Deconstructing with Della: What would Walter say?
November 20, 2017 |
| Walter Cronkite's final day as CBC News Anchor (CBS News) |
As much
as I embraced social media fairly early – Facebook tells me I have been with
them for 10 years – I have always been aware of the downside of believing what
I see in print.
From
years in the communications business, I can go through a newscast or newspaper
and have a pretty good idea of how the stories originated and who generated the
coverage. While that is not as easy to discern on social media, the free
wheeling nature of this medium reinforces the need to be better
consumers/critical thinkers of information. Any scenario where we don't have
first hand knowledge or a totally trusted source should be met with some
trepidation.
My good
friend Ken Dobell recently alerted me to an article in theEconomist about how social media is hurting democracy. My mom brought the same
article to my attention. I think they were trying to tell me something. Both are
skeptics of the online world of social media and for good reason when we see
how political players are duping people with false information. But, as my
94-year-old mom would say, that has always been the case. Propaganda and
misleading information has been around for a long time. Typically, it is about
power and greed. You can find evidence of propaganda campaigns as early as 515
BC. Invention of the printing press
around 1440 seemed to escalate the practice akin to how to how we view the online world today.
While I
am a skeptic of social media information, I can still see the benefit of people
having a greater voice. The recent #metoo campaign and outcry against sexual
abuse may never have had such influence without Twitter. We never would be been
able to access or share information about climate change and other worldly
issues as fast without this forum. Sure, it is not perfect but neither was
communicating via traditional media in years past.
Way back
when, I would often reference Walter Cronkite’s campaign telling people how to
read a newspaper. It seems to me we have always jumped to
conclusions about things that confirm our beliefs. There is definitely a problem with
filtered, aggregated information selected for us based on what we click, like
and share. But aside from laws and regulations that seem to take forever to
enact, we have a responsibility to become savvier. While Mr. Cronkite’s messages
might appear archaic there is still sound advice you can apply to today: “Learn to sift it for yourself, to
heft it, to value it, to question it, to ask for it all. You’ll be in better
control of your life and your fortunes.”
Reading
opposing views, following a story through a variety of sources, delving deeper
than the first 140 characters, listening to many perspectives and being willing
to change our point of view is an individual choice and responsibility.
Hopefully
as people realize they have been duped, they will get smarter about checking
their sources and their beliefs.
To
deconstruct: Don't believe everything
you read.
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