I might need some recalibration, but I’m not sure.
I research topics of interest in the media, and I feel frustrated, angry and annoyed about the half-truths and misleading statements that I encounter frequently. The problem is not the feelings, but whether I am ‘wrong’. I figure there are two ways that I might be wrong:
(i) Maybe I’m wrong about these half-truths and misleading statements not being necessary. Maybe authors have already considered telling the facts straight and that didn’t get the best message out.
(ii) Maybe I’m actually wrong about whether these are half-truths or really all that misleading. Maybe I am focused on questions of fact and the meanings of particular phrases that are overly subtle.
The reason why I think I might need re-calibration is because I don’t consider it likely that I am much less pragmatic, smarter or more accurate than all these writers I am critical of (some of them, inevitably, but not all of them—also these issues are not that difficult intellectually).
Here are some concrete examples, all regarding my latest interest in the Ebola outbreak:
Harvard poll: Most recently, the HSPH-SSRS poll with headlines, “Poll finds US lack knowledge about ebola” or, “Many Americans harbor unfounded fears about Ebola”. But when you look at the poll questions, they ask whether Americans are “concerned” about the risk, not what they believe the risk to be, and whether they think Ebola is spread ‘easily’. The poll didn’t appear to be about American’s knowledge of Ebola, but how they felt about the knowledge they had. The question about whether Ebola transmits easily especially irks me, since everyone knows (don’t they??) that whether something is ‘easy’ is subjective?
“Bush meat”: I’ve seen many places that people need to stop consuming bush meat in outbreak areas (for example). I don’t know that much about how Ebola is spreading through this route, but wouldn’t it be the job of the media and epidemiologists to report on the rate of transmission from eating bats (I think there has only been one ground zero patient in West Africa who potentially contracted Ebola from a bat) and weigh this with the role of local meat as an important food source (again, don’t know, media to blame)? Just telling people to stop eating would be ridiculous, hopefully it’s not so extreme. Also, what about cooking rather than drying local meat sources? This seems a very good example of the media unable to nuance a message in a reasonable way, but I allow I could be wrong.
Media reports “Ebola Continues to spread in Nigeria” when the increase in Ebola cases were at that time due to contact with the same person and had already been in quarantine. This seemed to hype up the outbreak when in fact the Nigerians were successfully containing it. Perhaps this is an example of being too particular and over-analyzing something subtle?
Ever using the phrase ‘in the air’ to describe how Ebola does or doesn’t transmit, because this is a phrase that can mean completely different things to anyone using or hearing the phrase. Ebola is not airborne but can transmit within coughing distance.
The apparent internal inconsistency of a case of Ebola might come to the US, but an outbreak cannot happen here. Some relative risk numbers would be helpful here.
All of these examples upset me to various degrees since I feel like it is evidence that people—even writers and the scientists they are quoting—are unable to think critically and message coherently about issues. How should I update my view so that I am less surprised, less argumentative or less crazy-pedantic-fringe person?
My first suggestion would be to look at the incentives of people who write for the media. Their motivations are NOT to “get the best message out”. That’s not what they’re paid for. Nowadays their principal goal is to attract eyeballs and hopefully monetize them by shoving ads into your face. The critical thing to recognize is that their goals and criteria of what constitutes a successful piece do not match your goals and your criteria of what constitutes a successful piece.
The second suggestion would be to consider that writers write for a particular audience and, I think, most of the time you will not be a member of that particular audience. Mass media doesn’t write for people like you.
Your comment is well-received. I’m continuing to to think about it and what this means for finding reliable media sources.
My impression of journalists has always been that they would be fairly idealistic about information and communicating that information to be attracted to their profession. I also imagine that their goals are constantly antagonized by the goals of their bosses, that do want to make money, and probably it is the case that the most successful sell-out or find a good trade-off that is not entirely ideal for them or the critical reader.
I’ll link this article by Michael Volkmann, a disillusioned journalist.
My impression of journalists has always been that they would be fairly idealistic about information and communicating that information to be attracted to their profession.
Unfortunately, in practice this frequently translates to “show the world how evil those blues are even if I have to bend the literal truth a little to do it.”
My feeling is that quest is misguided. There is no such thing as a pure spring which gushes only truth—you cannot find one.
My own approach is to accept that reality is fuzzy, multilayered, multidimensional, looks very different from different angles, and is almost always folded, spindled, and mutilated for the purpose of producing a coherent and attractive story. Read lots of different (but, hopefully, smart and well-informed) sources which disagree with each other. Together they will weave a rich tapestry which might not coalesce into a simple picture but will be more “true”, in a way, than a straight narrative.
Having said this, I should point out that adding pretty clear lies to the mix is not useful and there are enough sources sufficiently tainted to just ignore.
The link is making a different argument—it says the problem isn’t with the journalists or with their bosses, it’s that the public isn’t paying attention to the stories journalists are risking their necks to get.
All of these examples upset me to various degrees since I feel like it is evidence that people—even writers and the scientists they are quoting—are unable to think critically and message coherently about issues.
That’s a funny sentence. You yourself blame scientists with whom you didn’t interact at all based on the way they got quoted without critically asking yourself whether your behavior makes sense.
If a journalist quotes a scientist the process might be: Journalists picks up the phone and calls the scientists. They talk 15 minutes about the issue. Then the journalist who thinks that it’s his job to quote an authority picks one sentence of that interview that fits into the narrative the journalist wants to tell. It’s quite possible that the scientists even didn’t say that sentence “word for word”.
It’s also quite possible that you spend more time investigating the issue in detail then some of the journalists you read.
My limited experience with journalists supports this—when they speak with you, they often already have the outline of the story ready (the nearest existing cliche); they only need a few words they can take out of context and used them to support their bottom line. You can try to educate them, but they don’t really listen to you to learn about the topic, they listen to catch some nice keywords.
