WHY NEWS MATTERS
SEPARATING Fact from Opinion BY ALEXANDER STOCKSTELL, SOPHOMORE, COLUMBIA COLLEGE CHICAGO
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iving in the age of the Internet has created a place for an abundance of information to exist, but this place has just as much misinformation floating around as well. Whether you are doing a report for a class or just browsing your Facebook or Twitter pages, it is important you know where the information you are viewing is coming from. In 2008, the Pew Research Center did a study that found 34 percent of people age 18 to 24 claim they consume little to no news from any source on a typical day. This is sad considering that 93 percent of people age 12 to 17 and 18 to 29 use the Internet more than two hours a day, according to the Pew Research Center’s report “Social Media and Young Adults.” Pew also did a very interesting analysis of news videos on YouTube in July of 2012. The report said, “YouTube is becoming a major platform for viewing news.” Pew found that the most searched term of the month on YouTube for the last two years has been “news-related.” Here are a few helpful tips on gathering information on YouTube: • Read the title. If the word “Rant” is in it then more than likely 100 percent of the video is opinion-based. • Pay attention to the date it was posted. You want to consume the most relevant news; even if the source is a legit news source, an outdated video may be debunked by a more relevant video. • Do not judge the truthfulness of a video by its length. This is a mistake many young people make. • Good documentaries or news-related videos post their sources in the description. If an author of a video wants to be seen as legitimate they would want to back up the stats and facts in the video by posting their findings via links in the description. Almost always assume that the author is trying to hide something or that most of the video is untrue if there is no way for you to physically read the facts stated. The description can be pulled down by clicking the “show more” tab located between the video title and the comments section of each video. 30 TRUE STAR MAGAZINE
Have you ever been on a social media site and seen a horrendous picture followed by a very lengthy story of the picture with no link to attribute the story? This is a clear example of how social media sites are almost always a haven for opinionated and biased information. Don’t accept a story to be true unless there is a link attached to it that leads to a legitimate source. ABC News, CNN, CBS News and local newspaper’s websites are always legitimate sources, but outside of that, news legitimacy becomes a bit harder to determine. The easy answer is to always believe links that lead to websites with an “.org” or “.edu” at the end of the site, because more than likely those sites are monitored by respectful institutions. The great American author Mark Twain once said, “There are two sides to every story and then there is the truth.” In all news, and especially in American news, there is a constant battle going on. There are two sides: The Conservative side and the Liberal side. Depending on their affiliations, many news organizations are biased towards one or the other. For example, Fox News is a conservative news organization, while MSNBC is a liberal news site. But just because the bias exists does not mean you should not consume that type of news; just be aware that you are being swayed in a certain direction. Be proactive and try to read things from both sides in order to discern the truth. If things become difficult for you to discern, try fact-checking sites like Snopes.com, FactCheck.org, PolitiFact.com or check out a list of them at marketplace.org/ topics/elections/list-fact-checking-websites. If you run across a news article that contains questionable information, chances are one of those websites can tell you whether or not that particular source is factual or pure misinformation. The Internet is undoubtedly one of the greatest gifts to a young mind. But learning how to access reliable information and avoiding misinformation is the only way to make full use of that gift. Use it to make yourself smarter and encourage your friends to stop reading biased blog sites and engage themselves in a real investigation of the information they consume.