We Live In A Time When We Must Fact Check The Fact Checkers - Keeping Real News Real
Some believe the United States is coming apart at the seams, tearing the very social fabric that makes us a sovereign country. I believe they're watching too much TV and reading way too many fake news articles.
Watching the circus called news these days talking about how our country is divided more than ever in our history, I can't help but think that maybe the media is exaggerating just a little bit. I'm sure the people who lived through the Civil War would argue things are not as bad as the media would have us believe.
If one listens to the mainstream media long enough and applies critical thinking, it soon becomes evident the media purposely stirs the pot, whipping up controversy and fear with each serving.
There's the famous line deeply ingrained among journalistic news reporters.
If it bleeds, it leads.
Death and destruction fulfill many of the key points of what makes something newsworthy and the ratings of destruction rank better than news about society working its miracles.
Free police reports, government agency statements and the fact that most tragedy happens on public streets so no filming permits are required, make these events cheap to do a piece on.
The more gruesome the scene or fearful the story, the higher the chance the story leads in the rankings, but they also serve a more sinister purpose by filling our minds with negative emotions that distract us from discussions of true substance.
The Roman satirist and poet Juvenal coined the term "bread and circuses" when describing the easiest way to rise to power with the common man. Juvenal was remarking that the keys to power were held by those who were willing to appear righteous and favorable by distributing food and entertainment among the people, yet without giving the people anything of true substance. Stories like in-depth coverage of politician's personal lives, celebrity's workouts, and stories that allude to possible future stories without actually covering anything are the media's bread and circuses. This is what the majority of the content of our journalistic sources have become: colorful filler to hold our attention and keep us entertained. credit
Humans are hardwired to respond quickly to fear and entertainment, but we're not hardwired to think critically. The development of critical thinking skills requires a lifetime devotion.
The National Council for Excellence in Critical Thinking defines critical thinking:
Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action. In its exemplary form, it is based on universal intellectual values that transcend subject matter divisions: clarity, accuracy, precision, consistency, relevance, sound evidence, good reasons, depth, breadth, and fairness.
It entails the examination of those structures or elements of thought implicit in all reasoning: purpose, problem, or question-at-issue; assumptions; concepts; empirical grounding; reasoning leading to conclusions; implications and consequences; objections from alternative viewpoints; and frame of reference. Critical thinking — in being responsive to variable subject matter, issues, and purposes — is incorporated in a family of interwoven modes of thinking, among them: scientific thinking, mathematical thinking, historical thinking, anthropological thinking, economic thinking, moral thinking, and philosophical thinking. credit
In short, critical thinking involves thinking.
Media does not present information in a format that is conducive to critical thinking, relying instead on soundbites that trigger an emotional reaction and frame issues that force one to take sides, choosing a pro or con position. This fosters divisional perspectives and hinders real debate while our emotional biases are manipulated into picking a side.
We are just wired that way so we are easily pulled into this game. Even though we know we shouldn't react to our baser instincts and intellectually understand media is biased, we fall into the trap of picking sides on issues rather that working together to solve issues as they arise.
The strongest theories that attempt to explain our primal craving for violence look at our evolution into modern society. One such theory held by an evolutionary psychologist at the London School of Economics, Satoshi Kanazawa, uses the concept of observable disturbances in society as his example of why we hold such a special place in our interest for violence. Kanazawa states that "the human brain does not have any special module for evaluating welfare policy or immigration policy, but it has modules for evaluating people on the basis of character." He further speculates that the existence of these modules concerned with observable disturbances “is probably why we have this gut reaction to affairs and marriages and lying. All of those things existed in the ancestral environment 100,000 years ago." credit
However, the media is not shutting up anytime soon and if people continue listening to their droning rhetoric as if it was the gospel truth, the programming they are downloading us with will spread through our population and seed a self -fulfilling outcome.
Adding to this onslaught of biased information is the relatively new phenomenon of "fake news" programs mushrooming across the political landscape, feeding our minds with spores of ideas designed to divide us.
What is "Fake News"?
First of all, let's be clear: We're not talking about websites with paid journalists who fact-check their reporting and build their brands on accuracy. (Reputable companies have rules on fact-checking. CNET's reporters and reviewers are required to verify information and back it up with links to source material such as press releases, video and websites.)
The issue is that legitimate news stories get mixed in with everything else on your Facebook "news" feed. That includes stories from websites that are posing as news sources to harvest your clicks. What's more, even if you click a link to a well-researched Wall Street Journal story, Facebook could show you related stories from sites that don't meet those same standards. credit
I'm not confident that even mainstream news organizations have not been compromised with a biased slant, but the internet is infested with fake news making it even more difficult to think critically. There was a time when news could be relied upon to be well researched and factual, but that is no longer the case.
These days one needs to research the news being reported to find out if it is indeed factual and the truth is, most people are not going to do that. Most will just parrot what they heard or read as a fact.
I'll give you one recent example of a fake news broadcast.