I might need some recalibration, but I’m not sure.
I research topics of interest in the media, and I feel frustrated, angry and annoyed about the half-truths and misleading statements that I encounter frequently. The problem is not the feelings, but whether I am ‘wrong’. I figure there are two ways that I might be wrong:
(i) Maybe I’m wrong about these half-truths and misleading statements not being necessary. Maybe authors have already considered telling the facts straight and that didn’t get the best message out.
(ii) Maybe I’m actually wrong about whether these are half-truths or really all that misleading. Maybe I am focused on questions of fact and the meanings of particular phrases that are overly subtle.
The reason why I think I might need re-calibration is because I don’t consider it likely that I am much less pragmatic, smarter or more accurate than all these writers I am critical of (some of them, inevitably, but not all of them—also these issues are not that difficult intellectually).
Here are some concrete examples, all regarding my latest interest in the Ebola outbreak:
Harvard poll: Most recently, the HSPH-SSRS poll with headlines, “Poll finds US lack knowledge about ebola” or, “Many Americans harbor unfounded fears about Ebola”. But when you look at the poll questions, they ask whether Americans are “concerned” about the risk, not what they believe the risk to be, and whether they think Ebola is spread ‘easily’. The poll didn’t appear to be about American’s knowledge of Ebola, but how they felt about the knowledge they had. The question about whether Ebola transmits easily especially irks me, since everyone knows (don’t they??) that whether something is ‘easy’ is subjective?
“Bush meat”: I’ve seen many places that people need to stop consuming bush meat in outbreak areas (for example). I don’t know that much about how Ebola is spreading through this route, but wouldn’t it be the job of the media and epidemiologists to report on the rate of transmission from eating bats (I think there has only been one ground zero patient in West Africa who potentially contracted Ebola from a bat) and weigh this with the role of local meat as an important food source (again, don’t know, media to blame)? Just telling people to stop eating would be ridiculous, hopefully it’s not so extreme. Also, what about cooking rather than drying local meat sources? This seems a very good example of the media unable to nuance a message in a reasonable way, but I allow I could be wrong.
Media reports “Ebola Continues to spread in Nigeria” when the increase in Ebola cases were at that time due to contact with the same person and had already been in quarantine. This seemed to hype up the outbreak when in fact the Nigerians were successfully containing it. Perhaps this is an example of being too particular and over-analyzing something subtle?
Ever using the phrase ‘in the air’ to describe how Ebola does or doesn’t transmit, because this is a phrase that can mean completely different things to anyone using or hearing the phrase. Ebola is not airborne but can transmit within coughing distance.
The apparent internal inconsistency of a case of Ebola might come to the US, but an outbreak cannot happen here. Some relative risk numbers would be helpful here.
All of these examples upset me to various degrees since I feel like it is evidence that people—even writers and the scientists they are quoting—are unable to think critically and message coherently about issues. How should I update my view so that I am less surprised, less argumentative or less crazy-pedantic-fringe person?
My first suggestion would be to look at the incentives of people who write for the media. Their motivations are NOT to “get the best message out”. That’s not what they’re paid for. Nowadays their principal goal is to attract eyeballs and hopefully monetize them by shoving ads into your face. The critical thing to recognize is that their goals and criteria of what constitutes a successful piece do not match your goals and your criteria of what constitutes a successful piece.
The second suggestion would be to consider that writers write for a particular audience and, I think, most of the time you will not be a member of that particular audience. Mass media doesn’t write for people like you.
Your comment is well-received. I’m continuing to to think about it and what this means for finding reliable media sources.
My impression of journalists has always been that they would be fairly idealistic about information and communicating that information to be attracted to their profession. I also imagine that their goals are constantly antagonized by the goals of their bosses, that do want to make money, and probably it is the case that the most successful sell-out or find a good trade-off that is not entirely ideal for them or the critical reader.
I’ll link this article by Michael Volkmann, a disillusioned journalist.
Unfortunately, in practice this frequently translates to “show the world how evil those blues are even if I have to bend the literal truth a little to do it.”
My feeling is that quest is misguided. There is no such thing as a pure spring which gushes only truth—you cannot find one.
My own approach is to accept that reality is fuzzy, multilayered, multidimensional, looks very different from different angles, and is almost always folded, spindled, and mutilated for the purpose of producing a coherent and attractive story. Read lots of different (but, hopefully, smart and well-informed) sources which disagree with each other. Together they will weave a rich tapestry which might not coalesce into a simple picture but will be more “true”, in a way, than a straight narrative.
Having said this, I should point out that adding pretty clear lies to the mix is not useful and there are enough sources sufficiently tainted to just ignore.
The link is making a different argument—it says the problem isn’t with the journalists or with their bosses, it’s that the public isn’t paying attention to the stories journalists are risking their necks to get.
True. I linked the article as an example of the idealistic journalist, one that is disappointed that his motives are distrusted by the public.
That’s a funny sentence. You yourself blame scientists with whom you didn’t interact at all based on the way they got quoted without critically asking yourself whether your behavior makes sense.
If a journalist quotes a scientist the process might be: Journalists picks up the phone and calls the scientists. They talk 15 minutes about the issue. Then the journalist who thinks that it’s his job to quote an authority picks one sentence of that interview that fits into the narrative the journalist wants to tell. It’s quite possible that the scientists even didn’t say that sentence “word for word”.
It’s also quite possible that you spend more time investigating the issue in detail then some of the journalists you read.
My limited experience with journalists supports this—when they speak with you, they often already have the outline of the story ready (the nearest existing cliche); they only need a few words they can take out of context and used them to support their bottom line. You can try to educate them, but they don’t really listen to you to learn about the topic, they listen to catch some nice keywords.