How stories propagate in the media.. shocking
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There is a story that has been going on for 5 years.. (actually 11 years). It has been ignored completely for about a year, but today it has again erupted into a firestorm. It is a story that I have special knowledge of, and it is only relevant to one country. It's not really a political story, so I don't mention it here.
BUT.. what has been published on the radio, TV, newspapers, and internet about this story today CLEARLY illustrates how stories propagate. The newest chapter of the story broke yesterday, and it contained two GLARING errors. Errors that are clearly errors, no opinions. That doesn't surprise me. What DOES surprise me is that today, all the other TV, newspapers, radio and internet reports are covering this story.. and including the SAME ERRORS!
So, what is going on is that media outlets are not researching their reports at all, nor are they verifying anything. They are just plagiarizing each other.. getting their "facts" from another bad source. Sort of like.. the New York Post getting their facts from the Washington Post.. that got their facts from the Chicago Tribune.. that got their facts from the LA Times that got their facts from some anonymous, erroneous source!
In advanced English classes in school, they torture students with the task of having to put footnotes all over the place that refer to the source of the information being presented in an essay / thesis. The news media should have to do the same thing, if not in the article they wrote, they should provide their sources on request. "Washington Post.. who told you that Trump has 7 toes on his left foot? Was it a reputable source? " And they respond "uh… it was the Chicago Tribune.."
In computer lingo.. we call that GIGO - "Garbage In - Garbage Out".
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Hard to comment since you give no clue about what the story is about. The only thing I can offer is that major news outlets often rely on news services for their reporting, especially in other countries. It is usually attributed such as AP, UPI or Rueters. More details?
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Hard to comment since you give no clue about what the story is about. The only thing I can offer is that major news outlets often rely on news services for their reporting, especially in other countries. It is usually attributed such as AP, UPI or Rueters. More details?
Oh.. I see what you are saying. Yes, reporters used to rely heavily upon information from AP, UPI or Rueters. What I am referring to is quite different. Reporters at one horrible news outlet copying information from reporters at another horrible news outlet (or even from within the same news outlet). Sort of like the National Examiner getting their information from the National Enquirer. "Yes, the government has captured a dozen aliens from a crashed UFO. 10 of them were 9 foot tall bigfoots, led by a clone of Hitler, and the captain of the ship was the real Elvis - who is not dead! We got this story from the Weekly World News.. so it MUST be true!"
The story I am referencing would take too long to explain. The story itself is not relevant to this topic. It takes place in Canada. Very few people are aware of this, but most of the media in Canada is controlled by FRANCE! Their biggest news outlet, which has a veritable monopoly on the media in Canada - is the TVA - which is owned by France!