Recently The Next News Network made a post on YouTube claiming that president-elect Donald Trump negotiated a deal with Ford motors to get them to move their manufacturing plant from Mexico to Ohio. This would be a great indication of Trump's sincerity concerning his campaign promises made during his campaign except for one small detail. he had nothing to do with it.
The truth is these decisions were made by Ford's CEO's long before Trump announced he was running for office. Anyone can verify this by doing a simple Google search, but that fact that is not true doesn't stop a plethora of reporters from parroting the same story as fact. Why? Because it makes great news and sadly, these "news" organizations know most people will not take the time to fact check the information.
You can watch the Fake news report here:
This was already news and Trump had nothing to do with it. Here's a post on CNN Money back in August 2015 revealing the story and Trump is not mentioned once in the article.
Ford shifts truck production from Mexico to Ohio
Unrest and division is not the natural state of human beings and can only be agitated into existence by violence and fear and news outlets, capitalizing on the "fight or flight" response of humans, are profiting and molding public opinion to their advantage.
Today it is vitally important to fact check the fact checkers before forming an opinion. To consume news at face value without doing your own research first, only serves to perpetuate our ignorance and pushes us into further camps of division. It is imperative we develop our critical thinking skills and look for ways to resolve our differences intelligently or suffer the consequences of having our news outlets do our thinking for us.
What Are Your Thoughts
I would love to hear what other Steemians think about the media these days. Please add to the disccussion in the comments below.
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Good read! It is true that the news and the TV in general play all the time with the emotions of the people and are not giving facts or anything that could make people think about what is happens really. As a cinema and TV editor I could saw all the time this play they had(have) and that is the reason why there is not TV at home since more than 4 years. I have seen an experienced the same happening in USA in others countries like Cuba(with his differences) and Venezuela(The big polarization there is still killing people literally and is caused almost 100% by the media from both sides). Black and White, with me or against me. As you well say
And normal people should expect more than 2 sides but they have only this 2 sides like in a coin. And is just to give the illusion that you can choose but in this coin the 2 sides, in reality, are equal.
pd: sorry for my english, is a very deep theme that I could talk better in spanish but...
I agree. Polarizing issues into two sides of that same coin divides populations into fighting each other and facilitates control of us all. It's difficult to think critically when emotions are aroused.
So much of the mainstream media is biased, leaning toward the proclivities of their corporate sponsors/owners. "Just the facts" no longer exists.
I have a suspicion all the news outlets have been compromised with bias from deep pockets, literally reading the script them were paid to read.
Indeed. I was in the newspaper business for 7 years and personally saw many of the editors impose their opinion into pieces, especially concerning politics! It could have been how they worded a headline, the byline, an embellishment within the story, or a combination of the three.
I would add that we had one really good reporter who was "old school" and pissed a lot of people off with his objective truth telling. Sadly, he died too young. (Heart attack). But even when politicians and businesses hated him, they respected him. That's rare anymore.
Here is a little data to explain what is different between the time of Civil War and now. The key question that explains a lot is how many media owning businesses (radio, TV, press) were there in the USA at the end of the Civil War or even World War II and how many are there now? The answer is something like 5,000 (basically 100 per state) in 1950 and it is now 5.
Here is a chart showing the change since 1983.
As an investor, I always want to understand how the media are positioned when they say anything. When they are telling me that markets are bad (which they have consistently for the last 8 or 9 years) I am guessing that they are positioned for the markets to keep going up. Now I am not a political commentator, but there is a similar question, what do they gain by standing by a particular position?
Now let's talk about FAKE MEDIA. I will do this by means of a recent example pertaining to the UK's referendum to leave the European Union. I saw a Facebook post (too hard to dig it out again) that said the EU was fining UK £850 million if it stayed in the EU. Well I clicked the link and read the newspaper article (it is important to me as I have investments in UK - EU decisions affect my investments). Here is the headline and the link to the article
http://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/733547/REVEALED-Britain-fined-850-MILLION-remains-full-member-EU-single-market
Note the headline does not mention the word FINE but the article URL does. The article does not mention it either. All the article says is the EU have revised its budget and the UK's share of the increase will be £850 million. Clearly if they leave before the budget payment is due - no payment needed.
Now I am not sure how fake the real media was in this case BUT I do know the Facebook post sharing the article was fake media.
As this post implores - be warned and learn the techniques to tell real from fake.
Data from media ownership comes from Media Reform information Center and the chart can be found at http://www.corporations.org/media/
That's an excellent example of fake news.
It's also revealing how much the media has consolidated into fewer companies making it easier to control the message.
Thanks for sharing this.
Agree with the need of Facts & real news.
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Would you rather talk about Brian Williams? The "reputable" news sites...aren't. They are just as guilty of lying and making stuff up as anyone else.
Agreed.
two words. federal reserve.
Would you care to elaborate?
not really. just that everything is as bent as the fed.
we are now entering the phase of anti-social media, we had the vanity factor of social, now we have the muppits wielding the same tools to spread garbage.
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