Media's role in contemporary society: a position paper

Media and Society: The Problem of Too Much Fake News
Is the era of fake news becoming too dangerous for our families today? As Jones (2013) notes, communication media in the digital world is a powerful tool that we all must be mindful of lest we risk using it poorly and causing more harm than good. With the recent news faux pas involving a group of high school Catholic boys being harassed by a group of protestors yet getting blamed by news media right and left, getting “doxxed” by celebrities calling for blood, and receiving death threats all over an incident blown completely out of proportion, we as a community have to stop and consider how we allow the media to dictate the terms by which we live our lives. This paper will explain why we have to get a better handle on the problem of fake news before it really gets someone injured.
Yes, social media is here to stay, for good and for bad. It is a tool that we can use to spread information quickly, correct mistakes, and get the truth out there. And thank God for that—without social media users uploading the full video of the Covington Catholic boys being approached by the Native American and being harassed by the Black Israelites, we would not have had the complete story and the evidence that exonerates them of all name-calling and vilifying that they have endured since the mainstream media broke this “fake news” a few days ago. At the same time, social media can be used to spread lies, errors, hate, and calumny—and that is one of the big downfalls that we have to face. We have to remember, however, that we are dealing ultimately with failings in human nature—failings that cannot be bred out of us, or manipulated out of our behavior. We are a flawed people—but we are also a people who have the ability to rise above and be better, individually and as a community. This paper will argue that in order for us to use media wisely and effectively, we have to bring back the kind of objective journalism and respect that use to be commonplace in the field: we have to end the era of “fake news” by holding accountable those networks and individuals who insist on perpetuating “fake news” just to advance a political or social agenda. And we can only do that with your help: if we are elected, we promise to hold the major media outlets responsible for every instance of “fake news” used to unfairly wage a media war against innocent persons.
Thomas Jefferson said that if you place the truth unfettered in the marketplace, it will prevail against lies and falsehoods because people are naturally attracted to the truth (Smith, 1981). However, if all the lies gang up on the truth to beat it down into the mud, who will have the opportunity to know the truth? Who will rise up to make sure the truth has free access to the public? The truth must be defended against those who try to silence it. Today, our media is waging a war against truth because it goes against the socio-political agenda of those in control—call it the establishment, the “deep state,” the “continuity of government,” or what you will: they are the ones who will not abide a truthful and respectful reporting of the facts. They seek only to sensationalize, use hyperbole to inflame, and create drama and tension in order to sabotage and undermine the socio-political base of their opponents, the ones who are sick and tired of the way the mainstream media distorts the truth. Kardas (2017) calls it the rise of the media-industrial complex—and just as Eisenhower warned against the military-industrial complex, so too must we be wary of this new media, which aims to control narratives no matter what the truth of the matter is.
Social media is really beyond our control at this point—but even there we can start demanding that fair treatment across the board be provided. We note that in recent months, various conservative social media users have lost their accounts on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube because their views do not mesh with the mainstream media’s. The reason, we are told, for their expulsion from social media by the social media CEOs is that they violated the terms of service by using language to inflame hatred. Yet when a left-wing social media user like Kathy Griffin calls for the “doxxing” of high school boys so that they may be publicly harassed and threatened, nothing happens to her or to her account. She is given a pass for inciting hatred because her views align with the views of the mainstream media (Chandak, 2019). True, Twitter did suspend the account of the user who uploaded the misleading video of the boys’ standoff in DC (Burch, 2019)—and that is good—but Twitter can do more to make sure this type of social media mobbing does not get out of hand. Twitter has to take an active role in promoting peace and a culture of respect. As Dobson and Knezevic (2018) point out, the media must rise above petty squabbles and insist on truth to stay relevant and meaningful.
Some may argue that if we try to control the media, we will just be propagating our own version of the truth. They will argue that, in the end, who knows what the truth is? Everybody tells their own version of things because truth is subjective. We resist this interpretation of truth. We insist that the truth can be known, as the recent case of the truth of the Covington Catholic clash in DC shows. Those boys were vilified up to (and even after, in some cases were the antagonists openly flout the truth and insist on spreading hate no matter what) the time when the truth was made known—when the full video showing the antagonists marching up to the boys and confronting them, rather than the other way around as the mainstream media outlets tried to get us to believe. So let no one say that the truth does not matter or that the truth cannot be known. This recent event shows us that the truth can be known and that we need honest media users to make that truth known and to defend it, no matter what their politics or social or cultural beliefs are. The truth is reality, and we make up our minds about society and politics and culture based on what we learn of reality. That is why this is so important.
In conclusion, we need the media: it helps us to communicate and spread knowledge and information. But we also need honest reporting. We need honesty in the media. We need to hold our media outlets accountable when they lie and harass and contort the truth or fail to fact check. We need accountable—and you the people can bring it.


References
Burch, S. (2019). Twitter Suspends Account That Spread Selective Video of Covington
Students and Native American Elder. Retrieved from https://www.thewrap.com/twitter-suspends-account-covington-students/
Chandak, N. (2019). It’s been over 24 hours since Kathy Griffin wanted Covington
Catholic school boys doxxed. Twitter hasn’t taken down her tweets. Retrieved from https://dailycaller.com/2019/01/21/kathy-griffin-doxxed-twitter-ban/
Dobson, K., & Knezevic, I. (2018). " Ain't Nobody Got Time for That!": Framing and
Stereotyping in Legacy and Social Media. Canadian Journal of Communication, 43(3).
Jones, R. G. (2013). Communication in the Real World, Version 2. Flat World
Knowledge.
Karda?, T. (2017). Trump and the Rise of the Media-Industrial Complex in American
Politics. Insight Turkey, 19(3), 93-120.
Smith, J. (1981). Freedom of expression and the marketplace of ideas concept from
Milton to Jefferson. Journal of Communication Inquiry, 7(1), 47-63.