Young center-right voter: My generation is relying on unreliable news sources | Opinion
According to a poll that asked male respondents if they could land a passenger jet in an emergency, without autopilot, nearly half said they were confident they could land the plane. Some may find that confidence endearing. I believe it reveals something highly concerning: a frightening number of us place little value in authority and professionalism.
This becomes especially clear in the way that our relationship with news media has evolved. According to the Pew Research Center, nearly a quarter of Americans use podcasts as their primary source of news, and half use social media. In comparison to traditional news, the barrier to entry in digital entertainment is low. If you have a mic and an opinion, it’s fair game.
Unfortunately, a mic and an opinion aren’t adequate substitutes for expertise and integrity. We have to realize experts matter.
The real world consequences of operating on lies are catastrophic. We enter wars, we disregard medical discoveries and we distrust one another. The confluence of entertainment and journalism blurs the line between journalists on a mission to inform and an entertainer following incentives that may not be in the interest of truth.
Since content creation migrated from corporations to individuals, there are no standards in place to protect audiences from misinformation. Too many people with no expertise in journalism or the topics discussed end up spreading false information. Oftentimes, hosts bring on sensationalist guests that are better for ratings than truth-telling. It is imperative that the host is informed enough to identify harmful rhetoric. Else, crazies are able to hijack enormous platforms to say whatever they’d like, regardless of consequences.
Not only do digital personalities lack the ability to adhere to journalistic standards, but the system to support that practice does not exist: no gatekeepers, editors or fact-checkers. Regardless, the constant need for the audience to judge integrity and credibility has created a distrustful audience.
Distrustfulness has taken root most noticeably among young people. Between the tinfoil hats and the woefully apathetic, my generation has become increasingly disconnected from the truth.
Most alarming is our lack of faith in democratic institutions: per the Knight Foundation, just 15% of 18-24 year olds believe that elections represent the will of the public, and 28% responded that they simply do not care about our elections. This is to say, not only are many Americans, especially young people, perpetually being fed misinformation, but it is leading them to disengage from our democracy altogether. Washington’s great experiment can only succeed if all of us both believe and participate in it.
As a center-right voter, it worries me that many of my peers have become skeptical of expertise and news organizations. So many young conservatives have this overblown sense that experts aren’t experts. We eschew information that is in conflict with our beliefs.
What is it that we believe in if not our government, our doctors and our friends? Nobody is calling into their favorite podcast when they need to reset a dislocated knee. If we vote for politicians who make the best comedians, then we shouldn’t be surprised if our government is a joke.
In light of the upcoming election, all voters have soul searching to do. In addition to the ongoing wars in Ukraine and Israel, the next president will have to navigate China’s plans to invade Taiwan and domestic issues, including inflation and the border crisis. We desperately need a strong government composed of competent professionals.
Our nation’s health and reputation are on the line. Rhetoric and one-liners fly around the political sphere while the burden of separating fact and fiction falls on us. With so many admirably confident men and women to choose from, we must ask ourselves: Who do we want in our ear while we pick our pilot for the next four years?
This story was originally published February 29, 2024 at 11:02 AM.