How to be informed?

Most adults in our country consume mainstream news channels to be informed (Today, I consider WhatsApp as a mainstream news channel). Irrespective of which new channel you consume, you will find bias. The opinion of the writer/presenter, as well as the media house that owns the publication, are bound to show up in the content presented.

The news we consume shapes our beliefs. And our beliefs shape the news channels we consume. These two effects reinforce each other and create a nice little bubble that we may find hard to get out of. How can we fix it?

Different people deal with this problem in different ways. Some just ignore it. Some intentionally follow multiple groups who are clearly in different bubbles. This is hard to do in practice, but is essential.

Say you start following different groups that present opposing views. How do you make your own balanced opinion? There are a few tricks that might help.

Know the world

To be able to judge, we need to be more aware of our world. Some basic knowledge is necessary. Below I list a bunch of starter items you might need to start with.

1. Read the constitution of India (or at least the first few sections). In any case, you must be aware of what is actually in the constitution.
2. You need to have a decent understanding of microeconomics — how markets work, how government interference affects the market etc.
3. You need to have a decent understanding of macroeconomics — GDP, inflation, instruments of the RBI, current account etc. You must also know at least some figures of India — GDP, annual GDP growth rates, revenue and taxation numbers, repo/reverse repo rates, fiscal deficits etc.
4. You need to have a basic understanding of the important institutions of the country — government, legislatures, courts, SEBI, RBI, CCI, ASI, etc.

Keep tabs on data sources

Beyond all this, you must be aware of certain primary sources of data, where the opinions have not yet entered. Some of the data sources I use are below.

1. Parliament of India website and other state legislature websites. You get first hand information on bills, acts, questions etc. Of course, there is the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha channels, but I don’t have all day.
2. PRS India — I prefer this to the parliament of India website sometimes, just because google finds it first.
3. Websites of ministries — Strictly look for documents here. It is easy to get strayed away by the prime minister’s face taking you away to marketing websites.
4. Reserve Bank of India — A treasure trove of information that provides detailed statistics on several areas of how India is doing.
5. Department of Economic Affairs
6. http://www.livelaw.in/ — Detailed judgements are usually published here
7. Census, economic surveys, budget documents, reports of finance commissions, other general reports

Keep building the list of original data sources, so that you can go back and verify when you find conflicts between the different camps. We can leave out detailed analysis to the journalists, but we still need to have a gist of what is going on to make sure they are not cherry-picking pieces that are just more juicy or just plain wrong.

Avoid sensationalism

Make sure you steer clear of pure sensationalism. These have the power to change our beliefs without sufficient reason. If you did all that I mentioned before, you will find the right places where intellectual honesty shines. Keep going back to them for your daily dose of news, protect yourself with data sources that don’t lie and optionally fight against the wrong ones in your own way.