Step out of your little insular world and see what the "other guys" are talking about

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Q&A: How To Do Political Coverage Better In The Twitter Age
By Elise Hu, September 6, 2013

Curious about how social media sped up news cycles, amplified trivial events on the trail and enabled Washington's "worst tendencies" during the 2012 presidential race, one of the nation's top young political reporters decided to take a deeper look.

In a 95-page paper written at the conclusion of his spring fellowship at Harvard's Shorenstein Center, CNN's Peter Hamby explores the complaint political practitioners and the people who follow them have made for ages: Campaign coverage is shallow, solipsistic and possibly doing a disservice to voters tasked with making serious decisions for our democracy.

Hamby concludes that Twitter — and insta-sharing platforms like it — offer voters abundantly more choices for getting their information, but that the information often lacks a critical element: context.

"Washington has always had the worst tendencies toward myopia," Hamby says. "Twitter just exacerbates that. We're all just talking to each other and deciding, well, that must be important."

[major snippage]

What's the antidote to this as a voter if you recognize a lot of what's covered is BS, in the big picture?

"I don't want to sound too sanctimonious. The thing is, voters can do what they want because they have so much information at their fingertips at all times. Facebook was a valuable way for campaigns to reach voters this time. I don't know how to advise voters, but in the course of researching this paper, one troubling aspect of the proliferation of news sites is that you can bury yourself in your own world. It's important to step out of what your social network is saying and preferred ideological news channel is saying. And read as much as possible."

[Hamby's full report in full-screen format]
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