One of the most interesting shows I have ever watched is HBO’s The Newsroom. If you have not watched it, I implore you to. In this era of fake news, a necessary skill to learn is what is now commonly referred to as ”News Literacy” or in other words, ”How to detect bullshit in the News”. Though it is a fictional show, The Newsroom does give us insight of some basic principles that should guide us to understanding whether a news item is worth your attention or not. The principles of News from the HBO’s The Newsroom;
1. Is this information we need in the voting booth? Does it influence how your view a politician’s ability to steer your county/country towards development? Is it touching on issues that affect you or your fellow citizens livelihoods?
2. Is this the best possible form of the argument? How is it the best form of the argument?
3. About the source, is it a credible source or is it a gossip mongering tabloid? How many relevant and proven facts does the argument contain?
4. Is the story in historical context? What happened before this news item broke out, what is the background story? How did this come to happen? Media is notorious for taking a story out of its context and making it appear as something else in an effort to drive a certain agenda or influence your opinions in some way.
5. Are there really only two sides to the story? Life is complicated and there is never only two sides to a story.
It seems like the media’s number 1 tool is manipulating the audience and playing with their emotions instead of presenting hard facts about the case. Emotional manipulation prevents the audience from thinking critically about the matter because at that point in time, it seems to be against their conscience or their heart to critique the matter.
The audience then takes an uninformed stance on the matter with their only evidence being that they feel bad or good about the matter and therefore, it is as they feel. Never mind that facts may have been tweaked or not even presented at all.
This is also seen through how T.V. news programs show footage without explaining the facts about what they are showing all so that the audience can draw their own conclusions as to what is happening which is, in most times, empirically inaccurate.
Need some extra help detecting bullshit in the news, here are some cool resources;
- http://www.cracked.com/article_18458_6-subtle-ways-news-media-disguises-bullshit-as-fact.html
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7eCB2F89K8
Explore more articles and resources out there, there are plenty and spread the word! Together against bullshit in the news.
Muthoni 