During my short career in the newspaper industry, I’ve realized people don’t usually like, or trust, the media. Though The Clarkston News doesn’t face criticism the likes of CNN or the New York Post, we still have our share.
This feeling the public has about news media stems from a lack of knowledge and understanding about media outlets and those journalists and reporters who work for them.
I recall knowing next to nothing about journalism until I started my classes at Michigan State’s School of Journalism.
Articles are supposed to report the facts, journalists are supposed to report on everything, and every side of a story, sometimes even an unaffected/uninterested party, should be included.
Nothing is supposed to be biased. However, there are large media sources that lean too far to one side, such as the Huffington Post and Fox News.
I try to combat fake news and propaganda as much as I can in my personal life, and sometimes other people’s lives, so I follow around a dozen news sources. Some are Michigan papers, some are national, some aren’t American.
Still, most of what I read isn’t completely unbiased, and most of what you read isn’t either.
Usually you don’t get high-profile unbiased news from a well-known, big name news source, it comes from places like Pew Research Center or the Associated Press. Reading something from Occupy Democrats or the Right Wing News is probably not trustworthy, factual or good reporting, nor is any source with a clear political bias.
It’s the start of people not trusting the media, too many people trust these sites which have a clear bias and then question the media as a whole when they find out that site lied to them. It’s why no one should only follow news sources that lean towards one side of the spectrum.
I’ve found outlets such as NPR and the BBC to be more reputable than most.
I’ve also heard The Chicago Tribune is good, though I don’t often read it myself. It’s easy to cry wolf and claim the media is too liberal or too conservative, but facts are facts and they can be found if you take the time to research.