Do you believe mainstream media?

[jujiju]

I don’t. I used to and I miss being in that safe bubble. I still have a look to see what is being reported, but I’m no longer in that place where I just assume what I’m being fed is correct without doing my own research.

I use a variety of sources including mainstream media to form my own opinions.

I am aware that every source will have it own biases and try and be objective.

Overall, I'd say I don't trust mm for opinion pieces but for pure facts - there was a huge crash on the M60 - then I'd be ok with it.

I do as a rule, largely BBC and The Times, but will admit to strictly limiting my news exposure nowadays - it’s all so bloody depressing.

I agree. They did their best in a fast-moving situation based on what was known and being discovered at the time. And I'm no fan of Boris or the Tories

lol

What are your trusted sources?

Why is the BBC corrupt?

covid by ay chance?

I agree too. It’s pretty easy to move the dial on what you want out there. By tone, use of stats, headline copy.

The BBC will do this too, and the others will be better known for having a firm editorial slant,

It depends what you mean by 'believe'. I don't typically think the news reports outright lies. But I think things are reported in a certain way to deliberately make us favour certain perspectives e.g. I think the media deliberately fuels hatred of immigrants

In other words, I believe the facts are correct. It's the way the information is presented and worded that makes it have certain biases.

I stopped reading or watching the news after being horrified with the shit and absolute madness around Covid. Watching how people were manipulated was frightening.

I don’t know what’s going on in the world, don’t care and don’t give two shits and have never felt better to be honest.

I don’t believe anything we are told anyway, never did but it was Covid that made me switch off entirely.

Same on Boris and the Tories. Plus, the lack of understanding was a worldwide issue, so it's one thing I can't pin on them.

I’d rather believe news outlets which are accountable than the ramblings of the like of Bernie Spoforth and her ilk. I also believe that paid columnists and op-eds in general are worth reading in that they sound literate and have been edited for style and grammar.

The best newspaper by a country mile is The Times-and FT if you’re in finance.

the media totally made the decision to ramp up the fearmongering for the clicks.
Don't be so condescending about a rational viewpoint

i don't have any anymore apart from the odd bit of raw data if i'm particularly interested in something with eg a science base ( rare event these days)

you know this is such a common thing now.
I'd love to seehow readership figures have changed.
If they have decreased a fair amount they only have themselves to blame for thinking very short term to get the sensationist headlines out there

So you don't believe anything whatsoever except scientific data - which can also contain bias? Must be discombobulating.

The problem is that critical thinking seems to be a lost art. Some people expect certain media outlets to spoon feed them what to think instead of being able to make their own assessment based on what is known/can be shown. Whatever the mistakes made at the BBC their journalistic standards are high. They have people on the ground where possible. They fact check. They do try to remain neutral.

If we taught all the things everyone insists should be taught in schools, the school day would have to be 24 hours long.

I agree with a previous poster that we have started seeing content as either total lies or total truth, rather than seeing it as biased, persuasive or opinion-based. We are increasingly doing the same when we encounter individuals' views we disagree with. This polarised way of thinking is ignorant and dangerous and is pushing us all into our little echo chambers.

This is what I find mindblowing. It's simply not true. Every journalist, every media outlet is FULLY 100% aware that nothing they write is completely without bias.

I studied journalism. In news writing classes, which we did (unsurprisingly) a LOT, we were learning 2 key things:

1. How to write a news story
2. To understand that every single story has an "angle" and that angle and how it's portrayed can be different for every single reporter, never mind reader.

It's why, as others have said, reading multiple news sources is helpful. it's also why critical thinking skills and a base level of education is so important.

Some outlets are more obviously and specifically biased than others - the FT, for example, is absolutely biased but it makes an effort to take a more rational, fact based approach than say the Daily Mail which blatantly and obviously has agendas on everything.

I'm not being condescending about a rational viewpoint. I'm being incredulous at how little you understand about media.

not really. in fact not at all
I read so much that was obviously bollocks or fearmongering/ sensationalism that i have more or less no inerest in what is reported now.

you weren't responding to me.

So you don't know what's going on in the world and have no interest?

that's right, yes.