Real news or disinformation: Finding out what you really need to know

Have you heard people talk about why they’ve needed to stop watching, reading, and listening to, the news? Have you found that to be the case for yourself?

If you’ve done so, have you found your stress level and negative, obsessive thoughts have gone down a couple of notches? Are you relieved to not become overwhelmed by negative, frightening news reports?

Yes, there are benefits to going this route. Then there’s all the rest — especially when you really need to know about something impacting your life.

What do you think about the onslaught of “fake news” we’ve been seeing in recent years? Is that about news media, or does it speak to conspiracy theories, deceptive marketing, or social media gurus trying to shape our opinions?

This fall, I’m starting a master’s degree program in journalism and strategic communications with the end goal of teaching these classes at the college level. My career has been spent in news media and market research as an editor, writer, and researcher. As I’ve taken this turn toward the academic route — during a time of pandemic and social unrest — I’ve been exploring the issues of whether news media is playing a positive or negative role in America. What will it be like to join up at the academic level?

Aside from the wave of conspiracy theories — Pizzagate, QAnon, how COVID-19 really started, why you shouldn’t get vaccinated, and more — I’m most interested in the opinions people have on the role news media is playing in America and the rest of the world.

I’ve been looking at my notes from speeches given by, and commentaries written by, a few people I admire, and their concerns over the role media has been playing. I would say it boils down to these arguments about the problems faced by news media:

• News sources are opinionated and try to come across as objective and fact-based.
• They give much more coverage to bad news than to positive news.
• Good news might include a success story about someone rising out of turmoil to do well in life, but these and other positive news stories might become merely light and fluffy content.
• Ratings go up when the news is filled with stories about murder, disgraced celebrities, violent incidents, sex scandals, car crashes, corruption, natural disasters, and pandemics.

I would say this to public figures warning us about fake, negative news, and to other critics: Don’t be bamboozled; and don’t ignore being informed on what really matters to you.

Here are the points I want to make to these critics, and that I want to make to future students and my peers in news media.

1. Staying informed on what you really care about

Let’s start with a few questions……….

— Are you concerned about cryptocurrency and whether you should plunge into it, or at least give it a try?
— Do you want to get a good sense of how the Milwaukee Bucks were able to win their first NBA championship since 1971? Do you want to learn more about who might take it away form them in the next season?
— Are you trying to figure out whether COVID-19’s delta variant means that you have to go back to wearing a face mask everywhere?
— Have you been wanting to explore your ancestry, but you don’t have that much time to allot to it these days?
— Do you want to donate money, time, and your talent, to a community organization that’s providing admirable service to people who really need it?

Well, that’s where research comes in — and my comment on watching out for being bamboozled. Good research allows you to target your time and purpose; and news media plays a critical role in that process. Like anything in life, moving forward always requires finding out what you really need to know about something before you take any action or make any contributions. It’s horrible to waste all your time and other valuable resources.

As for getting hoodwinked……… Along with seeing an overwhelming amount of (and commentary upon) fake news and conspiracy theories lately, in recent years there’s also been a lot more of that classic American tradition of pitching us so the seller can make lots of money. It’s well described in the old saying, “There’s a sucker born every minute,” which some researchers say didn’t come from 19th century circus promoter P.T. Barnum, who’s always been cited for it. It was probably a New York banker from that time, according to an academic researcher. But that’s a point well made on doing your homework and watching out for attempts to snooker, and misinform, all of us.

I’ve been surprised to be receiving direct sales and marketing messages from a business professional on Instagram. I thought it was supposed to be a safe and fun place to go and enjoy someone’s adorable photo album of their cute kids; or some breathtaking photos and videos of the natural beauty they live near or got to see on a vacation. Certainly not a huckster contacting me to make a deal and spend money on their products and services.

Another good one to watch out for: clicking an appealing link or banner ad. That’s a common one these days for hackers to take over our devices or computers with malware; or to use our ID to steal money from us in various methods. So watch out!

