There was a time in the media when the famous slogan, "more Americans get their news from ABC News than from any other news source" rang true for the station's TV and radio news alike. Before that, "all the news that's fit to print" fit fine, as newspapers reigned the day.
For a lot of old school journalists, these were, for lack of a better term, "the good ol' days."
Paperboys got their exercise peddling through neighborhoods, throwing the latest edition on everyone's doorsteps. People scheduled their dinnertimes around the evening newscasts. In general, people cared about what was going on and were pretty consistent about where they quenched their thirst for current events.
There were only a few places to get most news, and it could more or less be relied upon to be accurate. Now, however, with 24/7 cable news and the Internet, an information oasis is only a click away.
Every major network has their own designated channel designed to bombard viewers with the latest news - even if there's nothing to talk about. When they're not reporting live they're rerunning the latest commentary, just in case you missed Bill O'Reilly the first time around.
The easy TV access comes some ups and downs. More than ever before, each network seems to have an opinion about everything, and each one is usually different. It's not hard to get the story; sometimes it's just hard to get the whole story.
And then there's the Internet. Same general idea, only millions more viewpoints and skewed facts.
Instant feeds from every major media outlet can be accessed in seconds, and so can articles written by pretty much anyone else. It's just about as easy to find a "news story" written by a blogger completely making things up as it is to find a lead story from any major paper, and that's just the beginning.
The Internet doesn't have any education prerequisites, nor does it ask anyone to adhere to a code of ethics. It empowers anyone who can put their personal biased opinions into words to post them for the world to read- without any forewarning that the author might have an ulterior motive.
This isn't to say that cable news and the World Wide Web are bad things. The power to know what's going on at any given moment is a great one. What these mediums are missing is a warning label: proceed with caution.
So how does a curious person who wants to be an informed citizen find out what's going on in the modern world?
It takes a little effort.
There's no harm in starting with the Internet. Read from the Web site of any preferred major media outlet (ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, etc). Check out the feeds on places like Google or Yahoo! News.
Branching out beyond the mainstream is okay too. Go ahead and read blogs and online journals, but also read about where they're coming from. If an article comparing two politicians is written by an openly-liberal tree-hugging flower child hippie, it might not read the same as a story on the same topic covered by a Reaganomics fanatic. The Internet especially is a place where anyone can say what he or she wants, biased or not.
To be an informed citizen today is a lot harder than it once was. It takes responsibility to analyze and make personal decisions about facts. Information is everywhere, and putting it all together isn't easy. Read everything there is to read, and be a little skeptical about everything-take it all with a grain of salt.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
