Wednesday, December 14, 2016

Know Your News

Click on graphic for a larger view. 

Check this infographic before sharing "news" items on social media. Know your sources. Maybe check Snopes. Understand the difference between fact and opinion. Because they are different things. Practically opposites, actually. Think critically. Don't be a parrot, or worse, a puppet. Seek truth, not affirmation. 

2 comments:

mvanbem said...

Don't forget that even those down the middle are entirely capable of posting the worst garbage in the right context. WaPo ran 16 hit pieces on Bernie Sanders in a day. NPR had Clinton people on without providing reasonable pressure on their nonsense. AP threw the primary by hounding delegates for statements and calling it early. Vox has been posting nonstop garbage on politics for months.

I guess what I'm saying is don't trust any news source. Try to find primary sources if you can, and know that everyone has an incentive to manipulate you.

Bellona of Avalon said...

Take it all with a grain of salt!

What I like about this graphic is that it's a clickbait early warning system. I recognized the far right and left bottom-feeders immediately as "news" sources I was skeptical of.

Keep in mind that I've been annoyed with the media since you were a baby. You may have some repressed memories of me shouting back at the TV in the house and at the radio in the car. Sorry. I stopped watching television news when Tom Brokaw retired. I think he was the last of a breed of newspeople. He didn't just read the stories on the air, he was the primary writer of what he wrote. A true reporter.

Having a journalism background, I am deeply saddened by the state of today's news organizations. Their ethics are questionable,their sources iffy, and their motivation seems primarily to get ratings.