robinsonmeyerFeb 8, 2023

Was talking to a reporter yesterday about how to learn the climate beat and realized I couldn’t confidently recommend that she do what I did anymore — follow a bunch of prospective sources, experts, and analysts on Twitter and try to understand the networks between them.

Between Twitter’s decay and the AI-ification of search engines, I’m not sure anyone is ready for how much the core mechanisms of primary-source discovery on the web could be about to degrade.

Show threadAndy ThomasonFeb 8, 2023
@robinsonmeyer And it was already bad! I've been surprised at how much more effective it is to start a research project by buying a relevant scholarly book and tracing the citations than it is to try to Google your way to answers. Sounds kinda obvious when you type it out but the analog approach is hard to beat.
Show threadArneBab

@andy It should not be more efficient to follow analog traces — if funding the web worked.

I think the reason why analog works better is that it is mostly done by established publishers who have a reputation to loose (which would risk their very existence) if they publish bullshit. @robinsonmeyer

Feb 13, 2023 at 8:12amWeb