What I learned from reading 20 news apps every day

I have always been impressed when hearing of people who get up early, read several different newspapers, exercise, grab breakfast and then attack the day better prepared and well-informed. 

Being up to date on world events and politics has always been somewhat of a goal for me. Today with free news apps, it is extremely easy to devour the news in the morning and throughout the day. In my attempt to become well-informed, and perhaps become more like people I look up to, I decided to do an experiment. I was going to download 20 different news apps, get up early and read through as many of the main stories as I could before leaving for work. 

My experiment started by reading news apps ranging from NPR to Flipboard (the swiping feature makes this is nice if you are on the treadmill or elliptical!) to BBC, CNN, Fox, Yahoo!, BuzzFeed, Al Jazeera etc etc. I would do a few random ones in Europe or the Middle East or the South Pacific. Some were local, some national, some international, some from the left and some from the right, some in English and some in French. Some I would just pluck out randomly from the Google play store. Everyone received an equal shot. 

I did not read every article in the apps as one may read the newspaper from cover to cover. I skipped or skimmed many of the articles that did not seem to be beneficial. If the article was about an actor's skin care methods or 5 secrets to destroying belly fat, I just passed on by. Surprisingly, similar articles make-up a large portion of the "news". 

So, I ventured off on my 20 news app experiment and here is what I learned...

THERE IS ALWAYS A HOOK

The news hooks you in with something that most everyone cares about, and then adds-in their own agenda. It usually goes something like - we need to save puppies and President Obama is evil. Isn't this actor very good looking and President Trump is the worst person to ever live. Well, obviously if they like puppies and support my favorite attractive actor, then they must be right about Obama/Trump, right?

Or on the flipside, instead of connecting you with positive things like puppies and famous hotties, they stir-up your negative feelings. This usually happens by stating that a certain group of people hate the country, the flag, our planet or some portion of our world's population (race, gender, age etc.). Obviously, none of us want to associate ourselves with others who are racist, or hate our country, so we agree with other things they say. 

Sadly, hate, fear, anger and greed seem to be their only objective, always lying close below the hooks.

THE BATTLES IS WON WITH PICTURES and TITLES

The title or accompanying picture is all most people see. It is super easy to bust through scores of titles on MSNBC or Yahoo!. Pictures with titles that hook your interest, pop-up on your screen and then automatically scroll away being replaced with new, though equally catching, stories.  

I can't blame anyone for not reading the articles. The stories themselves are generally just a short spouts of fluff and nothing else. Titles for the stories will throw down some very bold statements or accusations, reinforced by equally convincing pictures, and then the article usually has nothing to support the initial accusations. 

It goes something like this – Everyone is shocked that President X did this…George Clooney’s $25 million stunning mansion is up for sale…what the opposing political party members really think…Steph Curry nails an incredible full court shot…and on and on.

It is shocking, how often the article has no information to back up the claim of the title. Sometimes it seems like the article got switched from the title, as they seemingly have no relation. It doesn't matter though; the damage is done. I truly believe that 90% of the news author’s time is spent on the title and accompanying image, while the remaining 10% is slapping a few sentences together for the actual article. 

The pictures aren't much better than the articles themselves. One time I was watching a local news channel, who was reporting a car that was upside down underwater in a river. At the bottom of the screen there was a tiny message that showed that the video was a stock video. A stock video!! I guess I was pretty naive and didn't know they could use videos from other incidents for future ones. Shouldn't the images shown be from the stories being reported? Apparently not.

Now I see it all the time! So often with car fires, mudslides, disasters, or even the State of the Union address, the picture or video shown isn't even of that event!

National and international outlets are worse than local ones, even though they have far greater resources to obtain correct images. The image is very rarely from the event they are reporting. Additionally, news channels are caught doctoring photos to make people look like a different age or race, to better drive their message home.

If you read the National Inquirer or the Onion, you can rest assured that the article will back up whatever claim it is making, even if it is not true. To be honest, after my little experiment here, I would recommend reading the Inquirer or Onion over the other major cable networks! You will end up being just as knowledgeable about world events, but you won't walk away from the articles full of hate and anger against something that probably didn't happen! Plus, you'll get a good laugh out of it!

THE WEATHER FORECAST IS THE MOST ACCURATE THING YOU'LL SEE ON THE NEWS

People joke about the weather forecasts being accurate only about half of the time. Though there are a few studies showing that number to be higher, it is definitely the most accurate part of the news!

Remember the news reporter acting like he was getting blown away by a huge storm, only to see a few people saunter by in the background wearing shorts, without a care in the world? This is a fantastic representation of how the news runs - take some small morsel of truth and blow it up to dramatic proportions! No one cares that it is raining in Florida, but if there is a hurricane, they will be glued to the news for days!

Even weather reports are not immune from news agencies mixing in their own agendas. If only the news agency's preferred political party was in office, they would have taken action against (insert favorite rhetoric - global warming, global cooling, plastic straws etc) and this volcano (hurricane, tempest, snowstorm) would never have occurred. We'll generally hear that every storm or fluctuation in weather was caused by X and the only way to prevent these future natural disasters is to vote for our political party who will get rid of X, thus savings Mother Earth and all her inhabitants. 

Have you ever looked outside to see if the weather prediction was correct? A few weeks ago, it was raining hard at my work and when I checked the weather it showed a 30% chance of rain that day. The weather report showed a slight chance of rain while it was raining incredibly hard, like really hard, like when pools quickly grow in the streets and people start running for cover. 

If only we took a quick look outside our news-controlled environment to see how the real weather was!

DID IT REALLY HAPPEN?

We always look to weather forecasts to see what will happen in the future, but have you ever looked to see if they were right? Did it really rain on Thursday? Was it really 90 degrees or even close to that?

