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Re: [dinosaur] Doing Dinodocs in the 2020s & beyond (was Re: Prehistoric Road Trip,Tiny Teeth, Fearsome Beasts)



To GSPaul's point, I love the idea of a certification process, but I wonder whether it will have any impact. Some of the people who get sucked into conspiracy theories simply don't know any better, but a good number of those conspiracy theory folks actively distrust ANY sort of institutional source. (I'm married to one of the latter types, much to my frustration. He has plenty of other good qualities, but this is a glaring problem.) I can't tell you how many conversations I've had with him where I ask why he would rather believe some contrarian typing out completely baseless drivel in his basement rather than scientists with actual educations who pretty much universally agree on the same things, and he has no answer. To him, it seems like everything is some sort of conspiracy (COVID-19 included-ugh), no matter how apparent it is to more science-minded thinkers that there is no unity of interest among the people advancing the actual science, or the countries involved in the so-called conspiracy, and therefore no profit-minded conspiracy is even remotely possible. He seemingly can't be swayed.

I don't want to be a wet blanket by suggesting that the certification might not help. I just wish there was some way to prevent the B.S. manufacturers from creating their drivel, but freedom of speech and all that, and they are motivated by profits so they won't stop of their own accord.Â

Amy Howse


On Wed, Jul 22, 2020 at 12:05 PM Yazbeck, Thomas <yazbeckt@msu.edu> wrote:
Ron-Â

You are right about the abundance of Youtube crap, I was sorta counting the hits and not the misses on that front. That being said, I think those crummy computer-generated videos are the bottom of the barrel. YT viewers prefer actual human narration or host presence and video engagement stats reflect that. Those crummy Chinese vids are never going to be *that* successful because what real human viewers want is a charismatic, entertaining host and some production value, not text-to-speech over a slideshow of images from Google.Â

Things get trickier when it's real, traceable people involved. A competent & charismatic amateur who's good at making videos and getting people to watch them has a platform to disseminate all kinds of info, including pseudoscience. to combat junk science on a platform like YouTube, experts have to become Youtubers themselves, wading into the comment sections and posting videos themselves.

>(there are a lot of really crummy YouTube videos on prehistoric life out there that appear to come from China and to be narrated by computerized voices). If there is to be a successful revolt against this sort of thing from technical consultants, it will have to be across the board.Â

Thomas Yazbeck


From: ron.orenstein@rogers.com <ron.orenstein@rogers.com>
Sent: Wednesday, July 22, 2020 2:31 PM
To: Gregory Paul <gsp1954@aol.com>; dinosaur-l@mymaillists.usc.edu <dinosaur-l@mymaillists.usc.edu>; dinosaur-l@usc.edu <dinosaur-l@usc.edu>; Yazbeck, Thomas <yazbeckt@msu.edu>
Subject: Re: [dinosaur] Doing Dinodocs in the 2020s & beyond (was Re: Prehistoric Road Trip,Tiny Teeth, Fearsome Beasts)
Â
What Greg Paul is talking about is, alas, far from a problem of paleodocs alone. I have read quite a few comments by knowledgeable historians bewailing the state of so-called âhistoricalâ documentaries on stations such as the History Channel, which appear to have abandoned actual scholarly research entirely for sensationalism and pseudoscience (including âancient aliensâ, etc). it doesnât help when so-called historical dramas such as The Tudors present an utterly unrecognizable view of the time they are supposed to be portraying.Â

The BBC generally does a much better job at this sort of thing, but the problem is widespread (there are a lot of really crummy YouTube videos on prehistoric life out there that appear to come from China and to be narrated by computerized voices). If there is to be a successful revolt against this sort of thing from technical consultants, it will have to be across the board.Â