No one can say for sure whether or not confirmation bias will be the death of journalism, but it will leave a good-sized dent in it.
In such a politically divided society, it feels as if we find comfort in locking ourselves in an echo chamber of articles and resources that solely align with our ideals and doesn’t challenge us to think differently.
A story is deemed objective by readers who agree with the point and subjective by readers who disagree. People fail to realize that words like “only” are editorial and further push an article one way over another. To one reader over another. To a different truth over another.
Some articles better serve to promote change and equity by being told in a subjective light like a personal essay or op-ed. These stories, the ones that inherently recognize its subjectivity, do not play into confirmation bias. But the reader who only reads one type of story, right or left, same publication after same publication, does.
Readership drives publication. The more we commit to reading one truth from one publication, the more we fund subjective journalism and drive confirmation bias. Readers should free themselves from these echo chambers to understand where someone is coming from and why they think differently. Nowadays, we’re too quick to judge one another before we know or meet each other. Having beliefs and holding true to them is a part of our identities, so why do we refuse to give someone with different beliefs the time of day? Instead, we scroll past the article, Instagram post or TikTok, claiming we don’t have to see or read anything we don’t want too. And that’s true. We don’t. But if we took an extra second and did, maybe we’d stop and think more. I imagine it’d be something like, “Oh, I didn’t know this person’s mother went through this, so I understand why him/her/they think this way.”
Or at least, I hope.
No two sides tell the same story. Someone will probably hear one side louder than the other. So will you. And I. But without both sides – both sets of facts – we can’t draw the most logical conclusion.
I wish we would pause and think before judging situations and people we think we know. We need to encourage people to improve from mistakes, not scare them into disappearing. We need to accept open dialogue. We need to read articles that disagrees with our personal stance on issues. We need to stop leading with hate.
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