The United States finds itself in a crisis state of misinformation and rampant propaganda. With the General Election coming up in November, the past year has been riddled with political camps throwing garbage at each other, exploiting world events to suit themselves and inflating their characters to grab the public’s attention. Through it all, the biased state of modern journalism and news reporting has become apparent.
It is the responsibility of the press to keep politicians in check, and they have continuously failed at this in the past year. In doing so, they have let down the public that trusts their integrity as news organizations.
A 2023 study from the University of Rochester looked at news headlines from major U.S. media outlets ranging from 2014 to 2022 to examine the different ways in which American agencies reported on politics, economic issues, foreign affairs and social issues. Their study concluded that the discrepancies in how different organizations report on politics and social issues are due to media bias. These diverse biases were best observed in how headlines were constructed. Adding to that, the increasingly available technology of artificial intelligence — which can falsify videos, images and audio recordings — makes the chances of being bombarded by malicious misinformation alarmingly high.
Biased political ideologies have wormed their way into the pens of writers and the minds of their susceptible audiences, with mainstream news organizations readily choosing sides and failing to prioritize the truth. Getting views and likes online has now become more important than reporting facts. Headlines are becoming more and more outlandish as they warp the truth to spark outrage and curiosity.
The eagerness for quick attention is not without cause. Newspapers are struggling to survive, as seen in their accelerated shutdown rate across the country. The Associated Press reported in November 2023 that the nation had lost one-third of its newspapers since 2005 and that an average of 2.5 newspapers closed each week in 2023, a 0.5 increase from 2022.
It is unfortunate that journalists have to beg for money and warp their craft with juicy headlines to continue to exist. Many credible news agencies, such as The New York Times, now have their articles hidden behind paywalls to help them finance themselves, forcing people to look for the same degree of top-tier journalism elsewhere.
At times like these, it is important to support local newspapers, such as The Paisano, MySA or San Antonio Express-News, by consuming content physically and online. It is equally important to hold them accountable, as lies can be told at both the biggest and smallest levels of journalism. Now more than ever, journalists and news reporting organizations have to stick to their principles and remember the purpose of their existence. The news cannot be a tool of propaganda in a country where the freedom of the press is a constitutional right.
