Hello, again! Yesterday I promised that today's post would be about being a critical thinker and consumer of news. In today's world, with the pandemic and so much civil unrest, we are all likely to be either ignoring the news to save our sanity, or diving into it like an all you can eat buffet after a fasting week.
Neither of those approaches to news consumption are healthy or helpful. Yesterday's post focused on limiting how much news we digest each day, with 30 minutes being a good goalpost to consider. You may want to adjust that, given your own diet preferences. Maybe you are a "snacker", and find 15 minutes to be plenty. Or, like me, maybe you are like a health portion from a variety of sources, and 45 minutes is more your style. You decide what feels right for you.
Today, I am going to focus on how we choose the news source(s), and how we interpret the news we are reading. While I am so tired of the phrase 'fake news' (it really gets under my skin), the truth is, there are a lot of news sources, 24 hours a day, and we DO need to think carefully about where we choose to get our information.
I used to teach a critical thinking course to college students, and I was always amazed at how little students knew coming into the course, and I was likewise always pleased at how much they learned by the conclusion of the semester. It is a bit frightening as an educator, to think there are so many young people potentially lacking the valuable tools of critical thinking.
In a college critical thinking course, I taught students about the importance of considering the source of information, and the delivery of the information. I will refer to the source as a person, but you can exchange the word 'person' for 'news outlet' or 'web page', etc.
About the source: Is this person an expert on the subject? Is this person biased in some way? Is this person motivated to share complete and valid information, or is there some other motive driving them? Could their motive result in an inaccurate representation of the information?
A person may be presenting the information in a particular way with the desire to change your mind or influence your attitude. Unbiased news outlets are designed to provide you with the facts of the day, in order to allow you to draw your own conclusions. Biased news outlets are designed to provide you with the facts of the day in order to draw their conclusions instead of your own. For instance, when reading/listening to news about the pandemic, some sources may be motivated to get you to believe the pandemic is not as bad as the data suggests, or is worse than the data suggests. A good, reliable source will give you the data, and let you decide what you think about it.
An unbiased source will provide you with information about protests across the nation/world, using neutral language and factual information, such as statistics. A biased source may want you to form an opinion about people protesting, in which case the words they use can unconsciously change the way you perceive the people protesting. Do they refer to the people protesting as protestors, or rioters? Do they refer to the actions of peaceful protesters using words that elude to peace, or to words like 'violent outbreaks', 'aggressive presence in the streets', etc. Those words have very different meanings, and can influence how we perceive the actions of the people protesting.
Another consideration about where we get our news is about the neutrality of the source. In order to make good decisions, we need to avoid what in psychology is called confirmation bias. In media, you may have heard it called the 'echo chamber'. In other words, we need to gather information from a variety of sources, including some that may be of a different perspective than our own, so that we have a greater likelihood of drawing conclusions that are well-informed. Seeing a situation from a different perspective, even if it is one with which you do not agree, can still help you understand where others are coming from, which can change your perspective on the events of the day, or at least help develop compassion or awareness. Often times when I read current events from a source that embraces a philosophically different perspective than mine, I broaden my understanding of the situation, and I am better able to discuss the topic with others. It helps me understand how family members or friends, or colleagues view events, which helps me talk to them about those events.
One more item I want to discuss, is the language that is used to convey information. A quick tip. If the information you are receiving is from a credible source that is sharing valid information in an unbiased way, that source will use few words that are emotionally charged, and more words that are neutral or factual (data suggests, reports indicate, research shows, etc.). The information will be conveyed in a data-driven fashion. So, for instance, if someone is trying to share information with you, and is motivated to get you to change your mind, but they have little valid information to use in their effort, they will resort to emotional persuasion. This is called a fallacy, and there are many fallacies that can be effective in persuading people to do or believe what you want. But, you really do not want to use that type of source, a fallacy-laden source, to get your information. Why? Again, because they are motivated to change your mind, not to simply inform you.
So, in summary. Think about where you get your information each day. Make sure the main source(s) is a valid, credible, reliable, unbiased (as much as possible) source. Look for alternate sources that may present data from another perspective. For instance, if NPR is your go-to source, try also reading/listening to the news from the Washington Times. Or read the news from a source in another country, to see how it is reported outside of your home country. This can be very interesting and enlightening!
Okay, another day's post is coming to an end. Stay safe everyone. Stay healthy, stay in as much as possible, stay connected, stay informed. But make sure your daily news diet is moderate in portion, and comes from a variety of sources. :)
