Who’s Got the Real News?
If we are educated parents, teachers, and citizens we have to know which news organizations produce news that we can trust. If we ignore or forget to check on the sources of the news we read, then we can be duped. So, if you use a social media source or online site for your news, answer this: where do they get their news?
The Pew Research Center, known for its reporting on the media, conducted a recent survey of Americans. They asked them to name the source they followed and if that source did its own reporting or took the news from other sources. Most of the respondents were either unsure or wrong.
For those that followed the Wall Street Journal or ABC News, about half correctly said that they used their own reporters, investigated sources, and directly reported the news. The other half were incorrect, saying they did not do their own reporting or were not sure.
For the Google News, Apple News, and Facebook news readers, only 31%, 26%, and 51% respectively, correctly said they did not do their own reporting. The rest incorrectly said either they did their own reporting or they were not sure if they did or not.
I am sure that anyone saying “not sure” either does not care about whether what they are learning is correct or not. Misinformation in the making!
