NEWS STORIES

Laura Ingraham—contributes to sensationalism is through coverage of social topics that are likely to upset their audience. Many of these issues are frivolous or nonexistent, and the hosts use them to incite anger over the actions of the “woke” generation. These anchors have criticized the female green M&Ms’ wearing sneakers instead of high heels, diversity in the new Lego line, and the “war on Christmas” (referring to the increase in people who say “happy holidays” rather than “merry Christmas”). Their tactics make viewers angry in order to get more views and more money. This approach works: Fox News is continuously the most-watched cable news network in the U.S. However, not only does it sacrifice reporting on real issues for meaningless rants, Fox News’ sensationalism has hurt real people. Their fearmongering over drag queens contributed to the ban on drag in Tennessee. Their tirades over “critical race theory” and LGBTQ+ education in schools has indirectly led to censorship of books in Republican-controlled school districts. The conspiracy theories spread on its network caused many viewers to refuse the COVID-19 vaccine, endangering their lives. There is no doubt that Fox News’ sensationalism, exaggeration, and misinformation is harmful to the U.S. and should not be something that news organizations strive to replicate, even if it boosts ratings.

News outlets should minimize sensationalism, though some responsibility falls on the viewer. The Oracle adviser Kristy Blackburn believes that people should learn to distinguish between fact, opinion, and misinformation. “The issue is commentary,” Blackburn said. “When people get into opinions and conflate opinions with news, then that’s where you run into trouble. As a democracy, we need to get a lot better at distinguishing what actual facts are versus what someone’s opinions are.”

Developing media literacy is imperative for people to become informed citizens. With so much information available online, one must be able to understand what is true or false, what is fact or opinion, what is accurate or exaggerated, and what is important or trivial. “It’s really important (that) people are aware of what they’re consuming,” Blackburn said. “That’s not just for news, that’s for anything. Being aware of what you’re consuming helps shape who you are.”

—Written by Jeri Lieberman-Evans, a Writer.