Are You a Headline Voter?

Take a moment and think carefully about how many news headlines you read today. Now think about how many of them you followed up on and read the entire article. Chances are, you skimmed the headlines because you did not have the time or the will to read them through. And now, by some miracle, if you did manage to read it through, how many of them did you actually verify?

“Ah! Who has the time to go through all the stuff ” , you’d say. “It’s a reputed publication. They cannot put up false information”.

This is the exact statement of one of my friends. He likes to use the news as a factual authority while debating. Unfortunately, though, the world doesn’t run on facts & logic. It runs on emotions.

Perception is everything. People believe what they want to. All of us have certain inclinations towards certain ideologies through our religion, upbringing or neighborhood and we are emotionally attached to them. These emotions are the targets of every ‘unbiased’ news publisher.

You’ll see people ranting on social media, debating & fighting to prove their point. Are they all fake? No! They genuinely believe what they say and its not their mistake. Their emotions have been toyed with! A simple piece of news can have drastic effects based on how it is published. The ones who successfully pushes their narrative, wins. Every newspaper outlet pushes for some or the other agenda. They play with human emotions.

Every article you read has been targeted for a certain audience. They might not publish outright lies, but they can choose to omit a certain piece of information. So while you might like some because they align themselves with your emotions & your beliefs, you will hate the others, thinking of them as nothing but weeds corrupting the garden. Unfortunately, though, all of them are trying to deceive you, convincing you to believe that only their narrative is true.

So is all lost? Is there no way to find the truth? Certainly not! However, if you want to find the real truth, you will have to consume the news from the entire spectrum. Only then, almost all facts will be illuminated for you to make a well-informed opinion. Yes, it is tedious. Yes, it is boring. But, democracy is the finest form of governance, endowing the power to all citizens, so that you can choose your leader. But to do that you must be in possession of all the facts. Disinformation & fake news are modern weapons designed to brainwash you into submission! A single post, A single headline could be a gamechanger in today’s world! They are banking on the fact that you won’t verify the news, that you are a headline reader. Don’t let them make you a headline voter!