The media and good news stories
The media and good news stories
Lord Reith created the BBC in 1922, at the time a gold standard for media (citation required?).
It was tax funded.
It had 3 aims:
Inform, educate, entertain.
What is the aim/purpose of media/social media/mainstream media today?
Michael Crichton (Jurassic Park, ER): “Media carries with it a credibility that is totally undeserved. You have all experienced this, in what I call the Murray Gell-Mann Amnesia effect. (I refer to it by this name because I once discussed it with Murray Gell-Mann, and by dropping a famous name I imply greater importance to myself, and to the effect, than it would otherwise have.)
Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect is as follows. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray's case, physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward—reversing cause and effect. I call these the "wet streets cause rain" stories. Paper's full of them.
In any case, you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a story, and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about Palestine than the baloney you just read. You turn the page, and forget what you know. That is the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect. I'd point out it does not operate in other arenas of life. In ordinary life, if somebody consistently exaggerates or lies to you, you soon discount everything they say. In court, there is the legal doctrine of falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus, which means untruthful in one part, untruthful in all. But when it comes to the media, we believe against evidence that it is probably worth our time to read other parts of the paper.”
https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1739365034063536598?s=20
Primary source or secondary source?
2004 tsunami
COP 28 demonstration
More
Personal life
In a report by The Times of India in June 2021, it was revealed that some of Licypriya's awards were given to her by her father's organisations.[43] Her father Kanarjit Kangujam Singh was arrested on 31 May 2021 for allegedly duping several self-help groups, hotels and individuals of money for a Global Youth Meet that he had organised in Imphal in 2014.[44] Nearly a hundred children from 12 countries claim Kanarjit Kangujam scammed them.[45]
See also
Severn Cullis-Suzuki – as a minor was also a notable environmental activist in 1992
or people imitating chickens
https://x.com/shesbonky/status/1739089360585097295?s=20
Good news
For over a decade, Ana María and David Borbóna have led the community restoration of the mangroves of Baja California Sur, Mexico, planting an estimated 1.2 million seedlings and transforming vast stretches of barren sand to green. 'We are not talking about sustainability. We are talking about regeneration—and it’s worth fighting for, whatever is required, because it’s necessary.' Hakai
https://hakaimagazine.com/videos-visuals/the-mangrove-grandparents-of-el-delgadito/?ref=futurecrunch.com
Englishman Brendon Grimshaw and the world's smallest national park. BBC
As thousands of premiers, potentates, and poseurs descend on Dubai for COP28, news outlets are reporting that the foxes in charge of the henhouse haven't been able to resist. So far, so predictable. Can we suggest getting rid of that fowl taste with this story about what's happening in China's deserts instead? We've turned on the gift link here, because it's one of the best pieces of graphical reporting we've ever seen. 🎁 Bloomberg
Over the past decade, the Black Mambas, an all-female anti-poaching unit in South Africa, has eliminated rhino poaching in the Olifants West Nature Reserve, without the use of weapons. The group has made a significant impact on both local wildlife and the wider community, empowering women’s social standing and economic independence. BBC
In the 21st century, the number of people who practice open defecation has declined by more than two thirds, from 1.3 billion people in 2000 to 420 million in 2022. Only 5% of the global population are still defecating in fields, forests, bodies of water, or other open spaces. World Bank
A new study in The Lancet has shown that between 2005 and 2020, annual global deaths attributable to air particulate matter from fossil fuels fell from 1,437,000 to 1,212,000, a 15.7% reduction. 'By reducing emissions linked to coal, we also saved more than 200,000 lives each year, because we have reduced air pollution.' El País
Over 80 million people across India cleaned up 90,0000 sites on the 1st of October. Rubbish was cleaned from streets, highways, railway tracks and stations, health institutions, beaches, tourist locations, water bodies, places of worship, slums, market areas, airports and zoos and wildlife areas. Indian Express
A large-scale project to clean up waste from Russia’s Arctic territory has collected almost 6,000 tonnes of scrap metal since 2021, and Seven Clean Seas, a UK-based environmental organisation, has removed a staggering 2,206,079 kilograms of plastic waste from the world's oceans - the equivalent of 184 double decker busses.
City parks departments and non-profits across the U.S. are providing training for volunteers to plant, prune, and care for street trees. Thousands of volunteers are working to make a significant contribution to urban tree maintenance, reporting it as a ‘labour of love.’ Washington Post
After a 53 year pause, a green megaproject in Algeria has been relaunched to reforest one million hectares of steppe between the wilayas of El Naâma and Tébessa. The project is intended to help combat desertification and improve the living conditions of over 7 million people. Afrik21
The Tanka Fund, a native led non-profit in South Dakota have joined forces with the Nature Conservancy to restore more than 700 bison to Indigenous lands across America, and a vaccination program is helping protect California condors from bird flu during fall migration season. Six vaccinated birds have already been released.
Last year, economists predicted with 100% certainty that the US was going to enter a recession within a year. It did not happen. As it turns out, the big economic story of 2023 is not recession, it’s the disconnect between Americans' feelings and their behaviour. Bad vibes, good data. Everyone says they're pissed off, yet inflation-adjusted consumer spending is way above pre-pandemic trends. 🎁: Bloomberg
India's sanitation workers have won a major victory after the country's Supreme Court ruled that the practice of manual scavenging—referring to the removal of human waste from dry latrines and sewers with bare hands—should be completely eradicated. The ruling affects millions of people, 95% of whom are from an 'untouchable' caste, and 98% are women. Waging Non Violence
Forests across West Bengal, India, have been restored through a collective effort that started in the early 1990s with over a hundred villages. In 2017, the government scaled up the project to 450 villages, and today 6,000 acres of land have been re-greened with 66 species of commercial varieties of trees improving the livelihoods of 12,000 households. RTBC
and gapminder good news stories