There are much better ways to stay informed, and not get snookered.

2. Do your research to find legitimate, trustworthy news sources
If you’re spending time researching a topic you’re passionate about, how do you find out if the information is legitimate and trustworthy? It may be opinionated and biased in a certain direction, but it can still be a valuable source of news and information.

One method I would suggest is to put that question out there to people who spend a lot of time in that field; or at least people who stay well informed on it.

Let’s say its about Bitcoin, Ethereum, Chainlink, and other cryptocurrencies. You might want to purchase shares, but it ’s a big decision. What are you looking at to find out the latest and best information? Do you have confidence in that news source?

Do you know anybody who’s had to follow the latest on cryptocurrency, such as someone who trades stock shares for a living? Do you have any friends, family members, or co-workers who know someone who does? Or who works in a related service — market analyst, researcher, regulator, or someone you know who does a bit of day trading?

Could you call or email an expert in the field for something you’re working on and expect them to give you a real answer? Certainly not all of them will respond, but as a journalist, I’ve had the good fortune of staying with it until I found one or more knowledgeable expert sources who could answer my questions. That coincided with other constructive research I’d been doing on the subject matter, such as finding excellent market data, surveys, and analytics.

What about accessing good, substantial news/information sources — including major media and specialized publications? Youtube videos showing interviews with personalities in the field on the subject matter? A free, downloadable report on the topic from a consulting firm? A Ted Talk, or something similar, on the topic you’re passionate about, featuring someone recognized for expertise in the field?

As for gleaning through information to sort out the lies — which many times include charts and other statistical data — you might want to read the old 1950s classic, How to Lie with Statistics. It’s an entertaining account of how a lot of misinformation was being spread mainly in advertising in those days. But it’s a good way to know what to look for, now that charts and statistics are being used and abused every day, all over the internet.

Here are a few good news sources that actively research what’s usually getting a ton of attention on the internet, whether accurate or not. They can help you determine what is, or isn’t, legitimate news being reported out there….…….

— FactCheck.org. This website comes from The Annenberg Public Policy Center. It offers a series of fascinating questions and a few of the answers. Was the Haitian president assassinated? How many people have died from COVID-19 vaccinations? How much fraud actually occurred during the 2020 election? You can read through and see the research they’ve conducted on these questions, with their methodology explained.
— Snopes.com. This website has been the most cited and utilized information checking source on the internet for a lot of years — since 1994, which was about two years after the internet opened up to the public. Founder David Mikkelson and his team are known for digging into urban legends, hoaxes, and folklore.
— CRP. “Follow the money,” was the advice given by the ‘Deep Throat’ anonymous character in All the President’s Men. And it defines how The Center for Responsive Politics (CRP) spends its time. The non-profit, nonpartisan research group is based in Washington, D.C., and tracks the effects of money and lobbying on elections and public policy. The organization has been putting together a public online database tracking that information.
— AP Fact Check. This wing of Associated Press focuses on fact checking, accountability journalism, and misinformation coverage from AP journalists around the world. The global news information encourages readers to send in tips to FactCheck@ap.org.

3. Need to Know: Warning the public about imminent danger is a necessity
Let’s consider a few scenarios that could likely happen soon in your area…….
— Highway construction will be blocking off a central commuting route.
— You might be evacuated from your home or workplace due to an imminent and approaching brush fire.
— Law enforcement received a 911 phone call that a bomb has been set to explode at a major sporting event.

Fortunately, most everyone will avoid these crises without ever hearing about them; but then there will be others who could have been prepared to avoid that area or to secure their home and leave before the brush fire roars through; or how to get out safely before the bomb goes off.

Ask anyone who has children about this question. They will tell you about their need to know. Is there a dangerous situation they have to face, that is all about protecting their family?

