Culture: News: Perspective
Benefit of hindsight news   (+13)  [vote for, against]

I would like a radio or television news channel, or a regular news broadcast, which is normal in every respect except that it replays the news broadcasts from ten years ago.

Watching a news programme from ten years ago would have several benefits. It would be better for people’s mental health as none of the news would really matter, or be leading to an unknown and stress-inducing outcome. It would also allow the viewer/listener to see events in the context of how they have panned out and take a more critical view of how the news is reported.

I think ten years is the right interval, but there may be a need for several such services, each operating on a different delay.
-- hippo, Apr 12 2019

Slow-Journalism: Delayed Gratification https://www.slow-journalism.com/
"Delayed Gratification is the world’s first Slow Journalism magazine. It’s a beautiful printed quarterly publication which revisits the events of the previous three months to see what happened after the dust settled and the news agenda moved on. It is proud to be ‘Last to Breaking News’." - These guys publish the news on a quarterly basis, giving a more rounded, less bare-knuckle rollercoaster experience. Well worth a subscription. [zen_tom, Apr 15 2019]

I avoid all news at all costs. Trump era. It makes me gag and toss my cookies. But watching the old stuff might be a good option. I'd really like it to be any yearly time span, but the last 2.
-- blissmiss, Apr 13 2019


... though papyrus reed futures are steady, and grain prices are set to rise if this year's Nile flood doesn't match previous years. In political news, Princess Cleopatra has had her father murdered, imprisoned her elder sister, married her youngest brother and had him proclaimed Pharaoh.We'll have more on that story in the late bulletin by which time there should be an accurate body count available. As to the weather, well, continuing hot and dry for the next few days. This is Ha-nen-artep for big eye, wiggly line, goose, boat TV wishing you a very good evening ..."
-- 8th of 7, Apr 13 2019


I'd sort of go for this, if only to see once again Reginald Boozanquet's nose becoming more florid as time passed.

I'd also like to see a programme that analysed and discussed the news from ten or twenty years ago, interspersing repeat clips with contemporary discussion. Of particular interest would be health scares ("Broccoli could be a major cause of breast cancer"; "New research shows that lard could help prevent atherosclerosis") and apocalypse warnings ("Scientists have found evidence that a new ice-age is imminent", "Contaminated beef is set to cause two million cases of CJD by 2010").
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Apr 13 2019


How I wish I'd read this earlier.

Shirley you just get a hind and try and get her to tell you the future.

Admittedly, it didn't work out too well for Bambi's mum, must have her pre-cog off.

^^^Bliss...chrome browsers have a fine line of Trump blocker filters, does wonders for my blood pressure :-)

My own prediction is the US air force will lose all their shiny new bombers, as they have a remote flying control option...it not like several bazillion hackers are going to try it on.
-- not_morrison_rm, Apr 14 2019


Thanks, [not]. I use them but sometimes the anti-Trump group I belong to posts ugly Donald photos with what damage his latest Tweet caused the world. He's hard to escape.
-- blissmiss, Apr 15 2019


I'm a subscriber to "Delayed Gratification" which I can enjoy either at the breakneck speed of a quarterly issue - or, if I need to tone things down a bit, I can just not read anything for a while, and then dip in when my nerves allow. Back issues extend to 2010 I believe, so you could currently imbibe your news with a 9 year shield of hindsight.
-- zen_tom, Apr 15 2019


This is an amazingly great idea. [+]
-- doctorremulac3, Apr 15 2019


//I'd also like to see a programme that analysed and discussed the news//

I've written a web-scraper that visits the BBC and Reuters on a daily basis to download the news, it ran intermittently between April and July, but since September has been running pretty much clockwork- style - the data set's getting fairly chunky now, and is starting to yield fairly decent thematic striations.

It ought to be interesting to demonstrate how these themes drift over time, such that things we see most frequently today (apparently Brexit, Muslims and Trump) will be replaced by some hitherto unknown alternate topical-triumvirate of the future.
-- zen_tom, Apr 15 2019


[zen] - really interesting, and this could be just the dataset that this idea needs. I note that the domain dejanews.co.uk is still available if you want it...
-- hippo, Apr 16 2019


I've maintained for some time that the news is actually on a 20 year cycle, with the same stories being read by people in different clothes and haircuts, to save money.
-- UnaBubba, Apr 16 2019


[zen] I like the look of that 'Delayed Gratification' magazine
-- hippo, Apr 17 2019


Bubba, I think you may be on to something.
-- blissmiss, Apr 17 2019


// I've written a web-scraper that visits the BBC and Reuters on a daily basis to download the news //

Do they not have RSS feeds (anymore)? (I heard the CBC discontinued theirs recently because they couldn't run ads on it…)
-- notexactly, Apr 17 2019


I had to double-check, and yes, in the interest of accuracy, it's less of a web scraper, than a web...fetcher - the reason for choosing Reuters and the BBC is that both provide a handy daily RSS digest.
-- zen_tom, Apr 18 2019



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