Social Media, Mass Media, and The Truth

If you were to take a survey about how people consume the news you would get a lot of different answers. But it’s a good bet that most news is consumed on a mobile device or home computer. With the prevalence of social media and advancement in mobile technology, it’s now easier than ever to stay connected with the headlines. Whether it’s a mass media outlet like CNN, your local news station, or a social media site like Twitter, all of it is available with the tap of a finger. So what can you trust and what is a sensationalized headline just trying to get your attention? How do you know what you can trust and what is the real truth behind the headlines? These aren’t easy questions to answer and I’m sure greater writers than I have certainly tried. The only real way to know the truth is to actually be there when news happens, obviously that’s impossible. So we have to take everything we see and hear with a grain of salt. Don’t take everything the news presents at face value. Check the sources and see what other news outlets report on the same story.

“You are young yet, my friend,” replied my host, “but the time will arrive when you will learn to judge for yourself of what is going on in the world, without trusting to the gossip of others. Believe nothing you hear, and only one half that you see.”

Edgar Allen Poe

There are two priorities that run the news media: presenting current events and getting high ratings. Usually the later is the driving factor behind most headlines. A good samaritan helping feed the needy is not going to grab attention and ratings like a political scandal. Therefore you will see the scandal story at the top of the news and the good news story might air on the 6am news when most people are still sleeping. Big media companies like Fox, CNN and NBC are all after the juiciest headlines that will give them the best ratings which turns into more ad dollars. So often times the story will be skewed to make it more attention grabbing and facts will be omitted or not presented. You may think this is only a problem with the big networks and your local networks aren’t as crooked. However in some way they may be even worse because of the companies that are actually behind these local news affiliates. One such company is Sinclair Broadcasting which owns 193 local stations around the country. In the past several years they have been under scrutiny because of their increasingly conservative bias and how they force their stations to slant their stories in favor of the views that they wanted to convey. One example of this was what they called “must run segments,” which were essentially propaganda messages that were distributed through their networks. Below is a story from HBO’s “Last Week Tonight” where he shows some of the segment that these networks were forced to air.

The other side of this coin is social media like Facebook and Twitter. With these sites anyone can spread stories across the world in a matter of seconds. With the accessibility of professional quality video editing and a 4K camera in everyones pocket, suddenly everyone can be a journalist and present their version of the truth. Before there was TV and the internet, all stories were spread through word of mouth but you know what happens when a story is repeated through different people. The facts get changed or omitted and by the time you hear it the story may be completely different. That is how social media works, someone posts a story, it gets shared, somebody adds a comment and eventually this story has been completely skewed in a different way. This is the danger of citizen media, there is no journalistic integrity, no producers or editors to fact check the stories.

With everything going on in the world currently it’s important that everyone is involved in the story and keeping up with the headlines. It’s impossible to know the whole truth with everything going on, not even the parties involved know the whole truth. The best thing anyone can do is look at facts and try to make logical sense with them. Check other news sources and see if they corroborate the same facts and present the story the same way. With the news just as in life you have to be your own advocate, you decide what you believe and don’t let the media or anyone control your beliefs. More important than anything is to remember to be kind to others with different opinions or beliefs. It’s our differences that make us unique and special. Don’t let politics or the news get between you and the ones you care about.