Lets Talk News
Are you happy with the current state of the news business? Do you feel you’re getting a “ direct presentation of facts or description of events without an attempt at interpretation “ from the news outlets? Are there even news outlets that have balanced coverage of current events?
Journalism — writing characterized by a direct presentation of facts or description of events without an attempt at interpretation
I used to think there was. In particular, I used to believe that certain media outlets like The Guardian, The New York Times and the CBC still upheld the reporting to the definition of journalism. However, after following the coverage of the hottest topic of the day, COVID-19 crisis, I disappointingly noticed somewhat one-sided coverage of the events. For example, I see very little coverage of the situation in Iran, Italy, Spain or Sweden. Sweden, in particular, is fascinating because of the way the Swedish government decided to act. There is no coverage of the empty hospitals in Ontario, anticipating the surge that never came.
So to broaden my perspective, I started looking elsewhere. If you go through the headlines of the most broadly read media outlets, you’ll notice a different tone on top of the same underlying facts. So I took a pause, stepped back and considered what’s going on.
First of all, I am not sure if everyone knows this, but reporters rarely write the news headlines. There is a multitude of reasons for that. Some of it is technical, i.e. reporter doesn’t necessarily know how much space is available in print or on the website, that’s copy editor’s job. Some of it is editorial, the reporter’s headline isn’t necessarily catchy, or in the modern world doesn’t generate a click, that’s copyeditor or editor in chief’s responsibility.
Publisher: It’s finding the center of your story, the beating heart of it, that’s what makes a reporter. You have to start by making up some headlines. You know: short, punchy, dramatic headlines. Now, have a look, [pointing at dark clouds gathering in the sky over the ocean] what do you see? Tell me the headline.
Protagonist: HORIZON FILLS WITH DARK CLOUDS?
Publisher: IMMINENT STORM THREATENS VILLAGE.
Protagonist: But what if no storm comes?
Publisher: VILLAGE SPARED FROM DEADLY STORM.
~ The Shipping News, 2001
With that in mind, you cannot take a shortcut and get facts from just the headlines. But what about the actual stories, do those fit the definition of the journalism above?
I argue that they do not. Even if you disregard the obvious fake news, satirical news sites, the base stories contain various types of bias. And depending on what you read, you might be getting the limited angle of the issue. Consider the following chart by AllSides:
The other scary thought to consider is the notion of filter bubble. Given the sheer amount of content available, we tend to filter out information that doesn’t align with our current beliefs. With recommendation algorithms proliferating the modern internet, the information we receive actively confirms our belief systems. As a result, we end up in groups with homogeneous partisan identity.
But was it better in the past? Should we blame technology? In some respects, this might be true. We didn’t have for-profit organizations fuelling their growth purely by exploiting human psychological vulnerabilities. We did not have a state of the art machine learning systems classifying people into various buckets based on a limited set of “features.” Although, if you can make people fall in love with only 36 questions, perhaps we’re not as sophisticated as we think we are. Season three of the Westworld explores exactly this topic in detail…
“The thought process that went into building these applications, Facebook being the first of them, … was all about: ‘How do we consume as much of your time and conscious attention as possible?’” “And that means that we need to sort of give you a little dopamine hit every once in a while, because someone liked or commented on a photo or a post or whatever. And that’s going to get you to contribute more content, and that’s going to get you … more likes and comments.” “It’s a social-validation feedback loop … exactly the kind of thing that a hacker like myself would come up with, because you’re exploiting a vulnerability in human psychology.”
~ Sean Parker, Ex-Facebook President
It turns out The Greatest Generation understood the weakness of human psychology better than us. 1949 they’ve introduced The Fairness Doctrine to prevent the broadcasters, the medium of the time for informing the public, from using the network to advocate one perspective. The doctrine provided that any broadcaster granted a license by the FCC would, as a condition of its license, agree not only to discuss controversial topics that would be in the interest of the public, but also to ensure that any views expressed would be balanced by opposing voices. With doctrine in place, Walter Cronkite, who was an anchorman of the CBS Evening News for 19 years in the 60s and 70s and was considered “the most trusted man in America.”
The FCC eliminated the policy in 1987, under the leadership of President Reagan appointed FCC chair Mark S. Fowler. With the rules relaxed, broadcasters started on the path of biased reporting to help fuel growth and transition historically unprofitable or profit neutral news departments to profit centres. As a result, what we have is a media landscape that underreports important stories and overindulge on the stories that entertain but hardly inform.
“The news organizations went from delivering the news you need, even if you don’t want it, to the news you want even if you don’t need it… A time when newsrooms made the news interesting instead of making interesting news…”
~ Ted Koppel, former anchor of Nightline, ABC
So, where does this leave us? The value of skepticism is more important now than ever. Pay attention to what you read. Make sure to call out opinions presented as facts or unsubstantiated claims. Figure out your filter bubble and challenge yourself to broaden your perspective. Use the 11 step framework from AllSides to watch out for various types of biases in the information you consume. Why is this important?
Originally published at https://nurlybayev.family.
