Random News Stories of Note

Finnegan · Posted: Tue Apr 16, 2013 2:52 pm Post subject:

I avoid watching the 24 hour news cycle reporting on events like this because I don't believe it is healthy to be repeatedly exposed to tragedy like this over and over again. I think it reinforces feelings of fear, insecurity, and anger. others have told me that they find it promotes a sense of community which is comforting and quickens healing. thoughts?
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mouse · Joined: 10 Jul 2006 Posts: 20566 Location: under the bed

well....i tend to have problems with the 24-hr news cycle in general, because it seems sometimes they feel such pressure to say something that they say anything, and then they often say something stupid. or they interview "experts" who have some ax to grind, or they do those horrible survivor interviews ("how did you feel, seeing your husband get his leg blown off just after finishing the marathon?" - how the hell do you think she feels?) but that may just be my impression; i don't know that anyone has any statistics or anything.

i guess, though, if the news stories focus on community stuff (like all the people who rushed to help) - well, that could be good. and at least you can hope they will be on top of any new developments (although they may also jump the gun).

anyway, i don't watch the 24 hr news cycle either.
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TIAB · Joined: 09 Jul 2006 Posts: 719

I just simply stopped watching/reading the news altogether. My friends and coworkers end up bringing up current events rather quickly either on various online platforms or around the office and then I do a search from there, but more often than not if I find myself subjected to a news broadcast I end up feeling sick in one way or another usually as a direct result of the reporting methods.

Last year I was working for an international company and at least half of the people in my office were born in other countries and a small but fair portion were people born within 20 miles of work. The diversity made the place very cool most of the time but it was mind-blowingly surreal walking into the break room and finding the TV set to Fox News, the worst of the worst.

stripeypants · Posted: Tue Apr 16, 2013 3:40 pm Post subject:

I looked to find out what was known, and once I had some basic facts I shut it off. Nothing I can personally do, and no opinions to form till there is more info.
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Darqcyde · Posted: Tue Apr 16, 2013 5:18 pm Post subject:

Events like the Boston Marathon Bombing make me think about the scary and awesome power writers have. I say this because I immediately saw connections to past works of fiction. First is Swordfish in regards to the use of ball bearings to increase the damage. Second is CSI for teaching us the effectiveness of Iraqi IED cascading style time delay for maximum casualties. Now I'm not saying "this movie" or "that show" caused anything, but I am saying that the ways in which writers hope to influence people and the actual result may be quite different.
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WheelsOfConfusion · Joined: 09 Jul 2006 Posts: 13886 Location: Unknown Kaddath

Swordfish? It's pretty common knowledge, I thought. Well, common for the people who read fiction in which there are violent things (which is a surprisingly huge amount of fiction).

ShadowCell · Joined: 02 Aug 2008 Posts: 7394 Location: California

besides which, it's not like journalists and news outlets never talked about that stuff either.

mouse · Joined: 10 Jul 2006 Posts: 20566 Location: under the bed

don't writers often get inspiration from reality? sounds like they did on the csi stuff, anyway. so anyone getting the news would know about it.

and pipe bombs including nasty stuff to cause greater injury - i think that's been known since the IRA bombing campaigns, in the 70's.
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WheelsOfConfusion · Joined: 09 Jul 2006 Posts: 13886 Location: Unknown Kaddath

It doesn't even have to be related to terrorism. Using steel balls and nails has been common in all kinds of booby traps, improvised weapons, and even mainstream military arsenals. Canisters full of them were shot over enemy lines in the American Civil War, for example. Any documentary that covered weapons of WWII was apt to mention German S-mines or "bouncing betties." Anybody who watched significant amounts of the History Channel before it turned into Ice Road Pawn Stars would have known about this kind of thing.

Darqcyde · Posted: Tue Apr 16, 2013 7:32 pm Post subject:

Well I was speaking in a more general sense in terms of writer responsibility, not just this specific attack. My wife and roommate, for instance, only knew about the delay in bombings from CSI. Also depending on the property, an idea may become far more commonplace and widespread. Creativity is a scary weapon when wielded by those who seek to do harm.
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ShadowCell · Joined: 02 Aug 2008 Posts: 7394 Location: California

why are we talking about "writer responsibility" when we don't even know who did this or why?

christ, take your vendetta against pop culture somewhere else

Arc Tempest · Joined: 27 Jan 2007 Posts: 5316 Location: Oregon

I blame James Cameron.
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stripeypants · Posted: Tue Apr 16, 2013 8:07 pm Post subject:

Darqcyde, you appear to have a recurring problem where you assume too much based on the very small sample of you, your wife, and a few people you know. This is useful stuff, but it would be good to assume first that your experience is not representative of everyone's.
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Lasairfiona · Posted: Tue Apr 16, 2013 8:24 pm Post subject:

TIAB · Joined: 09 Jul 2006 Posts: 719

I used to be concerned with the types of ideas that crime shows put into their stories. Then I watched a few. If they show something that's plausible to the viewer it's either been done so often in reality that they aren't spreading new information, or have long standing counter measures towards preventing it, or it's simply B.S. that sounds plausible but more importantly makes for good drama.

Take hacking the Pentagon for example. Sounds like a plausible crime, hacking happens all the time, just ask NPR. The problem is that there is nothing connecting the Pentagon's internal network to the internet. Any information exchanged between the two is done through a living person that walks from a computer on one network to a computer on the other. A coordinated attack at the Pentagon via internet is about as effective as a group of teens trying to convince a general to give them a nuke because of peer pressure.

Most of what's on those shows is bull and thankfully so.