The year has proven that misformation can degrade and destabilize countries, cities, and families. How do we find truth in the misinformation age?
The problem
The internet has provided unprecedented access to information and the ability to add your voice into the mix. Most people now consume their news online. Given the variety of services that provide this, it becomes confusing as to what is a reliable source or not. There currently exist many intermediaries online that feed people news rather than consuming directly from a source. All of this has led to the misinformation age.
The solution
Misinformation is not new. It’s safe to say it has been used as a tool for as long as human beings have been communicating to manipulate people. Much can be said about how this, combined with our modern technology, has led to dire realities and despairing futures. I want to keep this post focused on empowering others to greater awareness and ultimately being a part of the solution.
1. Be aware of your own cognitive bias
Any real solution has to start with us. We can’t shake our finger at the world and expect it to change. We have to change. Are you aware that human beings have many baked-in biases? What about Anchor Bias, which is our tendency to believe the first piece of information was encounter? What about Confirmation Bias, which is our tendency to favor information that conforms to our existing beliefs? What about False-Consensus Bias, which is our tendency to overestimate how much people agree with us? Over 100 cognitive biases are hard-wired into us that we have to work against to find the truth. The best tool we have to counter it is awareness.
2. Identify bias in your current sources of news
The chart below is created by a company called Ad Fontes Media whose mission is “to make news consumers smarter and news media better.”
What are you favorite news sources? Are they in the Most Reliable, Mixed Reliability, Somewhat Reliable, or Unreliable categories?
3. Cut out the middle man
There are many news apps on the market for smartphones. For a while, I used the “Google News” app. The application was a news aggregate and contained “smarts” to tailor the news it showed me to my interests. These applications have unintended consequences. For example, an article may show up from Fox News or CNN, both of which have been criticized for media bias to the right and left. If I load one of those articles, Google news will show me more items like it. You can see where this is a slippery slope. A single click and down the rabbit hole you go of media bias to the right or left. Google News is what I referred to above as an intermediary. I was not going directly to a news source. I was letting it dictate what news coverage I received. I eventually had to stop using the app as I could tell my newsfeed had a negative impact. I was regularly exposed to articles that were written to invoke an emotional response rather than give me the facts. If you read news articles on Twitter, Facebook, or any other social media service, you receive news through an intermediary. Their technology is deciding what you see.
4. Get out of the echo chamber
Thanks to Confirmation Bias, noted above, we tend to create “echo chambers” with social media. An echo chamber is a group of people that you generally agree with. Echo chambers work in collaboration with bias news to give us an overwhelming confidence that “we are right” and “they are wrong”. If you are going to use social media I suggest purposefully following just as many people you don’t agree with as people that you do. Not only that, don’t penalize them for their own world view. Listen to them and learn. Speak with grace. Seek to understand. Demonizing and chasting will not change anyones mind and only pour gas on the fire societal division.
5. Take control of your world view
Now it’s time to take control. Given the previous points, I changed my news feed to an application called “Feedly.” It allows me to select the news sources I want to read, and it organizes a news feed from those sources. The news sources that I chose all came from the “Most Reliable” box from the Media Bias Chart above. I have had a noticeable improvement in mental health, doing this as I am much less likely to read articles trying to elicit an emotional response. It’s just the data. While it doesn’t make the world look any less bleak, it cuts through much of the noise. I suggest using a news application that puts you in control of the sources you read. Pick as many from the Most Reliable category. As you read, compare and contrast their reporting.
6. Set a time to revisit change in media bias over time
Bias will change over time. It is the blessing and the curse of our free press. Hopefully, by cleaning up your news feed to only include trusted sources, media bias will start to stick out like a sore thumb. The Media Bias Chart is regularly updated so that you can refer back to that.
What is at stake?
What is the cost of doing nothing? Cognitive bias leads us to distorted thinking about ourselves and the world. Do we want fantasy or reality? Giving intermediaries the keys to defining our world view affects our mental health and our future. Echo chambers dilute what a true community should be. The radicalization and polarization caused by misinformation have destabilized families, cities, and countries. Truth matters. I hope that we all take a step back to invest in establishing a more objective view of ourselves and the world. The truth seems like the best place to start mending the wounds of recent history.