You would be hard pressed to find a person who doesn't believe fake news is an epidemic in our current culture.
In the storm of politicians, corporations, businesses, celebrities and everyone else trying to represent themselves in a good light to the public, journalism is meant to be the light that clears the fog and provides truth and clarity to situations.
But what happens when journalism itself is one of those corporations?
This question (which is nothing new, by the way) is on the minds of citizens after a video has gone viral this week. The video is a compilation of dozens of Sinclair Broadcast Group's local news stations reading an identical script about fake news.
The video includes a supercut of anchors from news stations across the country echoing the exact same lines regarding fake news, some of which include:
"The sharing of biased and fake news has become all too common on social media."
"Some members of the media use their platforms to push their own personal bias."
"This is extremely dangerous to our democracy."
These statements themselves might not sound too crazy. In fact, you might have heard these ideas many times before. What is crazy, though, is the reach of one organization and its ideas to millions of people through dozens of individual sources which are considered to be reliable and unbiased.
According to Sinclair News Group's website, Sinclair "is one of the largest and most diversified television broadcasting companies in the country. Sinclair owns and operates, programs or provides sales services to more television stations than anyone and has affiliations with all the major networks." They own 193 television stations and 614 channels in 89 U.S. markets.
In other words, since there are only 220 media markets in the U.S. you are about 42 percent likely to have a Sinclair-owned news station covering your 6 o'clock local news tonight.
Sinclair is definitely not the only media owner dominating a market, though. According to an article from Business Insider, six companies control 90 percent of the media in America. Only six companies and their agendas dictate the overwhelming majority of what we read, watch and listen to.
And yes, even our local news is grouped into this category. Yet, according to a study conducted by Morning Consult and Politico, 41 percent of registered voters believe their local news can be trusted more than national news.
Distrust in national news organizations seems to be getting all the attention, but why not local news organizations? Local news is not exempt from agenda-setting pressure from owners and affiliates.
The bottom line is that the news is run by people who care about making money, as is everything else is in a capitalistic system. A news organization's money comes from advertisers, and those advertisers are determined by the number of clicks/views/subscriptions they have.
For capitalism to run effectively and help create the best products, consumers must be informed. But what do consumers do when the sources they trust to inform them are shaping their messages with bias?
The epidemic in America is bigger than fake news — it is consumer ignorance. If you, as a consumer don't like how a company, including a news organization, is conducting itself, you can be a part of the change by no longer giving them your business.
But in order to do that, you must know if there even is an issue, and we can't just rely on news organizations, local or national, to inform us about these issues, especially if the issue is in the interest of their owner.
Be an informed consumer, and thus, an informed citizen.
So I challenge you to find out who owns your local news station and comment below.
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