It is one of the core responsibilities of news reporting agencies to alert the public — and key decision makers such as law enforcement, government officials, hospitals, and school administrators — about an emergency they must be prepared for. These incidents happen fast, and getting the word out there quickly and accurately could save lives.

4. Remember why news media has been so important
To tap into and revise a line by American poet Gil Scott-Heron, the revolution was not televised, but it was in print.

I’m referring to a critical point in the history of government and news media: the American Revolution. Historians have long been praised newspapers for the role they played during that time in the 1700s.

The Boston Gazette has received many of those accolades. Boston was the epicenter of several events shaping the outcome of the revolution — including the Boston Massacre, where on March 5, 1770, British soldiers shot and killed several people while being harassed by a “patriot” mob in Boston; and the Boston Tea Party, when in 1773, American colonists frustrated with Great Britain for imposing “taxation without representation,” dumped 342 chests of tea into the harbor.

Early Americans had to decide whether they were backing the revolution seeking independence from the British empire, or whether to stay loyal and support King George III, or to remain neutral on all of it. They were loyal readers of the Boston Gazette and other first American newspapers, and were known for public debate.

The founders understood the role that news media would have to play in the world’s first democracy — such as including freedom of the press within the Constitution’s First Amendment.

It boils down to two main public services that news media must provide.

“First, it ensures that citizens make responsible, informed choices rather than acting out of ignorance or misinformation. Second, information serves a ‘checking function’ by ensuring that elected representatives uphold their oaths of office and carry out the wishes of those who elected them.”

That comes from the U.S. Agency for International Development’s report, The Role of Media in Democracy: A Strategic Approach.

There’s also accountability for actions taken. We’re seeing a long list of of charges and accusations for sexual abuse made against well-known people in Hollywood. Some have been sentenced and sent to prison or released after serving a sentence; some are still waiting to proceed with their trial; and others are still trying to figure out what to do about their careers and lives going forward. That list includes Bill Cosby, Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey, Woody Allen, and several others.

In May, Ellen DeGeneres decided to end her daytime talk show. The Ellen DeGeneres Show will officially end after the upcoming 2021–22 season. Already a legendary comedian and TV comedy series star from the 1990s, she’d hosted the talk show series since 2003, which means the show will have run for 19 seasons by the time it ends.The show had faltered in the ratings after allegations of a toxic workplace environment where top producers engaged in a wide range of sexual misconduct with lower-level employees.

These are very difficult stories to hear about, especially if you admire the work of these creative professionals. But we do need to know; and we have the right to know.

5. We do tend to lean into the dark side.
For those depressed and bleak after watching the news when they get home from work, remember that culturally we do have a strong connection to the dark side. I know I’ve spent my share of hours watching movies and TV series depicting an ominous, dangerous future.

Just look at how we spend a lot of our free time. Ever read a Stephen King novel, or watch a mini-series or movie based on one of the books? King is a great writer in classic literary style — telling stories that will scare the bejeezus out of you!

Did you ever hear any of the old Grimm brothers’ fairy tales when you were a child? That would include Hansel and Gretel, Rumpelstiltskin, The Pied Piper of Hamelin, The Frog Prince, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and many other tales that were attributed to German brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. Their first work was published Dec. 20, 1812.

While the versions we might have seen in a movie as children have been cleaned up by The Walt Disney Company, the original stories were not. They could easily become twisted and gruesome. The German brothers were able to collect and pass down old tales that had been told by many previous generations. They were meant more for the parents than for the children, with cautionary tales crafted to startle and scare the kids into listening to their parents to make it to the end of the story.

What about reading dystopian novels, or watching their film or TV series versions on streaming channels? Here are a few popular examples……..

— A Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
— The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
— The Children of Men by P.D. James
— Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
— The Stand by Stephen King
— World War Z by Max Brooks

The Book of Eli, a 2010 film starting Denzel Washington, is a post-apocalyptic action flick similar to many others we’ve seen over the years. A lone warrior named Eli (Washington) travels across the landscape destroyed by WW3 about 30 years earlier, carrying hope for humanity’s redemption. Is there any hope left for humanity? Not likely, according to the movie.

