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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