I have been holding my tongue about this issue for quite some time. Unfortunately, as with the majority of my inspiration to write, the issue has gone on far too long, the people involved have gone way too far and (of course) the ignorance of the average American citizen is not just harming the ignorant. Their ignorance is affecting all of us and, just like this year’s election, the effect of their affect is not wanted nor is it of any help.
The fact that there are people sitting in their dorms, basements, or local Starbucks writing fictional stories then passing them off as legitimate, factual news stories is repugnant to me as both a U.S. citizen and as a blogger. I know it sounds terse for me to say that America’s ignorance isn’t the “shock factor” of this story. Although it’s not shocking it is troubling because these writers are able to make a living writing complete fiction that isn’t being read, digested and regurgitated for amusement.
The writers of this cancer are passing it off as legitimate news and the reason they are able to make a living doing this is because of the ignorance of the average person who turns to social media to get their news. To add insult to injury, the PE has used the fictional, dangerous propaganda to win his presidency. But wait, it gets worse. He is either an evil genius or just as ignorant as those who voted him into office. I say this because he, not only passes on the fictional, nonfactual conspiracy theories and rhetoric manufactured by others; he takes to Twitter and Facebook – impulsively – whenever he sees, reads or hears something that he doesn’t like.
The tumult of average people taking to social media to “get their news, i.e., random people blurting out their opinion mixed with the people writing fictional news for a source of income combined with major news organizations broadcasting edited clips to support their agenda and biases has created an epidemic. This is putting the social media companies in a position where, according to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, they don’t want nor should they be required to fact check their subscribers.
I think the fact that the word “media” is within the name used to describe the online social networking sites people use is problematic. You see, the average person who uses a website forum referred to as “social media” as their “news outlet” is either ignorant, gullible or just not very studious with language so they believe everything they read or hear via social media as Truth.
I believe the reason for their confusion is that the word “media” is mistaken as being synonymous with the word “news.” News is supposed to be factual. It is not supposed to have any bias or agenda other than to be a form of mass communication of the truth for the people reading it in publications or hearing it in transmissions. Also, the fact is, humans are using these online outlets to communicate and human beings are prone to errors with perception, judgement, interpretation and all other ingredients that create misinformation.
However, many news organizations that are broadcast over major networks on television and radio have become completely biased. That bias started to bleed into the information being broadcast and that led to some of the networks to start manufacturing news to fit their biases and their agendas. This is what led to the mass disinformation within major news organizations to become commonplace.
The more common fiction gets passed off as fact the more common it is for people to pass off that misinformation to others as fact as well. It just so happens that as our news sources became strongly biased and less factual the internet developed all sorts of different social networking sites for people to be able to stay in touch with each other no matter how far apart they were physically.
Words are powerful. Our words are our wands, our paintbrushes and the tools in which we manifest, describe and define our reality. If we are sloppy with our words, our magic, our art when we express what or who we are as people, as a nation and as a source of “media” we can’t expect the finished product to be anything other than complete calamity.
The real media outlets, the real journalists and anyone else who writes nonfiction (like myself) shouldn’t expect the companies who are continually referred to as “social media” to redefine themselves and how they should be addressed. We, all those who write or pass along the facts, need to stop addressing Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and all others as “social media.” We need to describe them as what they, truly, are and that is “social networks.” Let us who tell, write and spread the truth, here in the United States and around the world, never refer to online social gathering sites as “media” again – not ever.
©December 5, 2016 – Tamara Imes-Nicholas
No comments:
Post a Comment