Manjoo Post: True Enough reveals enough truth, although many don’t see it.

A lot of people today see what they want to see and hear what they want to hear. There’s not as much thinking outside the box in our society today as there used to be, especially with regards to the media. To give a perfect example of this I provide two similar examples that occurred today in my Public Affairs class. My classmate Caroll Lovel stated that she watches FOX News when she was discussing another student’s blog. Immediately, before hearing what she had to say, many of my classmates whispered disgruntled moans under their breath and their heads turned as if someone said the building was on fire. When I mentioned that I enjoy watching Bill O’Reilly, but don’t really care for any other program on the Fox News Network, I noticed a few classmates laughing or looking up to the heavens like this was unbelievable. However, as Gil pointed out, “The thing about O’Reilly…they have the best fact-checkers.” Love him or hate him. I didn’t say he was perfect, but I am able to stay accurately up-to-date with current events and major news stories watching his program. Before I could finish my point, I wasn’t allowed to state that I also watch both Chris Matthews on MSNBC and Anderson Cooper on CNN occasionally. I actually watch all three of the networks that would probably destroy each other in a gang fight if given the opportunity.

Can anyone else say that they watch all three of these networks? I would bet it’s not many….

Before even reading the book: True Enough, the inside cover immediately grabbed my attention. Manjoo illustrates an example of how deeply held beliefs can displace our very perceptions of what’s real and what’s not in the world around us. The problem that Manjoo identifies is that we only see the insights that favor ourselves or our beliefs and shutout anything that contradicts. There’s an old saying that there are two very sensitive subjects you never bring up: religion and politics. The two are identical in conversation because if one has a different belief than the other, it is rare that either will EVER win the argument. How can both sides be right? They can’t! It’s the same with politics. Whether you’re a Democrat/Liberal, a Republican/Conservative, or an Independent/Moderate no one will ever be right. The problem is that many get trapped in ONLY what they believe with no regards to any other.

Let’s take a closer look at the media as a whole according to Manjoo. There is one thing I mentioned earlier today that nearly every form of media is using nowadays: peripheral processing. It’s when the media relies on erroneous pundits. To show I am not biased in my three favorite network anchors, I’ll go after Bill O’Reilly on this one. About once a month, he has a body language expert appear on his show to examine slow motioned video footage of politicians, comedians, presidents, anchors, and other members of media making news at the time. She examines their facial expressions, their hand movements, and their posture to basically tell everyone what is already obvious enough in the video, which is usually a type of emotion. I still can’t quite gather how her opinion on looking at people is deemed newsworthy. Don’t get the wrong idea, I’m sure she is an expert at reading people, but this isn’t like the television drama Lie To Me, where a fictional doctor can tell if someone is lying based on body language that will eventually lead to solving a murder or discovering a cover-up. If that were true Mrs. Cleo would still be on television.

Many people are so convinced if someone on television sounds confident in something they say, it must be true. They accept it without ever beginning to wonder if it’s true, accurate, or even real. In my short life of 22 years and counting, I have seen and been through enough scenarios where being skeptical is like second nature to me (I like to call in out-of-the-box thinking, it sounds less brutal). I don’t immediately disbelief someone’s facts when I hear them, but I do question them. I think that’s why I want to be in broadcasting. It’s like when someone tells you a story that doesn’t completely make sense and by asking certain questions you can catch that persons mistake or lie in some cases. As journalist and broadcast majors it is vital that we all understand that the media we are used to now won’t always be like this. It only took a few years before Facebook and Twitter were like gold for journalists. Can you imagine what it will be like 10 years from now? As I understand it, people can already blog from their smart phones today! It’s only a matter of time when technology will advance so far that media will immediately be sent to your brain.