4 years ago

The problem is, many of our generation can't afford to pay for local news that we barely have the time and the mental energy to consume after working 10 or more hours and then commuting. No, cutting our Netflix and switching it to some local paper won't work either, because we don't need to engage our brains with some random Netflix stuff.

In contrast, pensioners have more than enough free time to read the news and vote - as evidenced by just about every voter turnout statistic.

Want to fix politics? Make it possible for young people to actually engage with democracy again.

  • tgv  4 years ago

    > In contrast, pensioners have more than enough free time to read the news and vote

    Not with that attitude. I'm reading a newspaper since I was 14. If they don't make time to read a newspaper, they're just not interested. Don't try to sugarcoat it with some pointless victimization.

    • rcMgD2BwE72F  4 years ago

      How many hours did you have to work to afford a place to live, back then? Did that change somehow?

      If so, how can that affect the time left to entertain oneself and read about the news? Also, how was the news back then? Was it all about making marketing profile and click-baiting?

      2 replies →

  • tsol  4 years ago

    >Make it possible for young people to actually engage with democracy again.

    Is this really that much more difficult now than in the past? I would think it'd be easier now given that information is easier to obtain and workers rights are at an all time high

  • meatsauce  4 years ago

    We already have enough youthful political activists that are 100% disconnected from the real world.

    Why would we want the youngest, least experienced, most ideological, and frequently petulant to elect leaders?

    More youth voters won't fix a thing. It will, in fact, make things a lot worse.

shadowgovt  4 years ago

How does one incentivize this? Because younger generations ain't gonna do it for charity reasons; they don't have surplus income to donate to charity.

  • MetaWhirledPeas  4 years ago

    > How does one incentivize this?

    "Local influencers" needs to become a thing, if it isn't already. That's the answer to the local news problem. If you want to know how to become a successful influencer just ask the popular kids at a school. Yes quality of content matters, but there's a mystical charisma component at the center of it.

    Once local influencers have been established in an area then quality can gradually take on more of a role. Those who provide sensationalistic news will get their crowd, but some (hopefully those with citations, less sensationalism, and less bias) will eventually gain the status of "trustworthy". And over time some will gain enough popularity to start looking more like a normal business again, with local sponsorships and the whole thing.

    This may seem a bit depressing at first but it's completely normal. As publication relies less and less on expensive machinery and elaborate organizations it will naturally gravitate toward individuals. Conglomerates like Sinclair only exist to pick on the carcasses of dead mediums.

    • robonerd  4 years ago

      > "Local influencers" needs to become a thing, if it isn't already. That's the answer to the local news problem

      If that's the answer, then I hope the whole industry curls up and dies now. If you want me to pay a single cent for trash like that, you'd have to stick a gun in my face.

      1 reply →

  • ironmagma  4 years ago

    Bring back pay per newspaper vending machines? They were awful and broken all the time before, and now they’re just free. If it’s cheap entertainment, I’d rather pay for that than iTunes movies.

windowsrookie  4 years ago

Sometimes I walk by the TV while my mother is watching the local news. It seems to always just be reporting about thefts/gunshots downtown, then some new product available, followed by 15 minutes of weather and sports. I don't find much value in any of that information.

yieldcrv  4 years ago

Not local really but I bit the bullet on NY Times, WSJ, Bloomberg

I miiight do LA Times (doubt)

Paywall circumvention doesnt work well/at all on mobile

I agree that ad bombing eyeball news is very low quality in comparison to subscription news. Its a night and day difference. Its distressing that nobody else I know can really see or access these articles, being pulled by every clickbait version of an event