Blog 2: The Media And The News Around It

    In the latest installment of Sam's Samples, my relationship with the news is rather negative since I do not feel as if I can trust much of what I am told or read. Because of this, I go around to numerous sources and outlets to compare and contrast the news that is mentioned, from Twitter, Reddit, to my own father, as he is the one to announce the news to our family. I understand that me being skeptical and negative on news is not a good mindset, that itself is a problem and I hope to change my mindset on how I view the news. However, there are benefits for me being a skeptic, like the time in early 2022 when the war in Ukraine had escalated in the city of Kyiv. In this particular news that I had heard, there was a particular phenomenon happening in the city skies, where a video went viral of a Ukrainian pilot who had shot down numerous Russian jets and had also been killed. There was a massive supportive idolization for this pilot, dubbed the Ghost of Kyiv, and became a heroic symbol for the non-Ukrainian supporters of Ukraine. Despite the massive popularity of this story, the video in question as well as the Ghost's identity was debunked by analyzing the video and looking up this news in various fact-checking websites. This myth was made from using a video game clip and Ukrainian propaganda to rouse the spirits of the people in hopes for Russia to cease the invasion. Due to this extensive research, I had my skeptical belief proven correct and it helped me not fall for such propaganda, even though I do support Ukraine's sentiments to have Russia back off. 

 

    In the podcast from A View from Nowhere, I had listened to the episode, The Colonization of Doubt, where I had learned how the historian Nicole Hemmer explores bias and news that has been altered, exaggerated, and favoring certain political parties and how we the audience can be truth swimmers. I chose this particular episode since it resonated with me how there is so much misinformation out there online and in real life, so it is difficult to believe in what I hear and see.