WEEK 1
TOPIC 1: ABOUT YOU
Hi, I'm Jeff. I'm currently a Political Science major (formerly Computer Science) and my career goal in the Political Science field is centered around policy research for legislators and improving the ways in which constituents can get information about their government. While we'd all like to revise our entire legal system to be easier to understand, a lot of what this work tends to involve is more within the realm of addressing current and new legislation. It's not always easy, but making sure that things aren't more complicated than they need to be is worth the effort, in my opinion.
What I'm most interested in learning about the media are the strategies that are used for breaking down and compiling large volumes of articles or research into a more comprehensive but still understandable whole. It's been something that I've had a bit of difficulty on and would like to improve. With some current issues I'll really be starting off at square one with folks, so the danger is that if they don't have pre-existing knowledge from keeping up with the news, even a simple summary on topic will be a little incoherent. Avoiding that with some strategies on how to bring the information together would be fantastic.
Outside of college, I mostly like to participate in community events. I've gotten more in touch over time on what Albany and LBCC have to offer, so I try to get involved with what I can. While it's not really my major anymore, I'm still very involved with my tech stuff. It's helped me immensely in my professional life and I still find it fun to develop new skills, so that's something else that I enjoy doing outside of college.
TOPIC 2: THE INFORMATION YOU CONSUME
My three main platforms for information would be:
1. Google News (Either read or dictated via Google Home)
2. YouTube
3. Twitter
Since I've tended to gravitate towards my more credible platforms over time, they are coincidentally also listed from what I consider to be the most to the least credible. That said, each platform tends to cover their own "territory" in the media landscape and have advantages/disadvantages associated with how they work.
Google News
For Google News, it covers news outlets like Washington Post, New York Times, The Hill, The Daily Beast, ABC News, Fox News, etc when I'm using it to read articles.
Advantages: Lots of variety on the political spectrum, includes local news.
Disadvantages: Not as convenient as my other options. It knows what I'm interested in and curates articles for that, so it has the risk of limiting my overall perspective.
When I'm using it through Google Home dictation, it covers "daily roundup" style news podcasts through NPR's "Up First" and USA Today's "5 Things".
Advantages: It's quick and convenient.
Disadvantages: Their limited length usually can't go very in-depth and may only provide a base level of understanding on an issue.
YouTube
On YouTube, I'll be watching major TV news outlets such as CNN or MSNBC and other smaller commentators.
Advantages: Easy to access on phone/computer/etc.
Disadvantages: It can very easily become a time sink.
Lastly, there's Twitter, which I use to hear from individual writers and generally keep up-to-date on current events as they happen and get information as it comes out.
Advantages: Quick and individualized, easy to access.
Disadvantages: It can be filled with "hot takes" and inaccurate information.
How do you ensure that the information you take in is "accurate"? What steps, if any, do you take before passing along this information?
I ensure that the information I take in is accurate by using trusted sources, which is to say - reliable news outlets, as opposed to something more obscure/fringe with a name like "TRUTH REPORT" that would raise mental "red flags" about their reputability. For studies, it's also important to know where the study is being sourced - as they could have outside influence (it never hurts to check a site like SourceWatch).
If I'm passing along the information, it can depend. So long as I find a study to be credible, I'll generally consider it safe. However, it's something along the lines of a developing news story, I'll give it a couple days. New details always come out and passing off reports hours after the story has come out is kind of like playing with fire. You don't know if there will be a correction on a major detail. Since I don't like to receive inaccurate information, I try to take special care not to distribute it myself; It's more or less the "Golden Rule" approach, but applied to information.
Given what you know about or have learned about "fake news," how concerned are you about the information out there in the media ecosystem?
I'm very concerned about the apparent capabilities that exist within the ecosystem to influence public opinion with fabrications. The activities by the Internet Research Agency has been documented to exhausting detail by committees like the HPSCI (House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence) and highlighted particularly well by reporters like Ben Popken of NBC News.
Today, something worrying is that nothing has appeared to changed significantly, despite the constant coverage of "fake news". It remains very easy to find accounts on Twitter and Facebook exhibiting bot-like post behavior, pushing narratives for the left and right; In both types, their goal appears to be to push each side to a new, further extreme. This will continue to have an effect on our democracy and the videos assigned this week showed a couple good examples of the damage that disinformation can do.
Comments
Post a Comment