What do these stories have in common? They depict a world where our very survival becomes the motivating factor. Typical storylines may include mass poverty and disease; people disconnected from their feelings and moral rudders after killing and maiming a lot of fellow humans; government or corporate oppression; surveillance of the public with personal privacy taken away; and a police state or something even more oppressive.

What about true crime murder mysteries — books, TV series, and movies? Have you spent your share of time learning more about the worst things that can happen to any of us? And the unanswerable question of why somebody can commit these atrocities?

Well, you’re just part of a vast audience out there that spends a lot of time in pop culture — including the internet — delving into these dark and dreary questions. Sometimes writers at media outlets get a bit carried away going deep into these realms, but it can make for a great read.

Yes, shocking, horrible news does grab our attention and gets strong viewership — just like dystopian, violent thrillers do.

6. We are going through a turbulent time of change.
Not long ago, I saw 2001: A Space Odyssey for the fourth or fifth time. One scene in the movie stood out for its irony — and its connection to experiences that Virgin Galactic’s Richard Branson and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos just had by becoming passengers of space flights. In the movie, a businessman is on a space flight when he phones his wife and daughter for a video call. It’s a very moving scene.

On the evening of that day months ago, I went into my home office to sit in on a Zoom meeting with several cousins I haven’t seen in years; most of us live far away from each other. It was even better than what I’d seen in the science fiction movie classic.

Quite a lot has changed in recent years. Smartphones took big steps with the introduction of Apple’s iPhone in 2007 and Google’s Android phone the following year. These are considered to be key elements in the revolutionary phase of technology development we’re living through now.

What else has happened since then? Artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, and autonomous driving is growing by leaps and bounds. Access to just about any information you can think of, including records and historical documents, is becoming cheaper and more accessible.

But this time of technology change is taking its toll on us. Here are a few factors to consider…….

— Your job looks quite different than it did a decade ago, or a quarter century ago. You now have duties in your daily routine that you had no clue about years ago. It has become more demanding and draining.
— Are you concerned about some potential catastrophe that a friend or family member keeps telling you about? Have you looked into that claim to find it appears to be totally false, which you share with your loved one, only to find out they come back to you with more on the topic?
— Do you answer your smartphone anymore? It could easily be a direct sales call, even though it’s showing someone’s name and is coming from your area code.
— Have you opened a video link only to be enraged by what you’re watching, and find out that you really can’t do anything about it?
— You’re learning a lot about new work skills that some high school and college students are gaining for the new technology economy we live in; but then you read about the vast numbers of people feeling left behind in finding another job?
— Have you participated in online dating, only to learn what the term “ghosting” means?

Staying informed is vital. If you’d like a good example of it, watch The Social Dilemma on Netflix. You’ll see interviews with a series of former high-ranking executives at the major social media companies — and how they saw these channels becoming a source of manipulative misinformation that can affect elections, economic factors, and that can even drive some people to suicide. That would happen when clients paid Facebook and other majors enough for their services, and used all the latest sophisticated marketing tactics based on our interests, relationships, and how we use these social media sites.

Not fun to watch, but the documentary does open you up to something that it is going on; and choices you have in staying informed through the best possible sources, and ways to protect your device and computer from some of this abuse.

7. Documenting our history and making it accessible to the public
Have you ever seen the PBS series, Finding Your Roots, which aired from 2012 to 2020; and is still available on a streaming service? It usually featured two to three celebrities interested in finding out about their predecessors. Host Henry Louis Gates, Jr., would meet with them and show them a photo album and information — taken from family photos, legal documents, and sometimes from newspaper articles. His staff had put in a lot of hours digging into records and conducting interviews on that person’s predecessors.

