Anyone who knows me knows that I’m somewhat of a news freak. Name a fairly large event in the world and most likely I would have heard of it through the glory of the internet. Still what remains to be known is what I think of news and its impact. I will now expound on what I think of news for the information of all caring.
News, what is news? News is, simply defined, information about recent events. News is what brings the single human into a greater knowledge of more than what is around them. news is the tool that binds the world beyond familial and familiar ties. A Single person can only gather information with one set of eyes and ears and through the aforementioned ties. However, it is through news that the eyes and ears of many record the voices of thousands, millions of people in a short and informative article. This is the power of news, the power of information. News is a powerful tool but it also brings with is a great uselessness.
News is powerful, there can be no doubt about this. This power of news is shown in the aftermath of decisive battles such as Antietam and other historical events such as the invasion of Korea and the Cuban Missile Crisis. News, which can include everything from a printed paper to the word of the highest power of a nation, is the only tool by which people can gain information of distant (or even sometimes near) places. The power of news is easily exemplified in all these incidents. In Antietam news affected both sides of the civil conflict greatly. The south was demoralized at the first major defeat of the year, the north invigorated. It Kept Lincoln in office and indirectly assured the existence of the Union with Lincoln’s re-election and the new reluctance of European nations to associate with the Confederacy. It was through news that the Cuban missile crisis affected people in America and the world. In the Cuban missile crisis the free world was shocked through the revelation of concrete evidence of missiles in Cuba, evidence which expedited their removal and assured continued human existence past the point of “the closest time to nuclear war.” This is the power of news to change the world. It has affected the course of war and averted and created wars. It has spurred new changes in human rights in nations such as America, France and Numerous other nations. The power of news allows a single journalist or person to affect the lives of thousands, millions, or even Billions of people through the use of the spoken and written word.
The writer Stan Lee once wrote “With great power must also come great responsibility.” This oft quoted saying (mostly as a result of its highly public appearance in numerous media) rings especially true with the great power of news. News is also a primary source of misinformation. This is especially true on the internet where everything (even this) must be taken with a “grain of salt.” Wikipedia is a prime example of this misinformation, both intentional and unintentional. The British Broadcasting Corporation has reported ”The Conservative Party was caught out last month tampering with an entry on the painter Titian [on Wikipedia]. [1]” For some reason people intrinsically trust Wikipedia, as they do with all other news. In many cases this is true, Wikipedia is right (especially for facts with a valid citation to a respectable source), however vandalism both obvious and unobvious is present in many articles (this is again proven in a graph on the “Evolution” page which has been entirely deleted by a user many times) [2]. While this is a relatively normal and expected example it also shows that no writer is without bias, no source perfect, and that intentional and unintentional errors plague news. No matter how respectable a source is there will always be a point where it errs*. As powerful as news is, it is not perfect and through incorrect facts it may irreparably influence people in a wrong direction.
The greatest danger of news lies not in its truth or power, it lies in the reader him/herself. More news from more sources abound today than any other period in history. In no other period could a single person make a single view known to everyone in the world that reads and cares (an example would be this post on this blog). Information is so plentiful, there is so much of it that people can cease to be moved by it, or be moved by it and not act on it. Almost everyone is guilty of this. Even with news people just do not care about the world. What is one distant but loud voice among hundreds and thousands of closer but softer voices. People usually only care about the center of the world, which to each person is generally the people and locations surrounding them. Foreign news only becomes relevant when it may directly apply to them or if the voice has become so loud it has overpowered other voices. For example the conflict in Darfur, Sudan has been going on for the last 5 years, but only recently have people started caring once the pain of people and the shouting of voices has reached those that finally turn their head to listen. These types of events are few and far between. Who has heard of the selling of children in Tajikistan and Liberia, (outside Canada) of Vincent Li who decapitated a rider on a greyhound bus, of the expulsion of Israeli diplomats from Zimbabwe or of the collapse of Iceland’s government earlier this year. The point is, most people, especially people in America, do not care about the world. This lack of care leads to lack of knowledge, and a lack of knowledge leads to a lack of inaction. The danger lies in all of these “lacks”. what good is the knowledge that affects nothing, What good is no knowledge at all (at least knowledge can lead to action). Just as governments institute educational program to inform people of the wiser decisions similarly news should be made in such a manner that there may be more people that care. Once again, we’re all guilty of not acting on knowledge, even that which we can act on in our local areas.
News is an important and valuable tool. It affects the world though those few people who change the world through affirmative action. However with it also comes danger, the danger of misinformation, the danger of no information, and the danger of not acting on information. News is to be respected and everyone should act in what ways they can or there was no point to the news in the first place. News has, is, and will always affect the world. Now it is our place to let it affect us for the greater good of all that is.
Refs:
[1] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7921985.stm
[2]http://s3.amazonaws.com/twittypic/wordpress/cache/4abe322cf0717b0769af0b4c4e89cf78.jpg
*err is not pronounced like error but the -er in hunger. . . look it up in a dictionary if you don’t believe me. This mispronunciation annoys me to no end.
**I don’t really like this since its somewhat hypocritical and not that well thought out but whatever. . .
