Making Our Own Decisions

It's an easy world today- the world of making decisions. One practically has no reason to think for oneself. I sit down at my desk every morning, inundated with tweets, and updates, and chats. I get blurbs of information I can choose to investigate or ignore, but one thing I have noticed is a diminishing foundation of unbiased information.

I think this is probably true because of the overwhelming amount of information available to us in this digital world, and more, I think it is because we, as a society, have become accustomed to being spoon-fed information from any chosen source as a way to feel "informed". It's a personal frustration of mine, one I see everyday when people merely consume the information they are presented without questioning the sources or even considering the point of view in which a particular piece is slanted.

I remember reading an opinion piece by Julia O'Malley not too long ago that questioned when our news was chosen based on the political party one belonged to. That resonated with me because I see people merely regergating information that is 1) wrong and 2) very biased.

Has it always been the way of news, this income of information based on a particular slant? And, if so, was one so compelled by the one side that they forgot to consider the other? These are the questions I am faced with daily when selling the content of the Alaska Dispatch, an online newsmagazine. I've nailed down the response to one when they ask, like I'm about ready to divulge a secret no one knows. "So, what side is the Alaska Dispatch writing from?"

I say, "It's funny. We're really trying to capture the integrity of journalism as it should be: an unbiased, fact-based story you yourself could trace down if you had the inclination." It's true, and it's refreshing. Journalism without a slant. Reporting without an agenda. Sounds so hard to comprehend. Sounds scary. It is. The truth usually is.

But the Alaska Dispatch is a small fish in a big pond of racing opinion and editorial content, easy to drown, and easy to dismiss. I'm sure you could find others who are forging through the mass chaos of new media, desperate to throw themselves at the mercy of the all-mighty reader. Yeah, the Alaska Dispatch is taking a step back, in some cases. Sure, as the only online newsmagazine in Alaska, they are breaking ground, and churning with the tides. They are riding the wave of an everchanging industry, constantly in motion, continuously adapting to the pressures of the newspaper/online collide.

Personally, I want people (read: you), informed, engaged, active citizens to ask more of your news resources. Want more of where you stand and what you stand for, seek truth beyond colors or parties, or fads. Why are we, the American Society, so caught up in making it day to day, that we forget our presence and place in creating and consuming the news? It's a sad day to realize we are a spoon-fed society, and we don't ask more of the people holding the other end.