Three Steps to Increase Your Political News Savvy

Screenshot: history.com

Screenshot: history.com

Here’s a Little Context

The 1960 presidential debates gave JFK an advantage over Tricky Dick that no other candidate had had before him. He had a face for TV. Young, charming, and (let’s face it) pretty, JFK appealed to audiences more than the sweating and grumpy Nixon. Televised debates changed politics, because before them, no one would even think to ask Lincoln about his hair or analyze if Taft’s weight would affect his presidential bid. And the Internet is doing the same thing. Campaigns flood social media while pundits analyze politics ceaselessly, giving voters greater access to election information than before. You want to know about Jeb! (Bush) and his time in Florida? Google it. You want to know how Hillary Clinton voted when she was a senator? Google it.  

Source: The Media Insight Project

Guess which bloc of voters benefits most from this? Us. And as I mention in my last post, our voice will truly matter in 2016, so it is even more critical that we use our advantage to help us prepare for the election.

You shouldn’t find it shocking that there is a Pew Research Center report says there is a significant generation gap in regards to where and how people get their news. Bottom line, Millennials engage in politics and news on social media more than any other generation. And we care about it. The Media Insight Project reports that large amount of Millennials follow believe that following the news important and more than a majority of Millennials say they read the news daily.

Why You Need to be Careful

But that doesn’t mean we are really reading the news. We all know that we can’t believe everything on the Internet.  Sometimes a cool looking meme might make us think we just learned some groundbreaking information, or maybe an independent news website told something about the campaign trail that changed our opinion on a candidate. But who made the meme? Where did they get their research? Who’s sponsoring the news website? Is it all opinion?

Just as one needs to be careful of the news they read in newspapers, see on local news station or hear on the radio, people need to be attentive to quality of the news that they obtain on the Internet. For example, though BuzzFeed can be great for an article about the most recent antics of President Frank Underwood on the Netflix original show, House of Cards, it might not be a good source to see what President Obama’s 2016 budget plan entails.

So it’s important for Millennials to pay attention to who is publishing their news content in order to become better informed voters.

Step 1: Know Your Source

You should know about where you are getting your news. It helps you know how reliable a source is and how much faith you can put in their report, (Check these out for more on how to see if your news websites are reliable: How can I tell if a website is credible?; Eight Ways to Tell if a Website is Reliable).

For example, when Fox News reports on the recent Planned Parenthood sting videos, they are going to spin in a way that appeals to their audience, and MSNBC will do the same thing. Every source has political biases, usually determined by their target audiences, and it is almost impossible to get unbiased news. But that’s okay as long as you are actively aware of those biases as you read article they share on social media.

Another place where it is important to know your source is on independent news websites (like Mother Jones) and political blogs (like this one or Daily Kos). And it’s okay to get some of your news from places like Huffington Post or Addicting Info, but you have to be aware of the limitations of your source and pay attention to the sources they cite (or fail to) in their article. Personally, I prefer to get my news from the big leagues first like the BBC and NPR (I really recommend these two as quality news sources, and it helps that they are free), and then I read stuff from other sources, like blogs and indie sites, to widen my perspective.

It’s also good practice to check out your news organizations and their writers by a quick Google search to see what others say about them.

Step 2: Widen Your Feed

Screenshot

Before social media, it was difficult to broaden the source of your news. You read the newspaper and watched your local news. Maybe you listened to news in the car on your radio. Now, it’s super easy to increase your news sources.

For example, I follow NPR, The New York Times, CNN, The Wall Street Journal, PBS, BBC and many more. This helps me get a panoramic exposure to important news stories. After the two recent Republican primary debates, I was able to get post debate coverage from The Atlantic, The New Yorker, WHYY, and Huffington Post.

Even though NPR, BBC and The New York Times are where I primarily get the news, my social media feeds allow me to see what other news organizations are reporting and how they are reporting it, giving me a better understanding of what is going on.

Step 3: Read Passed Clickbait

I can’t tell you how many times that a friend has said to me that they saw an article on Facebook but didn’t read it, and sometimes, I’m guilty of this. But you have to read it to get it. Headlines and juicy clickbait aren’t enough to increase your knowledge of a topic. Sure, they might give you an idea of what’s going on.

For example, from clickbait, you might know that Hillary Clinton used her private email server when she was Secretary of State, so when you go out to happy hour on Friday and your friend mentions it, you can nod your head and say, “Yeah, I saw that on Facebook.” But if you had read the article, you would know that her predecessor, Colin Powell, also used a private email and that Clinton is one of the only high ranking government officials to have exclusively used private email while in office.

Now, you can contribute something more to the happy hour discussion, and you have increased your knowledge about something important to consider before voting.