Jackson Hill
Sky Moss
Media literacy is necessary to be a responsible citizen and voter. Analyzing information across sources in pursuit of valid information is essential to being an informed citizen. Oxford dictionary defines media literacy as, “knowledge, understanding and experience of various media forms. In some definitions the concept includes literacy and numeracy.” In modernity there is an infinite repository of real-time media. Identifying what is real, substantive and important is difficult for every citizen. Voting is a privilege and a right not enjoyed in many places in the world. Cynicism born of misinformation and disinformation has caused many to choose non-participation. To be a confident voter, it is important to have reliable information. In this 2024 presidential election, informed voting is crucial. Truth has become a contested idea, a chattel word. American sociologist David Riesman said, “Nowadays, truth is the greatest news. The mass media are the wholesalers, the peer groups, the retailers of the communications industry.”
Social media has both broadened and polluted the political landscape. Facebook, Instagram, X, Snapchat, Telegram, Reddit, TikTok and millions of Youtube videos often perpetuate partially true or wholly false information. Deep fakes, bots, AI have all been introduced into the political media. These are new factors for voters to navigate. Post-2016, these sites have grown in viewership influencing political decision making for many voters. While they also feature legitimate content that can inform the electorate, they also house purposeful agents of confusion. The ability to confirm and build on conspiratorial or false information is a click away. Responsibility is key. Some content is a blatant attempt to distract from macro issues. This approach tries to elicit anger and emotion versus analysis. An informed voter should not necessarily avoid social media but balance it with meaningful conversation across parties. Following individuals with different political viewpoints can be helpful. Frequenting sites with centrist content and empirical approaches can help filter accurate information. Older media such as newspapers, journals, television and books are great tools. Learning the sponsorships, who pays the bills, is important when judging the information focused nature of the content. The two presidential candidates and their parties have different ideas and histories. Informed voters need to know the issues, the stances and marry their ideas for the future accordingly.
Both current candidates are utilizing the media to gain voters and publicity. Kamala Harris assumed the party leadership for the Democrats when President Joe Biden announced he would not seek re-election.
Former President Trump is considered a master of media. His name appears across the media spectrum for good and bad reasons. After being removed from Facebook and Twitter, Trump started Truth Social, a brand new site. When he was kicked off Twitter he had 88.7 million followers. Before announcing his 2016 candidacy he had only 2.98 million followers. (FORBES.com) MPR news reports that the former president has 210,000 TikTok followers and 7,000,000 on his Truth Social app. Democratic candidate Harris has 3.4 million followers on TikTok (MPR news). Harris has 18.5 million Instagram followers and 5.4 million on FB. Former President Trump redefined media usage and the importance of facts. Former/Current Trump advisor KellyAnne Conway famously coined the phrase “alternative facts” while defending then Press Secretary Sean Spicer. According to the Washington Post the former president delivered 30,573 false or misleading claims during his four years in office. His ability to invite millions of Americans to question traditional media sources is/was one of his most important political accomplishments. His approach has performed a control-alt-delete for media, sourcing and voter information distribution. Neither candidate has done many sit down television interviews across the aisle. It is never a bad idea to consult international outlets like BBC, Reuters and Al Jazeera. Sometimes the outside lens can help strain out political dross.
The 2024 election will be extremely close with 5-7 states likely deciding the outcome. Local media and trusted information personalities in those zip codes could determine the election. Being an informed voter should be easier considering the abundance of information and access to platforms. Ironically that has made the exercise more difficult. Voter turnout is likely to once again set records and ultimately that is a good thing. Healthy, functional democracy requires media freedom and media honesty. It also requires a populace willing to constantly update their information sleuthing and media literacy.
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