© Jorge Silva / Reuters
A recent Gallup poll noted that Americans are losing confidence in mainstream media. As technology advances, so does knowledge. We are witnessing a greater capacity to achieve global knowledge than any generation before us. As such, we are not content to study history or lose ourselves in fiction: rather, we long for current events, relevant stories, and news about the world around us. Right now. Today.
So what happens when our sources of knowledge, with all the technological advances and communications at their disposal, decide what our news should be? In the United States and Europe, media outlets such as CNN and the BBC have eyes and ears all over the world. Reporters are provided stories of victories, triumph amidst adversity, and genocidal terrorist organizations intent on eradicating entire nationalities, ethnicities, and religious people in the name of service to a "god" they think desires that.
In my time traveling in the Middle East, it took one week to learn of a small village in northern Iraq where a mere 10 farmers fought off 70 Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) militants to provide their families time to escape before the terrorist organization invaded their home. They were victorious and nearly every family was able to escape before IS came back. Yet, to learn of this story, I was not even privy to the vast resources of a Western news outlet, so we can only imagine what foreign reporters and correspondents are able to learn every day.
Comment: One can't trust the mainstream news to report a story without some agenda behind it. The responsibility now falls on the public to take things into their own hands during this time of "information warfare".