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by mundo
2032 days ago
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A number of commenters seem hung up on the actual measurement of information, which I think is a little ancillary to the point (which I think is valid). So I'll add that I think the author's point here is that the press has shifted from focusing on surprising news to reiterating things we already know, because that is a good way to reassure and flatter their audience. Consider a headline like, "Trump says illegal immigration is a big problem." He's said that many times, it's very unsurprising that he would say it again, and hence it contains very little information. However, each time he says it, it affords the press that agree with him a fresh opportunity to talk about why he's right, and the press that disagrees a new chance to talk about why he's wrong. That is the point here - that what we call "news" has shifted from spending most of its energy informing us of things we don't know towards reinforcing and emphasizing things we do know. If that trend is true, then certainly it represents a reduction in information (in the Claude Shannon sense as well as the everyday sense). |
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It's even worse when what is being reiterated is not true because reiteration effect (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illusory_truth_effect). This can be even aggravated further since a lot modern news is not just a statement of facts, but can also include various opinions which may be only partially related to that fact, but get reinforced as well.
However, repeating something over and over will decrease information density. Heck it's used in error correction when dealing with noisy/lossy channels the information theoretic sense. So reiterating things of course will reduce information density.