How to Read the News – The Common Pitfalls
Posted on Jun 27, 2011 08:55:18 AM
Teaching your child about the world is undoubtedly going to involve teaching him or her about the news. We’re bombarded with news every time we watch television, walk past a newspaper seller or turn on our computer, and that’s only going to get more significant as our communications networks develop. Our children are growing up in an increasingly connected world, one where an event happening now will be on our computer screens within the hour.
Not all news sources are completely accurate though. In some countries, the news you receive is heavily moderated by governments. In other countries, news sources are allowed and indeed encouraged to be partisan. Everywhere you look, there’s a spin on the news which turns fact into subjectivity and conjecture. Not all of this is deliberate, of course – some newspapers are simply incompetent, and some international events are muddled by clever PR and governmental cover-ups. But a lot of news channels and media outlets make decisions to blur the truth in order to further their own agenda, gently besmirch their opponents or simply sell more newspapers.
Media plurality is one of the most important things the internet has given us. We are capable of finding a dozen different viewpoints on a subject within a few moments of it happening. We can get a diverse range of comment and input from the comfort of our reclining loveseat. And we can use the internet to get a truly international take on world affairs.
All of this is possible. However, far too many people are glued to one news outlet. Whether it’s The Week, Fox News or CNN, we need to explore as many news channels as possible – and encourage or children to do likewise.
To use a current example, tensions in the Asia-Pacific region are rising because China has specifically warned the USA to butt out of an argument it’s having regarding some islands. The USA is doing a joint military exercise with South Korea using live ammunition in the area, which North Korea aren’t impressed with at all. The Philippines have deployed their prize warship to the area, and other neighboring countries are bickering about who has the rights to the oil-rich but uninhabited Spratly islands.
Exclusive watchers of Fox News or CNN might not be familiar with this significant story. It hasn’t had much coverage in the USA. It’s had a bit of coverage from the BBC and a handful of European press agencies, but this pales in comparison to the enormous amount of attention the story has received from the Asian press, specifically newsrooms in the Asia-Pacific region.
It’d be easy to say that the American press is censoring the news, drip feeding the brainwashed public a sanitized version of events so as not to reveal that the American establishment is scared of China’s development. But it would be equally easy to argue that the Chinese press is bigging-up the threat from America in order to paint them as baddies. The answer? All news sources are a little bit biased, so the more you use the better an understanding you’ll get of the story.
You can do this quite easily now using news aggregators. Google has quite a handy one. If there’s a story you’re intrigued by, just type in the relevant search terms and hit ‘news’. Google will trawl a load of news sites to get the best from each. This is the first line of defense against ignorance – making sure you get both ends of the stick if at all possible.
This is what you want to teach your children. That way they’ll be able to grow up with a genuine understanding of not just the world, but how to learn more about it. The world’s becoming a much smaller place, so physically distant events are growing more significant. Your children need to know how to sift through different types of news, how to spot for bias and how to think critically when they encounter sensationalist stories. This is how you raise your kids as strong-minded, analytical individuals, rather than dim-witted, TV-worshipping sheeple.