There are many different ways to manipulate the truth in the media. From people’s awareness of it to the theories behind it, and from the mediasphere as a whole to the policies put in place within it. The truth is subjective and malleable, people can make the truth out to whatever they want it to be. That is why it is more important than ever to evaluate what you are reading very carefully. When reading it is very important to look for false flags. “A false flag is a covert operation designed to deceive; the deception creates the appearance of a particular party, group, or nation being responsible for some activity, disguising the actual source of responsibility.” As we move into more and more polarized politics it’s important to distinguish when something is a false flag or the truth. Parties may try to underhand each other during election season to try and get more representation in government. By targeting a certain party with false information, a person who takes the news as is instead of evaluating it may be easily persuaded into believing it is the truth.
Worse off than false flags is disinformation. “Disinformation is false or misleading information that is spread deliberately to deceive.” False flags are at least targeted at something or someone specific to try and alter a person’s view on it. Disinformation, however, is not targeted at anything and rather chooses to deliberately spread something inaccurate as the truth in general. This might make it more believable as there seems to be no bias behind it. Misinformation can cause people to get heated over what and what is not the truth, it is especially important in today’s climate to try and keep the truth at the forefront.
This may be more difficult to do than it first seems. People, especially now with the internet, tend to fall into echo chambers. “[A]n echo chamber is a metaphorical description of a situation in which beliefs are amplified or reinforced by communication and repetition inside a closed system.” People will seek out other people with the same opinion, strengthening their belief in it, even if it is not right. It is easier to listen to something you agree with, then to listen to the counter-argument, because of this people might exercise the Spiral of Silence. The Spiral of Silence “states that a social group or society might isolate or exclude members due to the members' opinions.” Why debate over a topic when you can go someplace else and get your opinion validated by others like yourself? Snuffing out other opinions makes it easier to believe in your own, but this can be dangerous. If what you believe in is not the truth and you only listen to people who repeatedly tell you that it is the truth, you can become stubborn and close yourself off from new learning and understanding.
Nothing makes finding the truth in the media more difficult than something known as media consolidation. Media consolidation “is a process whereby progressively fewer individuals or organizations control increasing shares of the mass media.” If one person has complete control over the media they can push whatever they want and the people can and will believe them because they don’t have someone telling them otherwise. You lose the counter-argument, the other side of the story. It is like having a dictator in charge of the media, there is only one voice and they have ultimate say. It goes against the most important parts of Democracy: the first amendment. With media consolidation you lose the freedom of the press, you lose the ability to publish whatever you want. How can you trust what you read and hear if there is no one to present the other side?
Everything that I have talked about in this post is a danger to modern media. People need to raise their awareness that not everything they read may be the truth. They need to take a step back and compare the same story with different sources and see how they align to make sure they are getting the full story. False flags and misinformation are everywhere now, with people trying to manipulate the public so they can push their agenda. It is important to keep an eye out for these. It’s also important to make sure you are not falling into an echo chamber that promotes only one viewpoint and utilizes the Spiral of Silence to block out any others. Finally, we see time and time again the same major corporations buying out smaller companies, it is our duty as American citizens to make sure that all voices are heard as part of our first amendment right. We must make sure that no one company or person has control over the media because once that happens we lose one of our fundamental rights as a part of the US Democracy: freedom of the press.
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