We live in a time where we have real time access to news. The majority of us get our news on social media. If we don’t get our news on social media we turn to facebook to check the accuracy of information we got somewhere else. The danger in this instant gratification-social media driven – information world is the human tendency to believe what is written and the comments made to what is written. Each of us as a part of the audience that various media enterprises are trying to reach, has a responsibility to be a smart audience. Smart in our choice of sources. Smart in our discernment of differences in the same story from multiple sources. Smart in our refusal to let fear drive us. We have to become responsible consumers of the information we receive.
That means first and foremost understanding that: just because it is written, does not make it so. I am old enough to remember Walter Conkrite’s sign off, “that’s the way it was….” and we all went to bed knowing that it was. Today, we miss that comfort as we all have our mobile devices next to our beds and scroll through our favorite news sources for information at the end of a day filled with constant input on what is happening in the world. It is not difficult to find conflicting sources on just about anything in the moment.
We each have a responsibility to make sure that what we interpret as news is accurate. Politicians have learned to manipulate the media, particularly social media, for their political gain. In our age of instant news, news agencies pick apart each other’s stories and make that news. The ability to comment on news articles and commentaries real time seems to have opened a whole new sensitivity to news. The comments somehow make what we read more personal which makes us react more emotionally to things we like and things we don’t like. It has led to violence and even death as the emotional reactions have fed off of each other. I am always amazed at the comments following articles that give birth to whole discussions on things that are not even related to the original article. The hate crimes against minorities in this country after the Trump election are examples of the violence that can be fed, unknowingly, by the news media.
The other responsibility that we as citizens have is not to let our favorite news entities be the only source of information we have on a particular topic. When we do that we limit our ability to have the information to think critically about current events. While responsible news organizations report on the facts, most lean one way or the other on political and social issues. That bias comes across in their reporting in spite of attempts not to allow it to do so.
For example, the media/social media has instilled in many otherwise reasonable people a fear of anyone who appears mid-eastern or who practices Islam. I had more than on friend who expressed concern when I mentioned that I had visited a mosque. They were concerned about sleeper cells at mosques and Islam taking over the country. Before we allow ourselves to look at those of mid-eastern descent with fear, we should educate ourselves on the source of the fear. There is more than one problem with the analogy. Perhaps the two biggest are the hate crimes that have occurred because someone is assumed to be Muslim and therefore a threat and the threat to freedom of conscience or religion that comes from those who believe we should make an exception because Islam is such a threat. Have we allowed the media to feed our fear of something that is different? Have we let the association between terrorist and Islam take precedent over our belief in first amendment freedoms? The latter is accentuated by the Christianity first posture of the current administration.
So, it is each of our responsibility to educate ourselves to become responsible consumers of the news. We have instant access, but we must analyze and evaluate what we read and apply it to our own particular circumstances. We create news when we share news with our own words on our social media pages. It is our responsibility when we do that to share an opinion on the news, not to tear down someone who may have a different opinion.
Discussion: Religion 300 