(CL) How Do We Find Out What's Going On In The World?

Okay, so there is an obvious answer to this question, especially in the global society we have today. We find out, mostly, what's going on in the world through the stories published and broadcasted through mass media, and now even through the new media called the internet.

When we become curious about what is happening somewhere across the globe, we can simply ask the question and find an answer on a website, newspaper article, radio or telecast. It really is as simple as that if the question is simply "What is happening?"

Yet there's another layer to the question. How do we know if what we find out is the truth? I'm asking this in such a way that I skip the question of whether the news is objective since I believe that there is no such thing. Objectivity is a myth because every human being is influenced by his environment, experiences, and ideals. So, then, how do we know how much of what we find out is the truth and how much is fabricated to meet the ends of those people who control these sources of information?

It's a very difficult question and can only be answered by the suggestion to be quite critical in absorbing news. We can choose to take things in at face value, but that would only give us a surface knowledge of the on-goings in the world. To search beneath that, and beyond that, is to discover events from many different perspectives.

We can find out what's going on in the world, through second and third accounts, but it is up to us to accept or reject the information that is fed to us. Our own interpretations of the world is important, not only for our acquisition of knowledge, but also for our view of the world and what should be done.

From the events and news reporting from many different examples of wars, we know that the government and military can either try to control the media or allow themselves to be checked by journalists. So media can be used as both a witness to the truth behind patriotic propaganda and as a means of manipulating the audiences.

It's even more important then, to question mediated information, and really look further than just one story to know what's going on.


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I particularly liked this chapter because of its media-relatedness. And how so much of it is true (it is concurrent with media and society theory I've studied). :)

One other note was this side bar in the book (Global Politics: A New Introduction edited by Edkins and Zehfuss):

Don McCullin, War Photographer -- became depressed about the morally ambiguous position of the war photographer: "If you are a witness to such suffering, shouldn't you try and help instead of standing back and taking pictures?"

It is similar to a story I came across last year, about Kevin Carter, a 1994 Pulitzer Prize winner for feature photography because of his photojournalism of a starving Sudanese child being stalked by a vulture. (photo and story can be seen here: http://www.flatrock.org.nz/topics/odds_and_oddities/ultimate_in_unfair.htm)

Carter suffered depression as much as elation in his job before the emotion evoked by this winning photo led to his suicide in the same year.