Rosaline Dou
Single-channel video
2:45
2025
I came across a statistic that reported, “We consume 174 newspapers’ worth of information every day.” Upon tracking where this number came from, I ran into several suspicious points. Across science journals, news articles, and press releases, there were discrepancies: 174 vs. 175, 2007 vs. 2011, technological capacity vs. media consumption.
I found myself getting angry at the overhype of this number, 174, repeated again and again without anyone asking what it actually means. My search for the original source eventually led back to the scientist citing himself, with the so-called “original” source ending in either a broken link or, absurdly, a CASINO page redirected from his CV.
Ironically, the report about information overload becomes overloaded and distorted by the very content it claims to reveal.
The Telegraph
Remove Paywall
The Drum
Daily Mail
NPR
USC Annenberg
Science
Hilbert and López (2011)
USC Today
Vimeo
ScienceDaily
Hilbert Pre-Pub (2012)
Hilbert CV (2018)
“The Economists” Ideas Economy (don’t click)