In this project we will analyze how two sources of news — Fox News and Comedy Central — use truthiness to portray stories in order to alter the opinions of viewers. We will be using the health care reform debate to compare the differences between the two sources and how factual each is versus how much truthiness their stories include.
To test a group of people's knowledge of truthiness and trust of their news sources we created a survey asking a randomized group of participants three questions. We posted it to various social media websites where we acquired 59 takers.
The first question was "Do you think that news channels are based more on fact or more on the reporters' opinions?" The participants could respond with "fact," "opinion" or "both." A majority of 57.6 percent answered "both." This could mean a majority of people trust news sources but also believe it is important to remember the facts might be twisted based on the reporters' and news stations' point of view and bias.
For the second question - "When it comes to news, which of the following national news sources do you trust the most?" - participants could answer with "Fox News Channel," "The Daily Show - Jon Stewart," "The Colbert Report - Stephen Colbert," or choose "Other" and reply with another answer. A clear majority of 72.7% chose Fox as their most trusted news source. However, this might be due to Fox News being the only truly news-based channel offered as an option. Participants may have chosen that because the question was worded confusingly.
Of the participants who answer question two, 18.2% chose The Colbert Report and 9.1% chose The Daily Show. There was a total of 25.4% who skipped the question and 28.8% chose "other." Among those that typed in their own responses, CNN was mentioned multiple times as well as online websites, the New York Times, local news and National Public Radio. A few participants said they had lost trust or that they did not trust any news source in particular.
We chose the make the third question open-ended so that each participant could write out a response to the question: "What is your opinion on how the media portrays the news?" Most participants mentioned at least something about the news being skewed based on opinion or desire for revenue. One response stated "It's becoming more like a reality tv show" and news sources are trying to "get you emotionally involved and feed off the drama." Someone else echoed this statement, saying, "The more drama they create, the more people watch, the more money they make." Another stated that news sources base their news on "what they think the consumers want to hear." Many people stated they think the news is one-sided and most gave reasons for believing the news is not as true as it should be. Although a few people did state they believed the media did a good job with the news and they trusted it, most participants were skeptical.
Based on the responses we received we deduced most viewers of news trust it somewhat but are also aware most of what they are watching is biased. A few people trust it completely but most try to watch out for false and skewed reports.
Ultimately we think it unlikely that many viewers are as careful as they should be when watching and receiving information from news sources.
As Ted Pease is famous for saying, "You're being lied to, boys and girls."
