My inbox is constantly flooded with emails from A Starting Point, The New York Times and AP News, all popular news sites I use to stay informed about what is happening in the world. What’s lovely about being subscribed to these different platforms is that they all have slightly different perspectives on the news, allowing me to see things differently. But it’s not always that easy, when I’m constantly flooded with news all having different biases I can’t help but wonder if the media has made the news less accessible.
The media is great. It has allowed society to communicate on a level unlike any other. Whether it be Instagram, CNN, or the morning paper, our society is ultimately much more informed about the world than it has ever been.
While we now have access to much more information due to the media, that doesn’t necessarily mean it is all true. The uprise in media has also come with an uprise in fake news. It is no surprise that social media is a highlight reel, but in the case of news, it has become an opportunity for opinionated individuals and politicians to get their word out whether or not it is true.
That being said, almost all news broadcasts have biases. Which is not a bad thing; it is a fact of life. For example, CNN is more left-leaning, and Fox News is more right-leaning. Both of these broadcasts share very important information, but everyone should take into account the bias that comes with them.
A person rarely consumes both left and right media which is very scary for our future as a society. With people consuming fake media, there is no way to regulate how quickly it can spread. This further causes our younger generations not to understand what is really going on in the world.
According to the National Center for State Courts, nearly 64% of adults have been confused due to fake news, and 24% admit to spreading fake news. That being said, not only children are subject to the dangers of fake news, but adults are as well.
Not everyone has subscriptions to different news platforms, nor does everyone watch the news in the morning. So, for the younger generations, the news is a foreign concept that is too confusing or difficult to understand.
In a time when the media is at its peak and politics are more controversial than ever, kids and adults must have access to truthful and unbias media when trying to understand what is going on in the world. Understanding politics and the news doesn’t have to be a scary thing, especially if you are well-informed by the proper sources.
And it does help to know what you’re talking about when Christmas dinner gets a little too political because you can speak facts and prove to everyone that not everything you read online is true.
