By Allie Coukos
The job of the media is to give us, the public, factually correct, timely, unbiased news. However, as I listened to the State of the Union: Media and Politics Town Hall presented by SMPA on Wednesday, I realized something. The relationship between the media and us – the consumers – is a symbiotic one. As one of the panelists noted, the media is a business, and journalists are responding to the demands of the consumer.
When we turn on the news and see a sensationalized story about President Trump or stories that seem to focus on opinions rather than on facts, it is not because this is what news has become. Rather, these are the stories that sell. In an age of reality TV, many consumers demand entertainment rather than the more mundane “bread-and-butter” facts of the day.
In the past, the news was “straight-talk facts.” Americans would tune into the evening news, receive facts, and then form their own opinions. Today, however, Americans have their pick of a variety of instantaneous news sources that represent every view on the spectrum. Instead of receiving the straight facts, they go to sources that reflect their opinions and find, or even manufacture, facts that reinforce their views.
What I learned on Wednesday is that the onus is on us as consumers of news to seek out sources that give us the facts. As news breaks in real time, we must be informed consumers and make sure that the news we read is accurate by crosschecking it against other news sources. When we seek out news that focuses on facts, it increases the demand for that type of news, which will lead news outlets to produce more fact-based news.
Conversely, when we seek out sensationalized news, the media will produce sensationalized-focused news. We cannot complain that there has been a decline in fact-based news when we as consumers seek out sensationalized news. It is a game of give and take and we, as consumers, must give the media the incentive to produce fact-based news by seeking it out and consuming it.
Allie Coukos is the Chair of the GW College Republicans. The original version of this article can be viewed on the GW College Republicans blog.