The Good and The Bad of Media #1

Robert Cowan
Sep 5, 2018 · 3 min read

The media plays a very important role in our society and influences people’s ideas every day. The reason media is able to influence so many people in America is because of the First Amendment and our freedom of speech. This freedom of speech, however, can have its positive and negative effects on society.

With all the “Fake News” going on in our world, I think one beneficial use of media is the website, Politifact. Politifact is a not-for-profit whose goal is to correct, and fact check anything people say. While it is impossible for them to police everything that is said on the internet, they do their best to cover things that have gained traction and are starting to become viral. One of the main goals is to keep politicians in check. On their site, they have what they call a “Truth-O-Meter.” On this page are quotes from politicians and others alike with an influence over people, along with Politifacts’ analysis of that statement. Statements receive a rating of; true, mostly true, half true, mostly false, false, and pants on fire. Along with each rating, they will provide an explanation as to why the statement received that rating. My favorite part of the site is the page on Mr. Trump. Here you can view hundreds of statements from Trump and see the rating and the explanations about the statements, and as of today (9/5), 33% of his statements are false. So, that’s neat. (sarcasm) Anyway, Politifact is one good use of media I would like to point out as it keeps people honest.

An example of a bad use of media is Infowars as a whole. I wanted to talk about a certain video that was produced by Alex Jones and Infowars but because of their removal from YouTube, I was unable to find the video, so I will talk about their organization from what I know. So Infowars and Alex Jones their “Editor-in-chief,” are a far-right media company that plays into the fears on many people and promotes these unsubstantiated claims that can make people question how they feel about the government and what they have been told about recent events. Two major examples of Infowars’ unsubstantiated claims that caused mass outcry were, the Sandy Hook conspiracy and the vaccine video. In the Sandy Hook video, Alex Jones called the victims of the mass shooting “actors” and claimed the government was behind the whole thing. This conspiracy theory was able to gain traction because at the time YouTube allowed the video to remain on the platform and caused the victims of the shooting to be harassed by crazy people who agreed with Mr. Jones. The second example was Alex Jones’ claims about the dangers of letting kids be vaccinated. Jones would take an example of people getting sick and have these “doctors” come on his show and talk about how these vaccines are giving kids autism and other diseases that cannot be linked to receiving a vaccine. The story about vaccines and illnesses were shared all over different media platforms. I remember about 1–2 years ago when there was a major uproar about parents who were not going to get their kids vaccinated because of fear that was spread by Mr. Jones.

Freedom of speech protects media organizations like Infowars but media companies like Politifact are there to be a counter to companies that spread the real “fake news.”