Let's Get to the Bottom of it

Taylor Highbloom
th764916@ohio.edu

This photo is from https://www.marveena.com/truth-discernment/

We live in a world that is advancing every day and moving at the speed of light. People are obsessed with obtaining everything so quickly. That means obtaining the latest and greatest thing, the moment it comes out. With that being said, people want their news right away. When something happens, people want to know what happened instantaneously. However, this sometimes means that you are obtaining or viewing something that is not as great as it seems. Journalists have to be aware of this on-going issue because this kind of mentality also affects the journalistic world that we live in. When a crazy story comes out, it is better to collect all the facts than to post something that is still crazy but inaccurate. We must not use this kind of mentality as an advantage, we should be using it as an opportunity to show the world what truthfulness and accuracy looks and sounds like. Though, there are people that do take advantage of this and create fake news.

The kind of generation that understands that news is always changing and evolving is known as the “YouTube generation,” according to this article. Although, this generation wants their news instantaneously, they are well aware of the fact that the stories are sometimes “dirty and not always right.” The good thing about this is that this group of people are aware of how the news we see today is sometimes more entertaining than it is accurate. Kentucky Fried Chicken decided to partake in fake advertising a few years ago. They starting calling themselves a healthy restaurant but we all know that it KFC is anything but healthy. Like I said earlier, people take advantage of the world we live in today. By doing this, you are only losing your credibility and it will hurt you in the long run. 

Another issue that we face in media is who can tell the difference between opinion and fact. In this article, researchers surveyed 5,093 Americans and came to the conclusion that some people identified at least 3 out of the 5 statements right in each set they showed them. However, more people identified a majority of the circumstances they provided for them wrong. This is a huge problem because ability to differentiate fact from opinion affects the way people perceive journalism and the media as a whole. This particular article also touches up on what I discussed earlier. Due to the fact that news is continuously flowing across all social platforms at all hours of the day, it creates the problem of people believing everything they hear.

We as journalists have to be aware of these issues and take action because this is our profession. It is so easy to get caught up with the world we live in today and settle for the circumstances that the media is in. You must put in the effort to change this. If you really love this profession you have to keep pushing and demanding more credibility and less bias from yourself and others.