He would read them a passage from the news report on a critical event in their family history. Maybe the great grandfather was married for a second time and had more children than they’d ever heard about; or maybe he’d gone to prison for tax evasion. Maybe one of their great grandparents was a person of a different race or ethnicity, but it had been hushed up by the family for many decades.

Viewers of Finding Your Roots get to watch the guests’ responses written all over their faces and sounding out through their voices — which could come from crying, laughing, or being frozen and in shock for several seconds. Researchers at the TV show needed legitimate news sources to provide some of the evidence to solve the mystery. Some of these news publications are still in existence, living by the same mission they had back then but in a very different format these days.

The best news media sources take that responsibility very seriously, and archive it for future generations to access the information.

8. There’s a lot happening in the world that we really need to know about
While it would be overwhelming to stay current on news from all around the world, wouldn’t you like to know about something big that could easily end up going from halfway around the world to right into your neighborhood?

Valid constructive criticism has been made over the years about U.S. media being too focused on America, and that it’s been presented in the ideology and belief system of the USA. We Americans may think it’s objective and takes in all points of consideration, but it’s geared toward the US audience and its advertisers, and will be speaking from that lingo, ideology, and belief system.

I remember seeing a TV news report in the mid-2000s about coverage of the war in Iraq — told from the perspectives of U.S. news sources and that of Middle Eastern countries. What does ABC News have to say about the war, versus Al-Jazeera?

Watching these news segments, including English subtitles of the Arabic language coming from Al-Jazeera and other networks, showed very different realities. The U.S. media was concerned about safety of American troops and the possibility of the U.S. military’s objectives being accomplished. The Middle Eastern news sources showed the brutality of the war, and the cost being paid by average citizens in Iraq — many of whom had lost loved ones and had been severely injured.

It’s never going to be perfect, and there will always be perspectives, opinions, and sometimes political agendas, behind what we’re watching. But it’s a good idea to stay current on global news developments that are impacting the planet where we live. That might include climate change and cataclysmic weather disasters headed your way.

For those interested in getting a look at some of the “big picture” information on trends and developments around the world, go to Our World in Data. It’s a project from the Global Change Data Lab, a non-profit organization based in the United Kingdom. Funded by reader donations, global data is researched, fact checked, and presented through the work of thousands of researchers around the world.

Would you like to get a look at what forecasters say about future global population growth? What about deaths from various diseases well beyond Covid-19? How much of the world’s utility power comes from renewable energy sources? Would you like to know the numbers of autocracies and democracies in the world from 1900 to the present?

Then go visit the Our World in Data website to view a series of charts and analysis of these and other signifiant topics and issues shaping the future of our planet. It also speaks to the power and importance of research, information, and honoring the standards and ethics of journalism.

Journalism is at a pivotal moment in its history as social media, texting, video, and podcasts become the ‘new normal’ for transmitting information.

Those of us working in the field must resolve a few critical questions:
— How do journalists rise to the challenge of accurately and thoroughly telling the story?
— How do we respond to new types of crises in the digital age? Such as having our work discredited by influentials with large audiences on social media including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn?
— What responsibility do we have in reporting that damaging ‘fake news’ is coming through social media and alternative news sources?
— What does the public need to know? What responsibility is media taking to accurately report this information?

Journalists have had to take new approaches to quickly, accurately, and comprehensively report news stories that readers should know about. Sometimes we have to dig into hundreds of comments posted on a topic to get a feel for people’s attitudes on the issues. Perhaps we’ll learn that a certain book or video has had a huge influence on opinions; and perhaps that author or speaker should be interviewed for the article.

It’s a mistake for journalists to dig into a story with predetermined conclusions. They would miss out on informing the public of a broad view of what’s really going on in a given situation. They’ll miss out on most of the real story if they stay stuck on their biases and assumptions.

One of the great challenges and joys of being a media professional is staying open to new information on what’s happening in our world. Things are always changing, and we don’t want to miss out on telling the real story.

Jon LeSage is a Southern California-based freelance writer.