While there is much debate surrounding how much our new president has accomplished during his first month in office, at the very least we can agree that President Trump has made readers out of us.
Mr. Trump is not the only reason we read the news, of course. We live in an age where instant access to information has become expected, and we consume much more news on a day-to-day basis than we realize or even care to. For many years, the majority of Americans have relied on mainstream media sources to get their news.
Mainstream media outlets are those you are most likely to be familiar with—television networks like ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN and Fox, major websites and newspapers such as MSNBC and the New York Times. These outlets are the largest and most easily accessible news sources and, therefore, reach much larger audiences than their alternative counterparts.
In recent years, and especially within the last election cycle, Americans have become increasingly aware of the journalistic integrity, or lack thereof, among many of these media powerhouses. While networks like CNN and Fox News do a fine job of reporting a basic understanding of what’s on the surface level of a story, anything beyond the basics is going to be clouded and twisted by political bias.
Such of this bias can be attributed to the companies that own the news networks. In 1983, 90 percent of American media was owned by 50 companies, but in 2016, that same 90 percent was owned by just six companies. This extreme concentration of media ownership has also created a concentration in what is being reported—the interests of these companies often lie more with making money than reporting actual news, so networks are not likely to report the whole truth on stories that could hurt business for their mother company.
Mainstream media is great if you want to hear a story from a one-sided, bias-fueled perspective. But if you want the real story, you’re going to have to dig a little deeper. This is where alternative media comes in.
For a long time, their relatively easy access made mainstream media the preference for most Americans. However, with the growing political bias that has become synonymous with almost every one of these major networks in recent years, many people have started to rely on alternative media outlets to get their news. Alternative media outlets tend to be smaller than mainstream ones and can be found in print, online and even on the radio in some parts of the country. Many of these outlets have less funding than a mainstream organization, so they are most often found online and sometimes have a tendency to polarize toward specific perspectives.
I won’t try to tell you what sources to get your news from, but I will encourage you to seek out sources that report with as little bias as possible, regardless of your political stance. You may not always like what you hear on the news, but it is important that what you hear is the truth. In my searching, I have found the Associated Press to be one of the most unbiased and reliable news sources today. The AP is exactly what its title implies—an organization of newspapers, television networks and other outlets that only want the facts. It is a not-for-profit organization that is owned by its members, so there is little room for bias to cloud its reporting. The six aforementioned companies all receive news from AP, and any distortion in the stories comes from how their networks choose to report them.
Truth has been a buzzword in our current political climate. People on both ends of the political spectrum can sense that there is something missing in the mainstream media and are seeking honest answers about what is going on in the world around them. In order to truly engage in a healthy discourse and calm the severity of the current political climate, it is so important to be well read in the truth. We must be incredibly cautious of the media we consume and where it comes from, because it can make a world of difference in how we perceive the world around us.
By Katie Kemp, News editor
