Read the news mindfully
What was the first news story you read this morning and why?
Today we’re inviting you to think about your news consumption. We all saw how fake news, biased news, social media echo chambers and lackluster mainstream and TV news reporting misled voters and affected our election. We also know that Trump's attacks on journalists is a propaganda tactic employed by dictators to silence dissent.
We must now make it our personal duty to consume and support worthwhile sources in the future; fact checked, long form, independent and investigative journalism. Let's support each other in this endeavor.
What you can do1. GET NEWS LITERATE. Use these tips to spot fake news. Or these, these or these.
2. PICK 1-3 NEWS PUBLICATIONS (digital, radio, print or TV) that you trust to guide you through the complexities of the world. Consider the explicit and implicit intentions and priorities of the writers and publishers. Check to see if your favored publications or broadcasters have fact checkers and editors. Look at these suggestions for good sources.
3. SUPPORT the organization financially – either by subscription or donation.
4. SHARE YOUR PICKS WITH US here.
BONUS : INSTALL THIS CHROME EXTENSION to rid your feed of fake news!
WHY IT'S IMPORTANT
First of all, we allow our view of the world around us to be shaped by people whose intentions are “neutral” at best. Secondly, we train our brains to see the news as a free commodity, largely disconnected from the institutions that produce it. And we let ourselves get out of the habit of critically examining our sources. The truth is that no news is independent news. Every story gets written by someone, and published by someone, and may or may not get fact checked by someone.
None of us have an endless amount of time to spend reading up on every domestic and foreign issue that matters to us – we have to rely on other people to tell us what matters and why it matters and to give us enough of the facts of the matter than we might make informed decisions about how to live in and engage with the world. We have to pick our crew of informants carefully.
In exchange for this hard work, we need to pay these people so that they can travel around the country and the globe observing, interviewing and conducting careful research. We have to support the editing and production of the news and, of course, we have to make sure that the writers and publishers can feed themselves and their families.
We hope that this can be the beginning of a conversation about how the news itself constitutes one of the vital institutions in our Democracy, one which we must nurture, interrogate and protect over the next few years.