lecture à chaud

15:15 Oct 17, 2020 

An example from a completely different field to illustrate my point:

You can drive carelessly or with high situational awareness, no matter if the car is an old banger or a racing car.

The label used for your style of driving says N_O_T_H_I_N_G about the car.

Or try this one

You drive carelessly and end up wrapped around a tree.
THAT wouldn't mean that you can translate "careless driving" by "hitting the tree".

What the ST says is that:

WHEN you read (these editorials) without any critical distance / taking the information just as it's presented, you would likely be induced into mild (or not so mild) panic - nothing more.

You are conflating two separate elements of the text - how you read the text and what is the likely effect of that style of reading.

IOW the part about "lecture à chaud" is ONLY about how you read the text, and could be applied to the way/style of reading of ANY text - could as well be some hagiography, or some scientific article, some critic's review of a book or a movie, or some marketing spiel or just about anything.

21:56 Oct 16, 2020 

I don't agree that it is only about how you read it and not the content itself. The passage clearly says that the editorial is to provoke (nature à provoquer)
For me, it's as much about the content as the reaction of the reader.
If the editorial is provocative, most readers will be provoked if it's written to scare, some readers might be scared.

21:30 Oct 16, 2020 

"lecture à chaud" is ONLY about how the editorial is read.

Can't see how you could turn "la lecture" into the content itself or the reactions of the reader. Or the intentions of the writer.

All that is related to that same editorial but it's NOT "reading it".

"lecture à chaud" = reading without any critical distancing / without any further analysis / taking the information at face value uncritically.

Also, a not so secondary point of method: "written to cause a a reaction or even fear" might or might not be true but in any case it is NOT a "definition" of "lecture à chaud" - it's just another element of the same text.

You could see "la lecture à chaud" as the opposite of "garder la tête froide" - which you can not achieve without keeping a critical distance when reading (be it about COVID or just about anything ...).

13:33 Oct 15, 2020 

would be like "at first sight, without thinking about it" and is usually followed by something like "and then, after you've thought about it..." Think: "knee-jerk reaction". EDIT: Also implies that you are not prepared for it.

13:25 Oct 15, 2020 

there are two suggestions up and present and with all respect, I don't think they concur with the definition given in the original text (written to cause a a reaction or even fear)

Mpoma uses the word "sensationalist" in his discussion point and for me that is getting closer to what this is all about.

13:11 Oct 15, 2020 

Searching reveals that "lecture à chaud" and "lecture à froid" apparently refer, above all, to "clairvoyants", vendors, and people who need to obtain information about their interlocutors in ways other than direct questioning.

So if this is not a normal usage of the expression we should probably interpret it according to context, in which case it is likely, IMHO, to be referring to reading in a way whereby the reader suspends their critical faculties to some degree because of the sensationalist nature of the text.

"Unguarded" or "credulous" or even "raw" reading might fit the bill. Maybe there's a better English expression though...

However, I can't help thinking there might be a culinary analogy going on here: fresh, hot croissants, straight out of the oven: i.e. "the first reading" of such-and-such a frightening editorial about Covid-19.

13:05 Oct 15, 2020 

"à chaud" can mean "without thinking"

https://en.bab.la/dictionary/french-english/à-chaud

What about "taking it at face value" or something like that... I've been puzzling over it too!

13:01 Oct 15, 2020 

I'm pretty sure it means when you read an article written in order to incite an emotional reaction of some sort. Such articles often have clickbait headlines.
Linguistically, it's similar to "réaction à chaud"
That said, I've wracked by brain for ten minutes to try to find an expression in English to propose but haven't come up with anything