Today, I decided to post something a little different: a question about the trustworthiness and credibility of todays media.
International and in alphabetical order:
Al Jazeera https://www.aljazeera.com/
France 24 https://www.france24.com/en/
Reuters https://www.reuters.com/
The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/europe
I would say these are the ones I still hold respect over the years. Regardless of issues, these still have my respect.
Trust however?
Well, nobody should trust or distrust anything blindly. Too many times I see people nowadays fall in line of blind allegiance to absolutes. To trust or to distrust absolutely. The key to media literacy is to look for what is not seen in what is being shown. And to try and cover our blind spots nurtured by our biases.
And no the answer isn't "ground news". That is a silly tool for Factioned Americans. Nobody gets to decide the spectrum and the polical positioning of outlets. Example: The New York Times is considered Left Wing by Americans but in Europe they would be a moderate Right Wing or full blown Right Wing depending of the country you're in.
This is why Left/Right is dead as a deconstruction of social struggles. The original meaning of it as established in the French Revolution has been dead and buried for a while. Especially with the NeoLiberalism creation of the "Centrist" positioning with false oppositions that protect the already benefitted citizens which would render them all as part of the "Right" by the original intended meaning of Left/Right.
There is no Center or Centrism in the original meaning of Left and Right for a reason. Because the center cannot be occupied by people saying what it is. The center is the "battleground", the "Negotiation Space" where the contesting and conceding occur between the ones privileged by the status quo and the ones left out of it.
Was I sanctimonious, condescending and awfully presumptuous enough?
I wrote all this because a lot of people decide their predilection of news outlets based on their perceived notions of Left/Right constructions which is why I've pointed out that they have been rendered pretty hollow throughout time.
Facts are verifiable. Opinions however are complicated.
I could state like many have, that The Guardian is an elitist outlet safekeeping the British upper middle-class interests against the oligarchs but at the cost of the disadvantaged as well. And if you are a reader of The Guardian like myself you know this is a warranted and fair criticism.
Taking this, what position would you place them in the silly Left-Center-Right spectrum line? The answer is quite irrelevant isn't it?
I would say, when it comes to political governance, focus on propositions and their inherent outcomes and consequences, then take the criticism of those same propositions to correct and improve them or to abandon them altogether in favour of something more viable.
When it comes to news coverage... outlets are by majority owned by corporations and or wealthy individuals that will run defense through them. That is why public owned news outlets have retained value and common trust, because the perverse incentive is blocked out.
Suggestion wise... seeking verifiable information first, then seeking many angles of that same said verifiable information to perceive if there is insight to be found or if it is just noise as cover-up for what is truly the foundation of what is happening is the best option we all have.
Knowing that all of us are unreliable narrators of reality is something that I try to find in the people that I surround myself with. Because together we can form a better account of reality than we can on our own.
That's it. No perfect solutions. But definitely the never-ending possibility of improvements.
The fact that all of this requires some level of ego death and humility in an age where social media and its inherent algorithmic distribution of information nurtures egotism, egoism and faction siding by the "faux virtue" path is however the larger crisis we face regarding the distribution of information. Which results in an aggravation of everything else in the process.
As to solutions to this? I truly don't know what can "disarm" this. But I would love to hear suggestions as to how we can counter this or diminish its effects.
Any suggestions?