In our family life, the one who tells the story is the one who determines the narrative. You may have a relative who tells you all kinds of shaddy dealings that your deceased uncle was involved in. It may be true, it may be exaggerated or it may be revenge ‘bad news’ of someone trying to get even with a past wrong doing.
There are always two sides to every story.
The media have become too powerful and too big. No one can have enough time to investigate every story that comes across the media in one morning.
No one must see the media as first of all a service. This is a business. This is all about making money. The first concern of the media is counting the number of viewers. Viewers means advertisers. The first purpose of providing news, information and entertainment is to support the shareholders of the media companies. There is no such thing as ‘free’ news!
As a company executive, if you want to have viewers you follow the dictum: bad news attracts more eyes than any good news. If there is a fight at city council, people will listen. If the city council members are working hard to negotiate a new water main in your district (rather important to your life) or negotiate to hire three more workers for city maintenance, this is not too newsworthy.
Bad news sells; good news is pushed to the periphery.
As we listen/view the daily news we must have a critical eye. On each item we must ask: what is the other side of the story? Why am I not hearing the good things that our civic institutions are doing? What am I missing here?
The media will go after all the shortcomings and failings of all our institutions (they are the big targets to shot at). The focus is on all levels of governments, school board decisions, anything in the health care system, church and small business.
In each of these cases, we must always ask ‘Media, you are bringing up the failings of this institution, but what about all the good they have accomplished?’ This is the other side of the story that never gets told in the media.
No one should be offended if your friend challenges you with ‘you need to become more critical about what you hear and see on the media.’ How close to the actual truth is this media story or how much is bad-news entertainment?
At the same time, we need to ask how well our high schools are training our young people to become critical thinkers in today’s world. How sharp are our young people not to accept everything they hear in the media as the absolute truth? How critical are they towards the media?
Seeking the truth has never been easy. Today, because the media is so large and so powerful, it is very difficult. But it is not impossible.
Whatever you hear in the media, always counter with: ‘Well, maybe it is not like you have just said. There is the other side of the story that you have not told.’
No comments:
Post a Comment