I think over time people have started to realize that most media outlets lean liberal and so coverage is biased in this regard. Another bias is that given the power and financial backing some of these bigger outlets their interest is to simply cover the most profitable stories. More recently however, I believe Donald Trump and Republicans who have been covered in debates have been one factor influencing this erosion of trust. Because distrust was already there, Republicans were able to magnify the liberal bias of these media outlets and hence why we have constantly been hearing about fake news, especially since the election. I think it matters because people seek information from these sources to make decisions, for example, to vote; if sources continue to be obscure and promote a climate of distrust then the decisions people make may appear inconsistent.
I agree with Christopher 100% on this and also think the over emphasis of fake news is partly to blame. The ability given to us by having access to the internet has been beneficial in the fact that we can now have instant access to all the information we could possibly want. However, there is quite a bit of fake news, ad campaigns posing as news, and general misinformation. It is incredibly difficult to sway someone on their preconceived opinions when they have a never ending source of information that may point in the directions they want to look but in some cases can be completely false.
I think biased news has always existed. Newspapers and media outlets have always favored one side over the other. There are many cases in history where the media was used to spread propaganda of the ruling government (e.g. Germany, Rwanda). I think what modern media, and even social media have done is give us easy access to all sides of an argument simultaneously. We have become more wary of the news, because exposure has revealed that each side has a bias.
It shocks me that the media has the third and fourth lowest trust rating on this scale but yet the biggest voice. We trust them the least, but also give them the biggest microphone to our socioety. Maybe we should start giving people we trust a larger voice?
I think over time people have started to realize that most media outlets lean liberal and so coverage is biased in this regard. Another bias is that given the power and financial backing some of these bigger outlets their interest is to simply cover the most profitable stories. More recently however, I believe Donald Trump and Republicans who have been covered in debates have been one factor influencing this erosion of trust. Because distrust was already there, Republicans were able to magnify the liberal bias of these media outlets and hence why we have constantly been hearing about fake news, especially since the election. I think it matters because people seek information from these sources to make decisions, for example, to vote; if sources continue to be obscure and promote a climate of distrust then the decisions people make may appear inconsistent.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Christopher 100% on this and also think the over emphasis of fake news is partly to blame. The ability given to us by having access to the internet has been beneficial in the fact that we can now have instant access to all the information we could possibly want. However, there is quite a bit of fake news, ad campaigns posing as news, and general misinformation. It is incredibly difficult to sway someone on their preconceived opinions when they have a never ending source of information that may point in the directions they want to look but in some cases can be completely false.
ReplyDeleteI think biased news has always existed. Newspapers and media outlets have always favored one side over the other. There are many cases in history where the media was used to spread propaganda of the ruling government (e.g. Germany, Rwanda). I think what modern media, and even social media have done is give us easy access to all sides of an argument simultaneously. We have become more wary of the news, because exposure has revealed that each side has a bias.
ReplyDeleteIt shocks me that the media has the third and fourth lowest trust rating on this scale but yet the biggest voice. We trust them the least, but also give them the biggest microphone to our socioety. Maybe we should start giving people we trust a larger voice?
ReplyDelete