How the media shapes YOUR thinking

In a past life, I taught high-school English (for a very short time). My approach wasn't to lecture with facts while bored teens daydreamed about dates and basketball and the latest dance craze. I thought the most important way to teach facts was to teach how to think about information.

In short, I wanted students to think for themselves, to carve their own opinions based on evidence because I believed learning to think and analyze is the way to learn and draw strong conclusions.

This past month, down with illness, I was watching the news on TV. The moving headlines at the bottom of the screen (officially called chyron) was scrolling along with short blurbs concerning important topics of the day.

One particular crawl caught my eye and reading this, I got to thinking ... is this leader board reporting or indoctrinating ("helping" you shape an opinion by the way a sentence is worded?)

The Potential Headline

Let me give you an example of a headline that could have worked its way across the bottom of the TV screen.

Four people killed, four seriously injured in head-on crash.

What are your thoughts when you read that? Do you wonder where the crash occurred? Do you wonder if you might know any of the victims? Do you immediately empathize with the families of the victims? Do you want to know if children were involved? Do you care that four human beings were snuffed out of existence in an instant? Do you think, "How sad," or "There for the grace of God," or "rest in peace"?

If you do, then you are indicating that you are a thoughtful human being who cares about his or her fellow human beings.

The Real Headline

Now the example I gave was an edited (by me) headline of one that was actually broadcast and it would have been correct because it reported one thing--a traffic accident claimed four lives. But that's not how the network headline read. Read the actual wording and tell me how whether your reaction changes:

Four illegal aliens killed, four seriously injured in head-on crash.

Do you still care about any of these human beings and the fact that they lost their lives or do you see this as fuel for a political issue--in this case immigration?  Do you wonder why the network decided to write the headline this way or if the local station made this decision?

Do you see how two words can completely shape how you think--or fuel the way you've already been taught to think? 

It seems that gone are the days when a news reporter would report information without injection personal opinion specifically to bolster decisions or opinions you've already made or to sway you into the opinion of the media you are watching. Sometimes the "influence peddling" is blatant opinion disguised as real news and sometimes, as with the example here, it is kind of shaded as real news. And it's almost always distinguished by the political leanings of the news source, be it radio, TV, newspaper or internet.

Do you let media do your thinking for you?