Obviously there is a range of quality and validity to whatever one reads and watches online and I don’t know of any objective assessment of them.
There are a few YouTube channels I currently watch and a few that I am curious about so I have decided to rely on you folks for opinions.
Of the channels I listed below, can some Dopers give me your thoughts on them, in terms of accuracy vs propaganda etc?
Times Radio
The Space Bucket
The Space Race
Angry Astronaut
Everyday Astronaut
The only one of these I watch is Everyday Astronaut. He’s a bit of a SpaceX fanboy, but he covers other launch providers as well (like Rocket Lab). He isn’t a technical expert but he’s generally good with his research. And vastly better than almost all mainstream media coverage. He can get a bit excitable during livestreams, but some people like that. Anyway, not propaganda, but you should probably look for some balance in the coverage for a more complete picture.
Just a note on something you didn’t ask: YouTube is absolutely filled with fake SpaceX channels. Ones that pretend to be official, but are actually just shilling cryptocurrencies, NFTs, etc. They often broadcast old footage, pretending it’s new. Watch out for these.
I’m not familiar with the channels listed.
Scott Manley is a good, factual, grounded reporter of space related news.
Also Astrum, also Anton Petrov.
Never heard of any of those.
I like Anton Petrov, Dr. Becky Smethhurst(she seems to fill the niche, a little, that Neil DeGrasse Tyson had on PBS). I watch Astrum a bit also.
Sorry I haven’t responded in a few days. So here are some links:
Times Radio: https://youtu.be/44a6oHugPZU?si=ZQYzYCkImfdikV5e & https://youtu.be/Xc1y-bE9mYI?si=F7spEJNvJSgJhfSy
The Space Bucket: https://youtu.be/cfNAzknqAqI?si=CZuA90_cMhg2XNtF
The Space Race: https://youtu.be/x52lwHaf_wk?si=g3WvnLMNE_mmi9H4
Angry Astronaut: https://youtu.be/z2MLeFbzoYw?si=i6JKnO0dKgqlXjhO
Everyday Astronaut: https://youtu.be/wZligwZMODU?si=phgkjo7wOlV0sw8I
The last four are space-related newsy update things and I’m not overly concerned about their accuracy.
Times Radio, on the other hand, is one I’m more concerned about and interested in as it seems objective and factual, but then, anything can be made to seem that way, even if it isn’t. And its subject matter is important enough that these things should actually be accurate.
Times Radio is the audio arm of The Times newspaper. They’ve been around since 1785, they were the inventor of the Times New Roman typeface. They’re owned by Newscorp now but more hands off than the other Murdoch properties. People’s opinions of them vary but they’re generally considered the stodgy, establishment centrist - center right newspaper of the UK.
This is what I was worried about, but the guests are credible - from my perspective as a formal naval officer - and they seem objective and factual but then there’s the Murdoch connection.