The Modern Day News Consumer -- Jason Miller
When every member of society can have a world view reinforced by misinformation and propaganda, who is to say what is true and what is #fakenews? The objective truth is still there; news consumers must sort through an immense amount of muck to find it.
Americans consume news much differently today than twenty years ago. Today, a digital frontier full of media sources that conform to any world view is at our finger tips. For every site that reports honest and good journalism, there is an ‘alternative news’ site that spouts misinformation and propaganda to fit a particular ideology. Therefore, consumers of news must be vigilant not to allow prejudgments to drive reality from facts and logic.
This is the crux of the ‘fake news’ problem we observe in society today. The average news consumer does not have the time, resources, or desire to fact check every story and every journalist. In the past, there has been an unspoken trust between news outlets and their readers. Media companies were reliant on a mixture of subscribers and advertisers to provide revenue. It didn’t matter who owned the company. Nowadays, media outlets do not rely on their subscribers to keep the lights on. Instead, they fund themselves solely through corporate advertising. This funding change shifts to whom the media company is accountable. Before, media companies were at least partially accountable to their readers; but now, they are solely accountable to their owner and commercial advertisers. It is for this reason the internet contains a limitless selection of news sources that conform to just about any political ideology or creed. Facts and truth are no longer the metrics by which media companies gauge quality and success; it’s all about the click bait and reinforcement of the parent corporation’s public message. When every member of society can have a world view reinforced by misinformation and propaganda, who is to say what is true and what is #fakenews? The objective truth is still there; news consumers must sort through an immense amount of muck to find it. Here are some news outlets that usually produce high quality news stories and do not disseminate corporate propaganda.
Truth-out
Anti-media
Project Censored
Democracy Now!
Truthdig