Issues&ideas Propaganda trumping news Whats happened to accountability in the age of information EDITOR BONNIELEELA MADELEINE | From stereogreph to selfie. A student looks at a wall of information on a campus bulletin board where literature departments present their best plea for enrolment. sai Mowers PHOTO int A Pe dituring over of dark seers 7 200 coring S872 eucusn 2 ative writing See “Screenwriting isthe cinematic arts, Actual ne nwriting : . Become a better. more confident writer. Langara : : ee Pollinate your mind. Langara oe ° oe KS Asian Studiag No diversity in the media Five companies control 73% of Canadian news output ™ BySAM MOWERS very day, information from screens, print and radio over- whelms people trying to nav- igate current affairs. According to data from LifeHack. com, the average social media user processes 285 pieces of content dai- ly. Many Canadians get their news from social media sites like Facebook, which generates a news feed using an algorithm based on what a user al- ready ‘likes’. In a Gallup poll published in Sep- tember 2016, it was found that only 32 per cent of Americans have a “great deal” or “fair amount” of trust in main- stream media. “T know fake news exists out there on the Internet,” said Langara general studies student Sam MacTavish. “I'll go to CBC or something reliable if ’m looking for a precise news story.” Stephen Phillips, a Langara politi- cal science instructor, said that people should consult a broad range of news “T think that a diverse media diet is a good inoculation against any one perspective dominating.” —LEALLE RUHL, LANGARA INSTRUCTOR sources to have an accurate picture of what’s going on. “Where you have a marketplace of ideas, it’s incumbent on the conscien- tious citizen to consult a variety of sources,” he said. The problem for most readers is knowing where their news is coming from. Five corporations own 73.3 per cent of Canadian media outlets. “People will think that they have a diverse media diet because they read three or four newspapers,” said Lan- gara political science instructor Lealle Ruhl. “Youd think that that’s pretty eclectic except that all of those are owned by the same company.” Visiting a variety of news sources presents people with different per- spectives and ways of thinking. “T think that a diverse media diet is a good inoculation against any one perspective dominating,” said Ruhl. MINISTRY OF TRUTH GEORGE ORWELL 1984 5 1949 George Orwell pub- lishes 1984, a dystopian novel where thinking is illegal and the present rewrites the history. 1 950 Orwellian is coined. 1989 Available in 65 languages. 2017 Donald Trump be- comes U.S. President. Trump's counsellor introduces phrase ‘alternative facts’. 1984 becomes Amazon.com best-selling book. V SOURCES: WIKIPEDIA, AMAZON.COM FRIDAY, FEB. 10,2017 | THE VOICE 7 Yes, you are biased! People must make an effort to Keep their minds open, not just to confirm their beliefs = By DUNCAN ANDERSON ( ) onfirmation bias is defined in terms of energy. It takes the brain less energy to confirm something a person already thinks is right, than to wrestle with new or con- flicting information. The events leading up to the election of President Donald Trump, the rise of fake news and the accusation of a bi- ased media are all symptoms of a public facing change in an uncertain future. The better people understand how they process novel information the less every day encounters become about reinforc- ing barriers. “It is dangerous to rely on intuition and perception alone. We need real data and evidence,” Rike Basedow, a German student studying at UBC, said. “We are evolutionarily based to continuously scan our environment for threat or reward,” said Lee Nicho- las, clinical supervisor and consultant working in Yaletown. He added that the reward is usually social bonding, which helps reduce the stress caused by unknown or new situations. People like to be right, said Jennifer Poole, a social psychology instructor at Langara. They will always find ways to make conflicting information fit into their world view before changing their mind. “Tf I believe, for example, that Trump is a wonderful person because he is good at not going with the status quo,” said Poole “every time he makes a mi- sogynist comment or a racist comment I am going to think ‘Oh, he doesn’t re- ally mean that.” To open a mind she recommends meeting people who share different re- ligions, ways of thinking and cultures. According to Poole, overcoming per- sonal prejudice means stepping out of comfort zones. It's not easy, but it may be the best way to expand a mind. Media experts search for ways to rebuild trust Trump's taunts follow- ing election victory trigger soul searching = By LAURA BROUGHAM edia veterans believe that a return to principles will help rebuild public trust. Journalism is based on reporting facts and going into the field to interview people, but the Internet has changed the way stories are reported. Many stories are now done without leaving the news- room, changing the dynamic between the public and reporters. The B.C./Yukon representative for the Canadian Association of Journal- ists, Dale Bass, thinks journalists spend too much time in newsrooms to understand their readers’ interests. weren't just writing and rewriting whic butt, get out of your office, talk to people, listen to people and answer their questions.” Bass is also thinking about te idea of neutrality. “I wonder sometimes about the veil of objectivity we all have, and COby . Sat AY sew -evie DE eada: ~ eatts 19% Canad Nit ist a4 acro> ety Fn cr asso Es Bie eae S ‘rethink’ rarain OW! be Children ministia welfare system of contrac = oe GRANVILLE STREET Local papers call to readers. BONNIE LEE LA MADELEINE PHOTO ILLUSTRATION whether we need to continue promul- gating that,” said Bass. “Should jour- nalists protest? I don’t know.” Rob Dykstra, former chair of “sx Langara’s journalism department, _ believes reporters should remember their role in serving the public inter- est. “Journalists have a lot of integrity in terms of presenting information that’s based on facts, and not work- | ing opinions into stories,” he said. Dykstra thinks many news outlets rely too much on company-spon- sored press releases to fill pages be- cause they are short-staffed. “They will generally pick those up and run them,” he said, often not real- izing “the vested interest behind that story.” Steven Malkowich, executive vice- president of Alberta Newspaper Group, accused blogs of contributing to dam- aged reputations of the media. “If we write something that is fake, or disingenuous, we'll get sued,” said Malkowich. “But on the Internet you can just say whatever and nobody gets sued. There’s no deterrent to doing it,” he said. According to Dykstra, this works against journalism principles and the integrity of fact-based reporting.