📘 Part 3 News

Questions and Answers

Coming later today

-

Questions and Answers

Maria: Rory, what do you think of news on social media?

Rory: Well, it's a little skewed in favor of people's personal biases or their personal political biases, at least, it seems. Which is a bit worrying because it creates an echo chamber where any alternative opinions are filtered out. There also seems to be excessive censorship on a lot of social media, which I don't particularly like either because I believe strongly in freedom of expression. And it really grinds my gears when people are prevented from expressing themselves.

Maria: How do people in your country get news?

Rory: Well, ironically, after everything I've just said, social media! For all the shortcomings in terms of, like, news inside bubbles, it's a good way to share personal or family news and find out what's afoot in the local area. And of course, there's the local newspaper as well, thinking about it. But I think most of us are just switching to online sources of media as time goes by.

Maria: What kind of news do people in your country usually watch or read?

Rory: Well, if you talk about watching, then you could talk about the regular news shows. Everybody watches the nightly news, for example. And of course, after that, there's some political analysis shows for more in-depth coverage. At least in the U.K. it's usually reliable, unlike the plethora of broadsheets or tabloids, which are notoriously biased in favor of whichever political party they support. If we talk about in Scotland, even our local newspaper - The Evening Telegraph can be quite bad for that. And that is what a lot of people read. They do read some national newspapers, but there are a lot of local papers as well, which people get their news from.

Maria: How do people like to share good news?

Rory: Well, the same way I do by plastering it all over social media, it's kind of the done thing now, isn't it? Not that I'm complaining. I mean, like I just said, I do it all the time. Although admittedly, I've had a succession of successes to brag about, so maybe it's not entirely unwarranted. Some things people do hold off on until they meet face to face. My cousin did that when she told us that she was pregnant. She was going to have her baby. And I still remember that to this day, actually. So maybe it has more of an impact. I was really happy for her. So possibly there's something, like, intangibly satisfying about being told in person, which you don't really get on social media when you just blurt it out.

Maria: Why do some people like to share news on social media?

Rory: Well, everybody is a little bit attention seeking at times, and we all enjoy the dopamine hit that provides us when we get like. It's probably not very healthy, but that's why it happens. You tell people and then you get the rewards of them telling you how cool you are.

Maria: How do companies tell everyone their news?

Rory: We already talked about people using social media, so why should corporate persons be any different? And they have targeted adverts on social media, which is rapidly becoming the norm. We have our phones... We all have our phones in front of us right now. The phones are listening to us. And then they absorb this information and use it to create adverts which are targeted to our tastes. But I wonder how much that works now that we know about it. Like, I wonder how effective that is compared to just having a social media account which has a personal connection with customers.

Maria: Why do local people like to read local news?

Rory: They probably want to know what's going on nearby, don't they? I mean, it's the thing that has the most... Your local area has the most immediate relevance to you, doesn't it? So once you know what's going on, you understand you're able to orientate yourself in the world, first of all, and then you actually have something to speak about with whoever you live with or whoever lives near you.

Maria: Why do people like local news more than international news?

Rory: Well, I wonder if they do, given how it dominates conversations these days. However, if you say so, I imagine... Well, it's like I said, the local area is of the most immediate concern to people. It's the thing that's foremost in their minds. So, of course, they would prefer to deal with the thing that's confronting them rather than something abstract that's happening in America, for example, which if you live in Russia, is thousands of miles away. So who cares, compared to what's happening in Moscow, for example.

Maria: How does modern technology affect the delivery of news?

Rory: Well, the information flow that we used to have has become something of a torrent, now, hasn't it? There's just so much information and I wonder if people are able to process it effectively. So it's meant that there's more news available, but it's also led to the consequence of how do we organize this information?

Maria: Is it easier to pass information now than in the past?

Rory: Well, of course it's easier to share. It's also easier to access it as well. I mean, it's almost instantaneous. In fact, it is instantaneous, isn't it?

Maria: Do you think children should start watching news from a young age?

Rory: No - is the short answer. The longer answer is - you should let them enjoy their childhoods and then slowly but surely introduce them to this idea that the world is a terrible place where horrible things are happening all the time. Children already grow up really quickly and childhood is a limited period of time. Why not give them a bit more time to enjoy life?

Maria: What do you think will happen to the news in the future?

Rory: Well, it's probably going to be more in your face, I suppose, as the channels of information become... Well, more prodigious, I guess. So for example, you already received news on your phone and your phone is in your hand most of the time. I wonder how long it will be before we have news just immediately sent to our brains, and we'll have to deal with that situation when it comes.

Maria:  So people will have something implanted in their eyes and in the brain and then they will just see the news.

Rory: Possibly that might be a very extreme sort of science fiction example, but the news will become more... Well in your face. I can't think of another way to describe it.

Maria: And people won't be able to switch it off?

Rory: People aren't able to switch it off. That's the that's the trend.

Maria: But do you think this trend is for the worse or for the better?

Rory: It's difficult to say because different people are affected by different situations. There are always winners and losers. If I talk about myself, if I was constantly barraged with bad news, then it wouldn't be good for me. But some people benefit from this, like the investment managers, for example.