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Comment by forgotmysn | Hacker News Reader

uh ya no shit. start-ups froth over having devs with experience at big tech co's so they can throw the logos on their decks. thank the lord the WSJ is performing society-driving journalism like this.

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I mean, I do agree, but isn't this what journalism is? Reporting on the facts? It's a thing that's happening, ergo it's news.

If there's a shooting and shootings have happened before, is that not still news? It happened after all. It's got to be better than just ignoring things because it's status quo.

this might have been news is like, 2009, but it's certainly not a new trend worth reporting.

How many people since have reached adulthood and entered employment who might not have been aware of what came before though? What about the trends that you and others weren't aware of that happened prior to you reaching adulthood and caring about the news?

Just because something is a continuation of a trend doesn't mean it isn't somehow "news-worthy". The weather is entirely based on continuing trends over x periods—is there still value in knowing the weather? Of course. This is the weather of business. It's a "sunny day" in Startupville even if it's raining in Fortune500land, which is the counterpoint to the doom-peddling in other headlines.

Every day, somebody’s born who hasn’t seen The Flintstones. You’re old, not everyone is. Not every article is for you.

Not everyone is plugged into the tech world.

Nobody has any idea how tech works outside tech bubble. That is to say it’s news for 99% of population.

There have been significant layoffs recently. What happens to those people is news, because the layoffs were large enough to be news.

I think it is notable if it’s happening in bulk. Now, it’s not a new phenomenon; it has happened before with major waves of tech layoffs. But not often enough that it should be treated as a law of nature.

No point in reporting on inflation — it’s happened before.

No point in reporting on war — it’s happened before.

No point in reporting on a corrupt or lying politician — it’s happened before.

Could this contribute to people's nostalgia that the past was so much better? Because they were not really getting all the news. My grandparents will swear kidnappings never happened in the 50s when they were kids. The reality is, they happened but were not reported as they are today. Does this contribute to their view of, "the wold is so much worst today!" Is the reality that, the world only seems worst, but in reality isn't much different? Do we really prefer a world where kidnappings are hardly reported and not have much of a far reaching effect?

Indeed.

Statistically speaking, in the US, high school students were much more likely to be murdered in the 1980s than now. But just try to convince today's parents of that.

Exactly! The audience is not a standing army but a moving parade. Rehashing something Ogilvy said.

There is so much stuff happening that to come to the tiny selection you can stack the filters to the roof. The first one would be: What would the people paying our bills like to see? What does our network like? What is our political affiliation? Who and which companies do we like or not like? How much drama or feel good stories does our current audience need?

It's so refined there is pretty much no meat left in the sausage. It is an engineering project and you are the raw materials.

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