It’s always the same after Christmas and New Year...nobody knows when the binmen will re-start their round in our street. This year, the street WhatsApp group reflected the confusion.
What fascinated me were the various levels of certainty and uncertainty and the difference sources of authority people trusted in their confusion. The crowd – in this case – each other was the first source. But the crowd was just as confused as the individuals within it. Some thought it might possibly...very likely be Wednesday. Others were absolutely sure and clear. Then leaders began to emerge. Our immediate neighbour photographed and shared the picture of the council leaflet which we all had before Christmas but most of us had lost - a kind of binmen Bible. For some people, that was enough. But not everyone – a guy at the other end of the street reported that he had just phoned the Council who organise the collection. He was told it would be Wednesday – but he was far from reassured by the statement from this 'voice of authority'. ‘The person sounded very slightly vague’. So ‘tone of voice’ entered into the equation. The original questioner turned to visual experience and the behaviour of the majority as she drove around the neighbourhood inspecting who had and who hadn’t put out the bin...
All this seemed to be an insight into people's responses to information as we begin a new year where sources of fake information and fake news are multiplying. Those in power in the wider world have found and established their voices and positions by using fake news and abusing traditional and social media to perpetuate their own status and create anxiety in their publics. Only a fool would be unaware these days of the prevalence of ‘fake news’.The voices are very certain, no 'slight vagueness' with any of them. But which of them truly carry authority?
It's vital that all of us and especially young people are being trained to ‘read’ media and not to trust everything we see and read and hear. Only a very special sort of skilled vigilance can protect us all from being taken in by charlatans and artificial intelligence. What strategies should we teach our children and grandchildren to follow in order to evaluate what and whom we can trust to send messages much more important than when the binmen will arrive?
Here are just a few:
1. Make language awareness part of everyday conversation. Check the difference between media generated content and personal experience.
2. Discuss the way advertising uses words and pictures to glamorize and dramatize anything from perfume to cat food. Easy to do in commercial breaks!
3. Know who owns the media outlets – both traditional and social. What sort of people are they? What are their goals?
4. Always ask: what is the payoff in his/her point of view for this speaker/writer?
5. Interrogate the likely motives of the media and the people who own the media and those who convey the news.
6. Check the sources of news stories – if the story or the angle is only being promulgated on one source, suspect it.
7. Check the facts that are being shared, the view of human nature and the tone of voice.
8. Learn how to recognise an ‘angle’ on a particular story e.g. if it is a true fact that immigration numbers have risen – suspect the ‘angle’ which attributes all the blame to one group of people e.g. politicians, border guards, people smugglers etc.
9. Interrogate your own motives – why would I want to believe this? What is the payoff for me and others who may wish to believe what they are being told?
10. Trust your instincts – if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!
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