We Are Living In A Post Factual World

in #life7 years ago (edited)

I wrote an article a few days ago about how we in modern society have so much information coming at us at once that it is really hard to separate what is a good source versus a bad source. I recently saw a response made by Denzel Washington which I will post below, where he loosely talks about where the state of journalism has gone and how people are only concerned with being first that fact checking isn’t even a thing anymore.

While I agree with Denzel wholeheartedly, I believe that the problem doesn’t stop with just being first, but that the whole idea of journalistic integrity has been thrown out the window. In the old days you had yellow journalism which was similar to the tabloids of today, but there also existed newspapers that built trust with their readers and didn’t try to just profit off of them. However, with the internet and the ability for anyone to send out news via twitter, blogs, ect. newspapers and other news media has been struggling to survive.

Its unsurprising that when a newspapers bottom line is in jeopardy, real journalism gets thrown out the window. Even newspapers that were once reputable are running stories that pander to a specific audience rather than report the actual news. We are living in a post factual world when it comes to what the print media decides to write about. The sad fact of affairs in the United States is people are more likely to buy a newspaper that glorifies a mass murderer on the front page instead of one that explores real issues.

There used to be a divide between news and entertainment, but now the two seem to have just merged together without anyone seeming to care. When I see newspapers with the headline “Is Obama Really A Lizard?” I admit, I am slightly amused, but then it strikes me that those newspapers are alive because people actually buy them and im sure many take them as fact. Granted im sure many read them to laugh, but if we look at the onion which is a satire newspaper, the amount of times mainstream media has been caught running one of their articles as fact, is far too much.

It feels like we have moved to an era where newspapers are all run by recent college grads who only google search their topics, pick random statistics and throw them into an article. This would be okay for an editorial because it is mostly opinion, but to claim this is real news is a disservice to not only those who read the newspaper, but everyone in our country because those people can develop crazy ideas. Look how out of hand the Obama birth certificate news story got, which is ridiculous to begin with because his citizenship is passed down from his mother, regardless of where he was born. No one talked about that though, because they could milk the audience for weeks on a stupid story.

I want to talk about this more in depth, but there is also a massive problem with news media bringing on so called “experts” who have less accountability or credibility than a silkroad drug dealer with a good rating. Many of the people they bring on to talk about certain topics are just yellow journalists themselves and looking to spread their own agenda. We probably see this the worst with climate change deniers who are brought to debate against people like Bill Nye who has years in the science related field and industry.

To be honest im scared of what our media has turned into especially at a time where our country is most divided politically since the Civil War. In a time where we should be moving past our differences and accepting each other regardless of what we believe, it seems like the mainstream media only fuels this hatred because it gives them more ratings. Throw out lies and fake facts, enrage your audience and watch as new viewers roll in daily. This is their business model and it is going to tear us apart. Im not saying that sometimes I don’t write stories that are angled towards my own point of view, but you should never take everything I say as 100% true without doing your own research. Please use your skepticism when reading or watching mainstream media and question everything.

-Calaber24p

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Funny thing. That newspaper piece came out in Darwin, NT Australia when I was doing my PhD presentation. I remember because it was the first thing that I saw that morning.

NT news was full of this long before it became trendy today. That newspaper is from 2012

re: fact checking

When is the last time a news media outlet got sued and paid out? Unfortunately they can print retractions, and that's okay "apparently".

Media today uses phrases and words like "apparently", purportedly, allegedly, in our opinion, in their opinion, it appears to be, it seemingly appeared as, it is thought that, at this point it appears as...

All of these prevent them from making factual statements. :)

We are living in an attention economy, if the publications don't manage to get attention from the endpoint users then the publication has failed. Simple as that. Just is a shame that the popular publications are the worst kind of clickbait.

denzel failed to cite his source. the first statement was quoting Mark Twain.

we depend on the press to get us information from distant places, because we cannot be everywhere. today, we have the ability to have nearly instant communication irrespective of distance, provided we have a local source for events distant from us, we do not need a "press" anymore. if we have the tools for intellectual self defense, and are reasonably informed, we can operate in the world without a "press", which today seems only to exist to promote agendas, rather than to put distant, local events in the larger perspective.

We say journalism is the second oldest profession after prostitution ;-)
It's all about money...

those who don't have time to get news from the Internet, get it from the TV, and the TV news don't have time to do research

It' even worse with the "experts", because they always call for the same, regardless of how often they were wrong. Just because its a known name or he is good friends with the journalist.
And of course the journalists never ask the important questions. Esp. not politicians. Because then the politicians just wont give them another interview.

Clickbait here, clickbait there, clickbait everywhere

Great post, I love the way that you end your article with:

but you should never take everything I say as 100% true without doing your own research. Please use your skepticism when reading or watching mainstream media and question everything.

Very strong to say those words about oneself!

P.S. Protip: I know you are already doing great but because of a bug using 5 tags makes it to were only 1 is seen. So use 4 instead until the bug is fixed.

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