Almost every day I see someone complaining about “the media”, and the lack of coverage on a particular story or the slant given to something that happened. Despite that, I still maintain that you are the media. It’s important to have professional news organizations out there, for sure, but they no longer have very much control of which stories spread and which ones don’t.
Where does your time go?
Looking at the numbers, the average American spends less than 30 minutes a day watching news content on TV (source), yet nearly 2-1/2 hours each day on social media (source). There is likely a bit of crossover, with proper news outlets featured on social media, but social media content consists mostly of your friends and the businesses that you choose to follow. If they share a story from a major news source, it was their decision to share it — they’re the media.
Keep wide views
This leads to the obvious problem of trapping yourself in a filter bubble — if all of your friends share the same views, then that’s all you’ll ever see. I personally cut relatively few people from my social media feeds, in an attempt to see a varied set of angles throughout each day. There are some that are clearly racist or otherwise inappropriate, and they get cut, but I really enjoy seeing posts from those that I disagree with as they help broaden my view. Those that can see both sides of the aisle are often the most informed, and in turn they become a big part of “the media” in my world. Choose those people carefully.
