Open dialogues about media literacy and factual information can create conflict; why does this happen?
Julie Smith’s interview was very eye-opening and provided a new perspective on news outlets, specifically TV news like NBC, ABC, Fox, etc. Julie reminds the listeners that these news outlets are for-profit businesses. Although I was aware of this, I tend to disregard this principle when going to these outlets to obtain news. This is not a critical or bad thing. However, it is to be kept in the back of your head and reminded of when listening to different outlets’ perspectives and reporting the news. For example, Fox Corp, the parent company of Fox News, is a publicly-traded company. To expand, they have shareholders that expect to see a return on their investments; therefore, Fox will present news they want you to see that benefits their business. They will give information to help persuade you to view their stories and content to benefit themselves.
What is the benefit of having a PLN that values media literacy?
Julie Smith’s perspective of “push vs. pulling” news was one I had never heard before. Technology has allowed humans to have an extensive and overwhelming amount of information readily available at their fingertips. This has led to various platforms, networks, and groups providing and distributing news and information. In turn, this allows the user to pick and choose what they want to read and how they want to interpret it. Reflecting on the topic and discussion of news sources, Bloomberg is an excellent example of a platform that tries to minimalize bias and aligns in the center of the political spectrum. Having many different information networks lying on other ends of the political spectrum and everything in between, many platforms camouflage what is real or what they want their audience to see. Bloomberg’s approach is one to be recognized as they do not push information or perspectives on the audience but instead let their audience choose what they want to read. This media literacy allows the audience to interpret information how they want to, a fundamental principle to maintain free thought in a PLN.
Cable News Network. (n.d.). Fox. CNNMoney. Retrieved November 15, 2022, from https://money.cnn.com/quote/shareholders/shareholders.html?symb=FOX&subView=institutional
Hi Fritzpetersen,
I too believe that social media platforms as well as news platforms will target their audiences for their own benefit. That’s why I think it is extremely important to try to make these social media platforms fully public and allow for freedom of speech. Today, Elon Musk is a global leader on unbanning accounts that are spreading their ideas that others don’t support as seen by Elon freeing the bird (Twitter). Behind these social media platforms are governments and other organizations that will only allow posts and ideas that support in their favour.
Thanks for sharing,
Kevin Song
Hi Fritz,
I enjoyed reading your post. I like how you talked about Fox News and that it is important to be aware of the news outlets you are getting your information from. I think that individuals might be unaware that many news sources have a certain bias they are projecting, however it can be hard to remember this when there is a headline story. I agree with your thought about media literacy and how it is important to take in different sources of information before making an assumption or statement on an issue. This might be common knowledge for the students in this class but many people fall victim to this! Great post.