In the past few weeks, I’ve been planning a unit for my English Composition I students titled, very creatively, News Media Evaluation. Usually, I spend a day on news evaluation during the research paper unit for Comp I, reserving an in-depth unit for Comp II students, but, well, given the state of our union here in the U.S., perhaps all of us could benefit from improving our skills evaluating news media.
Because, damn.
So let’s start by defining the problem. It all began decades ago when CNN burst onto the scene with a 24-hour news cycle and uncovered a deeply profound truth about news: it’s not that interesting. Lots of what constitutes important news—financial news, complex and nuanced international issues, politics—doesn’t make good television. In fact, it’ll bore most people to sleep…or to change the channel. So CNN had to invent ways to keep the audience tuned in and entertained.
Walter Cronkite didn’t care if we were entertained. That wasn’t his job. He reported the news in 30 minutes every day, and you could read a newspaper if you wanted more details.
Now, keep in mind that the “good old days” of three channels of news did pose some problems, as the gatekeepers of news skewed issues (Vietnam, for instance) in ways that the general public might not have wanted. But the free-for-all that news has become since the internet and social media exploded on the scene leaves us (hopefully) highly aware of how inadequate our knowledge is.
If you think you know “the truth” because you watch CNN or Fox News, you are sadly mistaken.
As the meme says, “The problem with the world is that intelligent people are full of doubts while the stupid ones are full of confidence.”
So how might we consume news that doesn’t make us crazy or stupidly full of confidence, but instead gives us enough solid information to make good decisions?
Here are a few ideas that I teach my students.
1. Don’t just read headlines. Headlines are written to grab your attention, and often play on fears or generate anger. These two emotions grab clicks by playing on our survival instincts, driven by a negativity bias that saved our butts in caveman days. Often, these sensationalized headlines do not accurately reflect an article’s content. Even extremely reputable news sources fall into this bad habit in order to survive in the highly competitive industry.
2. Look at media from both sides of the political aisle, and read all of it with skepticism, especially when you agree with it. Hold onto what you “know” loosely, and be willing to shift your thinking as you gain better information. Move easily between the little details and big picture context of a news topic, allowing the little details to change the big picture and the big picture to influence the little details. This habit is actually one definition of an educated mind.
3. Understand that science is more often right than wrong, but it takes time to do science, and until the research is replicated over time, it’s hard for ETHICAL scientists to make hard statements of “truth.” Mostly, they hedge their claims with the need to do further research.
Also, science reporting is notoriously skewed to grandiose headlines that sometimes do not reflect the scientists’ conclusions. If you can find the original research upon which the popular reporting is based, you will often find that the research doesn’t make hard claims. So Baby Einstein videos don’t make babies smarter and having nightlights in nurseries doesn’t make babies myopic by age eight…despite what original research tentatively found. All scientists can do is give you their best guess, but their guesses are usually better than most.
4. If you see a headline that really appeals to you, or see something on social media posted by a “personality” or “influencer,” do a little research. I recently saw two reels on Facebook making claims about different bills in state legislatures, both of which provoked an angry response in me. I did the research, looking up the text of the bills, read them, and found that one reel was absolutely correct and the other WAY overstated the problem. Sometimes sources are right, and sometimes they are wrong. Most often, they are somewhere in between. Again, be cautious and do your own research.
5. If you’re looking for certainty and absolute truths, you’ll likely be taken in by the worst of extremes. Always, always remember that the truth could be simply a matter of perspective, culture, or faith. It’s better to be humble and learn than to cram your opinion and perspective down someone else’s throat. What if you end up being wrong?
6. Be on alert for logical fallacies. Schools—even colleges and universities—do a crappy job of teaching logic, a subject that was core study in the Middle Ages, by the way. Take a look at THIS LIST of logical fallacies, and be alert for them, especially in anything touching on politics.
Well, that’s enough preaching from my lectern for now. Be careful out there, and remember to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly.
Because not a one of us is God.
