Written by Micah Xu, Converge multimedia journalism intern and Junior at Gwinnett School of Math, Science & Technology (GSMST)
The news, the press, the media, whatever a person might call them, are a critical part of what influences our opinions of the people, nations and world around us at large. The media is saddled with a sacred duty, a double-edged blade that can both inform and educate the public or destroy and misinform them.
Unfortunately, not every person uses this double-edged sword responsibly, especially seeing the numerous cases of misinformation and propaganda that plague the content of the news we watch and the papers we read.
That is why the people who report the news have a responsibility, a duty to uphold the truth of the matter without bias. One could argue that opinions have their place in the press, which, while not inherently false, can cloud the truth, especially when paired with common media tactics like the omission of certain facts and using out-of-context quotes.
That being said, there is no possible way to entirely eliminate bias from writing, even subconsciously, heck, this very article has bias in it, even if the writer doesn’t know it or acknowledge it.
This is why in order to get better news, it is in the best interest of the public to read from different sources. To put it in a metaphor, instead of trying to move the boulder out of the way, it would be wiser to simply move around it. Sure, trying to change the opinions of thousands of executives that produce the news we consume and the hundreds of thousands of writers that write for said executives is close to impossible.
What we can do to encourage the spread of truth over lies is to inform readers to read multiple articles from multiple sources, even ones that do not fit the reader’s point of view, to get a wider view of the truth. It is unfortunate, no doubt, but in a world that cannot be easily changed, the next best solution is to roll with the punches.
If every article has a nugget of truth, then in order to get the whole truth, a reader will have to read many articles. Only then, can we gain the precious gold of truth that lies within dirty lies.
