not teaching,
still THINKING …
Trust in the media. It is a topic we have written about numerous times in this blog. Today, we share a thoroughly researched and thoughtfully written piece by Sabrina Tavernise and Aidan Gardiner of The New York Times under the headline: ‘No One Believes Anything’: Voters Worn Out by a Fog of Political News.
We should all care — journalists and non-journalists alike — because people “are feeling less informed” and “they are also tuning out.”
Take the time to read the entire article about how people are reacting to and engaging with news about the impeachment inquiry. Here are a few key points quoted from the article to get you started.
- The rise of social media; the proliferation of information online, including news designed to deceive; and a flood of partisan news are leading to a general exhaustion with news itself.
- Many people are numb and disoriented, struggling to discern what is real in a sea of slant, fake and fact.
- About 60 percent of Americans say they regularly see conflicting reports about the same set of facts from different sources.
- Another (problem) is the sheer volume of news and the growing proportion of it that is opinion.
People are alienated, and “the degree of alienation is new,” the writers say. One person is quoted as saying, “It was not that people believed wrong things that they saw online, but that they stopped believing right things — or anything at all. … How do you have a society without shared reference points.”
Again, take the time to read the entire New York Times article because it applies to all of us as members of the same society — whether we cover the news, share it or consume it.
(These two profs are no longer teaching at Syracuse University’s Newhouse School, but we are still thinking.)