Media

One of the most important lessons the political science major has taught me is that there is a degree of bias in all media reports. It is because of this that to truly understand an issue with the knowledge available we need to look further than a headline, interview, or any single shared opinion. What I used to believe, as it seemed the most logical, was to look at the numbers themselves and from there deduce my conclusion. Men lie, women, numbers don’t. Furthermore, this thinking seemed to be encouraged by our professors, as they would view these types of evidence favorably in papers, projects, and class discussions. However, I have since learned that this type of evidence is as well bias as numbers only show one aspect of a larger focus. For instance, you could point to Ronald Reagan being a good president by looking at the fact that he averaged a GDP growth of over 3% annually. However, you could just as easily point out that he tripled the national debt and more than double the deficit, making him a bad one. Although both numbers of correct, they cancel each other out in term of taking away an opinion. This is why the numbers aren't always unbiased and can’t always be pointed to when making a judgment.  

What I try and do now is judge a story or report on its degree of bias to deem it credible or not. For instance, my primary news source is the facebook trending bar. I’m most likely on site once a day and although not always for very long, this consistently outweighs any other possible news outlet or resource. As many people would argue that social media is not valid, as it much of it is controlled in addition to being presented in a liberal and p.c light, it use this bar as a starting point. A point where I can see an interesting topic and now where to look. From there, for topics that seem interesting, I normally go to google news, searching the main points in the story. I like this and believe it's a good stepping stone because you can instantly have ten times the access, coverage, and diversity in views on the issue. Going through each, i’m able to get a better idea or the story and the context it was in. This to me is the best and most efficient way to quickly learn the majority of the available information.  

Building off this, I think the most important aspect in any news is hearing out the other side. It is too common in today's day and day to forget about this, as the findings or claims in a report are in line with one's own and therefore are correct.  This is another significant reason I enjoy using google news for stories. Showing the vast amounts of reports for an issue will almost always have conflicting views. By reading both, your not only able to understand the issues better as a whole but get away from the general consensus that most people have and most news sources are pushing.