Jun 28, 2020
The World of a fixed-pie bias and polarized society.
“Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.” — Marcus Aurelius.
At times of information technology, when there is so much data our human brains can’t handle, we are facing the dilemma of what to believe, which side to choose. Very few of us will try to listen to both, see both perspectives, try finding the way out of a conflict by benefiting both parties.
We are intentionally being forced to choose either all or nothing. It has led us, humankind to many troubles in the past, yet nothing has changed.
I have seen a countless number of contradicting media coverage, sharing misleading stories, or taking quotes out of context. Isn’t it much easier to just blindly believe? This way we don’t need to think twice, search proofs or facts.
Misinformation inevitably generates conflicts, pushes many good people to radicalism, wars.
I like Marcus Aurelius’s quote just as much as I like the quote by Ben Shapiro: “Facts don’t care about your feelings”. This led me to be skeptical about any news I hear. Testing and verifying the information you receive is the first step to counter prejudice and blind acceptance. As Scientific American magazine puts it, the best way to guard yourself against bias is to learn to “accept ambiguity, engage in critical thinking, and reject strict ideology.”
- Do you ever check questionable information, especially information that contradicts your position?
- Are verifiable facts relevant to your decision-making?
If your answer is “Yes” here are some of the proven ways to filter information in the World of “Fake news”.
1. Read the “About Us” section
Most sites will have a lot of information about the news outlet, the company that runs it, members of leadership, and the mission and ethics statement behind an organization. The language used here is straightforward. If it’s melodramatic and seems overblown, you should be skeptical. Also, you should be able to find out more information about the organization’s leaders in places other than that site.
2. Look at the quotes in a story or lack of them. Sources, sources, sources…
Most publications have multiple sources in each story who are professionals and have expertise in the fields they talk about. If it’s a serious or controversial issue, there are more likely to be quotes — and lots of them. Look for professors or other academics who can speak to the research they’ve done. And if they are talking about research, look up those studies.
3. Check the comments
A lot of these fake and misleading stories are shared on social media platforms. Headlines are meant to get the reader’s attention, but they’re also supposed to accurately reflect what the story is about. Lately, that hasn’t been the case. Headlines often will be written in an exaggerated language with the intention of being misleading and then attached to stories that are about a completely different topic or just not true. These stories usually generate a lot of comments on Facebook or Twitter. If a lot of these comments call out the article for being fake or misleading, it probably is.
4. Online fact-checking resources.
Yet you might ask, who will fact check these resources? This thinking can lead us to a rabbit hole. The point is to have a way to get down to the root of information and base your decision on that.
Here are those that I keep under my favorite bookmarks:
