It was not until recently that I really started following the news, and I will be the first to admit that I am still not the most informed citizen in the world. I am, however, much more aware of current events than I was in high school, having discovered in college a variety of excellent resources for staying up to date with the news. Regardless of your political leanings, there is much to be gained by reading newspapers, either in print or online; reading magazines like Time or The New Yorker; and listening to radio networks like National Public Radio, or NPR. Even getting your news from Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert, or websites like The Onion, has a significant amount of value — parodying current events is sometimes more effective in addressing the real issues at hand than attempting to present them in a bipartisan manner, as many TV networks and newspapers do.
Nonetheless, sorting through the biases of various news media is a crucial skill to develop in order to have a full understanding of current events. Knowing where the source came from, who wrote it and what angle it is taking on the issue are all factors in analyzing news sources. It is also important to pay attention to whether the item is an opinion piece, a debate, a parody or a report of the issue, because the manner in which the issue is presented will greatly affect the message of the piece.
Many of these skills in analyzing media simply come with practice, and this kind of practice requires perusing a wide variety of sources about the same or similar issues.
Sometimes the only way to determine bias is to look at one issue from multiple viewpoints and pay attention to the way in which the issue is presented in each. For instance, you can easily detect a liberal media network if it uses more positive phrasing to describe issues of gay rights or abortion, even if the news story is supposed to be presented in an unbiased manner. But simply being able to detect bias is not enough to develop a complete understanding of any issue, be it political, social or even trivial.
Many of us are guilty of relying on the same handful of sources to get our information about current events, and often these sources will all have the same political and social leanings. However, it is critical that we expand our knowledge of these issues by seeking out sources that present the issues from different perspectives, because no issue is one-sided. Even if reading the other sources does not change your mind on your viewpoints, you will at least have the background knowledge to make your argument intelligent, informed and effective.
It was not until college that I fully understood the need to develop informed opinions on issues, and even now I continue to change and adapt my understanding of issues as I learn more about them. This kind of analysis has been valuable not only to my knowledge as an informed citizen, but also to my study of history. Biased news media is by no means a new phenomenon; people have been presenting issues in decidedly prejudiced ways since the human race learned to communicate. Historians counter evidence of this in almost every document they read: A newspaper article from the North during the Civil War will discuss slavery in a very different way than a newspaper from the South. If historians wrote about the Civil War only based on the perspectives of the white slaveholders, or even of the black slaves, the presentation of the war would not be complete or even accurate. Regardless of which side was right or wrong, both the South and the North had reasons for becoming involved in the war, and it is essential that an analysis of the war consider all the perspectives of the different kinds of people involved.
Fortunately, it is much easier for us to access a variety of sources about current issues than it is for historians to find different accounts of past events. You can access news feeds by simply logging into your e-mail. Almost every newspaper and magazine is available online, and even the most basic of television packages have channels with news programs. Given the remarkable availability of these resources, we have no excuse to remain ignorant about current events. We can be the informed citizens who make a real difference in our world today.
— Sarah Russell is a junior in history. She can be reached at srusse22@utk.edu.
