Believe the Lie! (of Media Bias)
Current Affairs, Loose Ends July 25th, 2007A thought that occurred to me when I was reading the Fox News website: people choose media outlets that agree with their own biases and media becomes biased to suit their readers in a self reinforcing cycle. I happened to be reading a global warming story that cast doubt on the human cause of global warming. This story allows people there is nothing wrong with their lives: that status quo is just fine. (And this gives me another opportunity to harp on about confirmation bias.)
It is all very well for me to criticize a news outlet that disagrees with me, but I think the “tell them what they want to hear” principle is universal in today’s media. You may have noticed I quote the BBC frequently, but I do try to question what I see and hear. The BBC has come under fire for “pandering to politically motivated celebrities and trendy causes” and being biased against Israel. We need to be on our guard against comfortable bias and find arguments that test our beliefs. Other concerns are the consolidation of media and advertising sponsorship interference. See the case of the journalists that blew the whistle on Monsanto after their employer tried to bribe them to alter or drop the story.
One problem with society is people are trained to accept information and store it away as fact for later retrieval. Much of education is indoctrination according to Chomsky. We need to focus more on critical thinking skills and less on “facts” and exams.
I recommend the documentary Control Room which examines Al Jazeera and its sharp contrast with Fox News. I am off to splutter and roll my eyes at the Mail on Sunday now.
Anti Citizen One
July 26th, 2007 at 4:21 pm
I agree wholeheartedly with you. The media is by its nature parasitic and education (i.e. the test based form that we rage against) is polity motivated indoctrination.
Two problems though, is it possible to ever have an independent media that involves no confirmation bias whatsoever. And (although I agree with you) an educational system based on critical skills and analytical thinking (philosophy for 7 year olds) is ideal, is it pragmatic?
To the first question, I think no, the media is incapable of removing confirmation bias from itself. Two solutions, leave the news to robots, or be honest about the sources. Acknowledge that the news as reported by The Daily Mail and the Guardian will be portrayed in accordance with a presupposed framework (not too dissimilar to the Hans Frei types) and ideology that colours the perspective in which the news is reported.
The second question. Although critical skills and analytical thinking are ideal, a certain amount of indoctrinating teaching must take place. Critical analysis of foreign languages for example won’t teach you french. Likewise before one can speculate on confirmation bias in science surely a basic scientific indoctrination should first take place. The danger here is in acknowledging that ideal as critical thinking and analysis may be not every school student is suitable for it. At which point do we taper off education into the two branches of analytical thinking (the philosophers and scientists of the world) and practical skills acquisition (the labouring work force)?
My ideal solution, teach the basics of philosophy, a touch of descartes, kant, plato and socrates to primary school students and then slowly integrate it into their curriculum over the following years in accordance with necessity.