When you read or watch the news, are you being given facts—or being led toward a story built from those facts?
Every news and media story has a narrative. News does not merely transmit facts. It selects certain facts, gives them order and emphasis, identifies causes and consequences, chooses voices, and places events into a story so the viewer understands them from the narrator’s point of view.
Thus, every story is selected and framed. What is omitted matters as much as what is provided. In fact, without altering the facts, two totally different stories may be conveyed to the viewer or reader.
Every news story has a narrative. That does not mean every narrative is dishonest. It means someone has necessarily decided which facts matter, how they relate, and what story those facts appear to tell.
An even earlier decision shapes the narrative: What becomes news in the first place? Thousands of events occur every day, but only a few are selected for our attention. Before facts are framed within a story, someone has already decided which stories we will see and which we probably will not. What is repeatedly selected—or omitted—can shape our view of reality as much as the way any individual story is told.
I typically scan the headlines on the Breitbart and Drudge websites. The same event may have very different headlines. This is consistent with one site presenting events from a more conservative perspective and the other often emphasizing a different perspective. Thus, two outlets can report the same event with accurate facts and still create very different impressions.
Watch out for emotional images and language that make the narrative believable. Media information is rarely provided in dry, abstract language. That would be “boring” and would not attract viewers or readers. Stories are compelling. Dry prose or pictures without context rarely are.
I personally need to watch out for stories that confirm what I already believe. Such stories rarely invite me to question my presuppositions and truly analyze what is being presented.
When evaluating information, the real discipline is learning to separate the facts from the story built around them. To try to determine the “truth” of the matter, we need to learn to ask these questions:
- What are the facts?
- Which facts were selected?
- What was left out?
- Who was quoted?
- What assumptions connect the facts?
- What conclusion am I being led toward?
- Would the same facts support another reasonable interpretation?
Only then are we in a better position to discern the story they are try to sell you.