Without accurate and complete information, civilization fails
All news is curated. Regardless of the source, all the media that you see, hear, or read – all the information you consume – is aggregated. Behind every "fact" there is someone, or a group of someones, who thought that particular piece of information was important enough to be shared. Whether we realize it or not, the definition of "newsworthy" is being made for us. The editors at media companies are the curators of all the information we use to make decisions.
Moreover, it's impossible for everyone to know everything. So as a society, we rely on the media to provide us with the information we need to make intelligent decisions regarding ourselves and our families. And it's more than some newsworthy event over here; some heartwarming story over there. Much more.
This information that we call "news" can be divided into two categories: there is information that we want to be told, and then there is information we need to be told (whether we want to hear it or not.)
If we are interested in seeing a movie, we want to be told what movies are playing at what theater and at what times. We want to know if the Cubs won last night and if there's going to be lane closures affecting our commute on the Eisenhower. The information we want varies from person to person. Sometimes, depending on the individual, there is some overlap in the Venn diagram with the information we want to be told and the information we need to be told.
But when it comes to the latter, of particular importance, is information concerning our own governance, health, and safety. People, everyone ought to be told (whether they want to hear it or not) if the water is unsafe to drink. We ought to know if our schools are failing, our infrastructure unreliable, our tax dollars wasted.
This is the information citizens need to know to maintain the proper operation of their civilization. In the end, everything else is a distraction. Perhaps a welcome distraction. But a distraction nevertheless. When a media outlet overtly pushes the distractions – even if it is giving us what we want – at the expense of information we need to be told, we often say that such outlet is engaging in propaganda. Although, perhaps a more appropriate word would be obfuscation.
Information precedes action.
The local media is failing to provide the information we need to be told.
For this reason, we here at Chicago Contrarian are always looking at ways to disseminate more of the information that everyone needs to be told. To help with that, we've prepared a survey of local media consumption and usage of social media.
We're asking for your help. Please take the survey, and share it with your friends.
We will write up the survey results in an upcoming article.
