What’s real news these days?

Before the printing press came to be in the 1400’s, word of mouth was the main form of spreading and obtaining information. If you have ever played the game telephone, you may make the assumption this was not the best form of news. It was up to travelers and sailors to pass the information from town to town. Fast forward to today, there are endless resources and outlets to turn to for your news and information.

According the Federal Communications Commission’s website, “The FCC is prohibited by law from engaging in censorship or infringing on First Amendment rights of the press. It is, however, illegal for broadcasters to intentionally distort the news, and the FCC may act on complaints if there is documented evidence of such behavior from persons with direct personal knowledge.” Unfortunately the FCC does not oversee information found on the internet, so any information found on the internet may be hard to distinguish if its accurate or fake news. You may even wonder who is in charge of the FCC itself, and that would be congress. Basically, the FCC is made up of rules, which must go through congress before the FCC can enforce it.

In today’s society, we have plenty of networks and sources to choose from. News will find its way to you one way or another, whether it be in the paper, on social media platforms, television, radio, and even podcasts. Most network’s claim to be unbiased, but some do tend to sway left or right, which is evident in their content, and how they share it. Some popular news sources you might turn to are CNN, New York Times, Washington Post, FOX News, Huffington Post, VICE, and USA TODAY, just to name a few.

"...we aren’t producing our own true feelings but rather letting other entities create them for us..."

If you want to get readers attention, you’ll want a catchy headline. Writers have been doing this for years and they will go to extremes to get you to click on their posts. You see, writers make money when they get an agreed amount of viewers, a certain amount of clicks, and when readers open pop-up adds that takes them to another page/advertisement. Sometimes, the headlines will even contradict the post entirely. They are created to conduct a feeling inside it’s readers. Some (including myself) believe before the reader is even able to read the post, and form an opinion for themselves, headlines will produce a specific type of feeling, while reading the post, hindering a true opinion of its reader. Is it possible that the reason society deals with so much controversy is because we aren’t producing our own true feelings but rather letting other entities create them for us? Is this something that reaches us at our subconscious levels, that is invisible to the naked eye, that we are left oblivious to what is actually happening?

Recently more and more knowingly fake, or ‘satire’ articles, have come to light. Some are written so well that they may be perceived as a true story. Most people, including myself, have repeatedly mistaken these articles as true. So what’s the motive of these writers? Are they so burnt out from the actual chaos of today’s world that their creativity takes the wheel? Does this produce more clicks and viewers, making them more money? Is it to produce pure entertainment, especially in a time when we have so much opposition? Does it provide an alternate perspective? Does it do more harm than good? Is it really worth being easily mistaken for the truth? Or is that the point? There may be many reasons for them, but what’s important is knowing how to identify them.

"I started to believe there were no such thing as accurate reported information anymore... "

So with all this being said I should just not watch the news then, right? It would be going to the extremes to not watch the news, not to mention incredibly hard, to avoid it. News finds its way to you, whether it be through the paper, the TV, the radio, social media, and even podcasts. Its all around you, all the time, and as we become more and more reliant on technology, the easier it will be. Not watching the news would severely limit you, as a member of society, to gain a true personal perspective and keep you out of the loop. Educating yourself on how news outlets work and the perspective they radiate, and identifying fake news, will help you discover a reliable source for yourself. As a young adult with a naive mind, I lost trust for many news outlets and the concept of politics as a whole. I started to believe there were no such thing as accurate reported information anymore or ever and I decided to just shut it all out and live my life without it. But this soon caused multiple issues. I no longer wanted to have conversations related to unwanted topics and at the same time my husbands interest grew for it. Now our conversations were limited and were seldom. I didn’t understand what people were talking about at work or when I went out with friends. I would just nod and agree. I grew angry over the things that in reality I didn’t know much about. I was in no position to even vote, not that I even had the desire to at the time. Watching the news can be extremely stressful and can cause an irrational amount of anxiety. News consistently containing so much chaos and unsteadiness can leave people scared and might even lead them to make rash decisions.

"Constantly challenge yourself to take an interest in opposing beliefs and other news sources."

So how do I stay diligent in retaining accurate information and remain unbiased? Don’t pick sides. Don’t find yourself solely leaning towards one side. Always find common ground with even the most outrageous opposing arguments. Resist jumping to conclusions, and relying off the headlines, for the truth. Constantly challenge yourself to take an interest in opposing beliefs and news sources. Hear them out, then form your opinion. Refer to arguably one of the best websites around for depicting and rating news sources, Ad Fontes Media. https://www.adfontesmedia.com/interactive-media-bias-chart-2/ . The goal of founder, Vanessa Otero, and her team is to “ make news consumers smarter and news media better.” They have come up with a great rubric and ranking system for most new outlets, and categorizes them into their objective biases. Having news brought to you by an un-biased outlet, is the best way to form a ‘virgin’ opinion on something without it being tainted with someone else’s narrative.

How do you keep up with this insanely diverse and constantly changing world?

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