Mind Over Media

The Role of the Mass Media in Spreading Misinformation & how to Guard Against it.

An Opinion Piece

We Have a Problem

Mass media is a fascinating thing. In today's day and age, it is everywhere. It exists on our televisions. It exists in our workplaces. It exists in the palm of our hands, in those small devices that we all carry. In the 21st century, people are held together and provided more information than ever before in ways like never before, yet we are falling into a dark spiral where information is subjective, and truth has many points of view. 

Misinformation has become a huge topic of interest. Recent findings by the Pew Research Center suggest that this topic is of great importance to the public. You hear about it almost everywhere you go. Everyone is aware that misinformation exists; the phrase fake news has become popular regardless of what Echo chamber you belong to, but is the trouble actually fake news or simply a person's willingness to dismiss anything they don't like as such? Mass media plays an incredibly critical role in disseminating inaccurate information. That much is clear, but how does it do this, and how can we better understand and guard ourselves against falling victim to false beliefs? 

What is media? 

For our purposes, we're going to define media as an established and frequently utilized method of disseminating information to a larger audience, and we're talking about everything from a 24-hour news cycle, opinion pieces, and traditional reporting newspapers, magazines, podcasts, social media, and blogs but what does media actually do? 

Media Effects

The role of media and the effects they have on society can be broken down into three key concepts that everyone should know. These are agenda-setting, priming, and framing. 

Agenda-setting is exactly what it sounds like; it is presenting, creating, and defining priorities. It is quite literally setting the agenda. 

Priming and framing are deeply interwoven and a little more complex, often mixed up and Confused. It can be difficult to discern which of these actions is being taken by a particular media source. In layman's terms, priming is the process of getting people ready to feel whatever emotion they would like to evoke in order to elicit a desired response. 

For example, an article that sets people up to be angry when discussing a certain topic like affirmative action or state-run health care, whereas framing is how we tell the story in order to utilize or even weaponize that feeling we just created. You've heard many people discuss misinformation and how we got here. Simply put, it's through these key concepts that individuals are made to believe blatant falsehoods.

There’s an Algorithm for that.

The internet has become increasingly interwoven into the fabric of daily life, and it has created camps. Little echo chambers where every thought can be reinforced until it becomes a deeply ingrained belief. It’s important to keep in mind that while social media platforms may act as a public utility in their capacity of a modern-day town square, they are, in fact, businesses designed to make money. Now the Supreme Court is poised to hear a case that may strip social media sites of the protection they enjoy from their users’ actions. This case could potentially open the floodgates to lawsuits over misinformation and what sites choose to allow on their platforms. 

Algorithms are specifically designed to show us things of interest. But the problem may go deeper; misinformation may actually be more engaging. By feeding us stories of interest and sensational headlines, they keep us engaged. The longer we scroll, the more ads we encounter, and the more money is made. But the need for profit margins doesn’t just drive social media. 

A Ratings Game

Television relies on a singular thing to keep itself going, ratings. Ratings determine interest, and interest determines the level of investment from advertisers. The level of investment from advertisers determines the salaries. Recent stories and revealed documentation surrounding Fox News and their reporting of the 2020 election show how the need for ratings can become primal and end up outweighing the desire for accurate reporting and journalistic integrity. 

The Power to Prime & Deliver

All of this leads to the real question, is the media responsible for the rise and perpetuation of “fake news,” and if so, how do we stop it? 

While agenda-setting can be a powerful tool, the real issue comes with priming and framing. Working hand-in-hand, these two have the ability to create something that is intensely powerful when trying to impact opinion. Namely, emotions. Emotion has the ability to make people vulnerable and susceptible to ideas that they may have, under other circumstances, questioned further. In this way, the types of media we are discussing not only serve as vehicles for misinformation but also the substance that weekend the defenses against falsehoods. 

An Ounce of Prevention

As simple as it may sound, information is the best way to combat misinformation. Studies have shown that when initial information surrounding a falsehood is presented, individuals are more likely to see that false information for what it is when they encounter it again. For years the standard belief has been that not discussing misinformation was a way to suffocate it and keep it from spreading. But it’s not enough to tell someone that a particular belief of “fact” is incorrect; we must also beagle to explain, in very simple terms, why it is incorrect. Mass media has made initial bursts of information easy to disseminate, while long-winded explanations tend to die on the cutting room floor. In addition, many more mainstream news sources have struggled with the idea of calling falsehoods lies or attempting to debunk them out of fear that their audience may see them as biased or tune out entirely. Unfortunately, discussing the problem in hypotheticals and devoid of strong language and clear, digestible explanations does little to change already-formed opinions or prevent people from falling prey. 

The Harsh Reality

Perhaps it’s not as simple as the media learning to behave. The reality is that a basic economic principle of supply and demand is in effect. There is a benefit in salacious headlines and attention-grabbing stories that feed on all of the emotions we’ve already been primed to feel. Audiences aren’t calling for real journalists to replace their favorite opinion hosts, no matter how unqualified those hosts may be to deliver the news. 

Good Night & Good Luck

Misinformation is frequently snappy, appealing, and believable. It fits into neat packages of preformed beliefs. It is easily disseminated through the media. It is sharable, clickable, and interesting. It can be shoved into a quick headline that requires no real reading or thought at all. For all the ways the media has set the stage for rampant misinformation, it is perhaps fitting that the same tools are the best way to combat this growing crisis. The trouble is that a tool is only as good as those who wield it. And in that area, dear reader, I’m afraid both the fault and the responsibility lay solely with us.