Plato’s Media Bubble
The Truth is out there, somewhere — but so are the Lies
The doubts first sneaked in with the internet. And now mistrust towards the media has hit rock bottom. As if people had been venturing out of Plato’s cave for the first time and found that the flickering shadows they had seen cavorting on their TV screens were only reflections of a larger, much more complex world.
Plato’s parable about the cave dwellers — prisoners staring at a wall for all their lives. And on that wall they see the shadows of the real world dancing back and forth. A modern variant of that cave wall were the Evening News. Millions of people used to watch them simultaneously on the major networks for decades — it was where most people informed their view of the world.
Then came the internet
Passing state limos, cordoned-off crime scenes and pontificating anchors. Ritualized clichés that exude familiarity and so give the impression of a certain degree of order and security even in times of crisis. For a long time the majority of the people did think the shadow play on their screens was reality and therefore was TRUE.
Then came the internet, and all of a sudden everybody could go and question the reporting and hold it up against other publicly available sources. All of a sudden people realized that the shadows they had been watching all their lives were only a projection of reality.
As if a curtain had been raised and we are now seeing a larger, more complex image, where good and evil are not that easy to tell. We’ve been liberated, but we are confused. We don’t know what’s happening to us. Who can we trust? Who tells the truth? And is there such as thing as ‟truth” in the first place?
There’s a general feeling of great uncertainty
Uncertainty is widespread indeed. Some people react with anger. They feel they have been had, and they attack whoever has manipulated the shadows, calling them ‟Lügenpresse” (lying press). Others just turn away from those they used to trust with explaining the world to them and go to different sources of information. Still others don’t want to remain passive, and have founded their own channels and portals where they can do their own explaining.
What is happening here is not the fault of the so-called mainstream media such as TV channels or newspapers. They have done their best given their technical capabilities. What they do have to own up to, though, is a certain mystique they liked to believe about themselves, their attitude of unquestionable critical detachment and derived from that a claim that they own the truth. They liked to pose as guardians of impartiality at their award ceremonies.
Mistakes or biases are only admitted reluctantly
Whenever we celebrate ourselves we testify for each other’s critical detachment, our in-depth research, our “quality journalism” for short. All this is done with a whiff of absolutism, as if everything that’s printed or broadcast were principally objective and therefore true.
And if we are confronted with doubts from the audience — no matter how justified — we call them conspiracy theories in a Pavlovian reflex. Mistakes or biases are only admitted hesitantly and reluctantly, if at all.
It will be years, if not decades, until we — cave dwellers and shadow manipulators alike — will have gotten used to the blinding light of the ubiquitous screens around us. We will have to find ways to orient ourselves in this omni-networked environment, and we will have to negotiate new norms, such as transparency and a culture open to admitting mistakes.
Maybe we’ll wake up one day and realize that this digital world is nothing more than a sham as well. A reflection of an even larger world, way beyond today’s imagination. And so all we are left with is having to learn to come to terms with our omnipresent doubts and with our lives inside the Matrix.
Or as Fox Mulder used to say to Dana Scully: “The truth is out there”. Problem is: So are the lies.
Comments?
