Abi Olvera at Asterisk:
Like journalists and advocacy groups, diplomats deal in information. But each one has a different relationship to what that information needs to do.
Journalism is often optimized for public interest. Selection pressure is toward the dramatic over the incremental, and the negative over the positive. Advocacy groups are optimized for creating change. The information advocates and journalists provide is often excellent. They often have ground-level detail that’s hard to get anywhere else. However, it’s rarely the full picture.
Diplomats optimize for small, measured, and accurate updates. The diplomat’s goal is to build a correct, if boring, model of the world, continuously update it, and prepare decision-makers to hold to that model with the right level of confidence. Here’s how diplomats see the world.
More here.
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