It doesn’t stop at the weather. We can look back and see if President Obama removed all of our freedoms as was predicted. Or did the economy really fall into collapse after President Trump took office?

Have you ever known someone who exaggerated or lied every time they spoke? I'm guessing you probably stopped believing that person, right? Yup. Then why do we believe junk on TV that never happens? It is sad how angry people will become over something that didn't really happen!

FINANCIAL NEWS AINT MUCH BETTER

Financial news stations are no better. I used to love watching the financial news channels, until I realized that none of what they said ever happened. Furthermore, after watching, I always felt like I was missing the next big thing. My FOMO was huge! Fear of missing the next big stock and my greed in wanting to hop on to their next skyrocketing prediction was huge! Instead of following my initial impulse to buy whatever they were selling, I devoted far more time into studying markets from different sources. 

Now that I've learned more, I stopped watching financial news.  

Plus, I read that people watching financial news do much worst with their investments than people who don't watch them. 

The more educated you become from a variety of sources; the less control any one news source will have to sway your feelings.

FLATTERY WILL GET YOU EVERYWHERE

Not long ago a friend of mine was explaining to me that people who follow her news channel, were more enlightened and elite in their thinking than others. Followers of MSNBC obviously saw the world from an elevated point of view and all the world's problems would quickly evaporate once everyone accepted them as the sole source of truth in our world. Climate change, wars, crime, disease, racism and bigotry would all vanish, if only we could all just get on board with MSNBC.

Unfortunately, my friend isn’t alone in her assumptions. It isn't just Microsoft's TV station that leads people to believe their listeners are the brightest and most enlightened, followers of most other media outlets will tell you the same. 

This spring, I was watching President Trump talk to a group of people in Florida. He had some very inspiring things to say, but then he started talking about how those who oppose him, preach that they are the "elite" of this country. President Trump then said that his followers are even more elite than the others. Oh brother.

Now people are pandering to believe they are more elite than others because they follow a certain politician or news channel. Ugh.

WHY NOT JUST SAY WHAT HAPPENED?

The news agencies seem to have as their only goal – to increase their profits by developing Hate, Fear, Anger and Greed!

Unfortunately, news agencies have found that stirring hate, fear, anger and greed must exist for them to be profitable. You are angry, so you go back to the news or you like the positive stuff mixed in with their messages, so you go back. If you read the news and came away without strong feelings against the current president or feelings against a certain political view, you are more likely to return for more.

If you only watch similarly biased news channels, you will have very little exposure to the world other than the controlled messages of some business. Your anger will increase FAR more rapidly than your knowledge of world events.

Have you noticed that the news agencies are owned by the richest people and corporations in the world? Your hate, fear, anger and greed, keep you coming back to their sites. You returning to their sites to once again be amazed by some crazy story in the news, increases clicks which increases advertising, which bring in the dough!

"He who controls the past, controls the future. He who controls the present, controls the past" - George Orwell.

Ok, is there a person or group of people that you believe 100% of the time? I'm guessing not. Whether it is your spouse, your boss or your pastor, you likely you have differences of opinion - and you probably have lots of them! Then why do we cling to every word that is spewed out of news corporations? Gigantic corporations whose owners are making billions of dollars off you following them, tell you to think a certain way, and we drop in hook, line and sinker! 

THE SOLUTION - SEEK KNOWLEDGE

Try this - take a one-week break from all news. Just give it a try. After one week, you'll notice that you haven't missed out on anything but probably don't have feelings of anger being stirred up all the time. You will have unloaded some harsh feelings, freed-up time for productive outlets and are no less knowledgeable about the world than you were before. 

I recently heard that you cannot learn, what you think you already know. This seems to be just as true in politics as it is with any aspect of life. It is incredibly simple to find how most news reports are inaccurate. That is not hard.

The true test, I believe, is questioning yourself? Are you right in your beliefs? Are you willing to seek the truth?

News agencies all have a bias and are pushing a way of thinking. When it comes down to it, we all are. The important thing is to realize what your bias is. It is also important to realize the bias of those who are feeding you information.

THE MORE YOU LEARN, THE LESS YOU HATE

Next time the weatherman says it is raining outside, look outside and see if it really is. Next time your news source informs you that a stock is going to drop or that the President is doing X, maybe check it out for yourself. But most definitely, next time the news stirs you to anger against a group of people for believing something unbelievable, check with one of them first to find out if they really believe that and why they do. The more you learn, the less you will hate. 

I love football and am a big BYU fan. I love the rivalry with the University of Utah, but only with those who really enjoy football. For those who understand football, rivalries are great, friendly competitions. It is the fans on both sides who don't understand the game, that are the loudest and most obnoxious. They are the ones, who just like in politics, bring us all down. 

This isn't the sporting world where you must choose between BYU and the University of Utah. This is grown-up world with real life events happening. These news agencies have great power over how we see the world. The incredibly sad thing is that after reading some of these fact-empty articles, the rest of us rise up, spew hate and anger against others who, as we just learned, are very hateful monsters. We unfriend loved ones on social media as our superior enlightened selves would never let us associate with people who don't have the same lofty beliefs as ourselves. We are shocked that other people could believe so differently.

It seems that if we do not understand how someone could believe something, whether it is about President Obama or Trump, whether or not to vaccinate our children or even why someone could possibly be a University of Utah fan, it is probably because you have never talked to someone with differing views. The more you learn, the less you hate.

As we seek true knowledge by learning from others, instead of shunning them, then the walls of hate will be brought down. Turning the news off and speaking with people with different views will bring far greater knowledge, and dare I saw enlightenment, than focusing on a few news channels and only associating with people with identical views.

The next time you hear something that leads you to anger, please stop and take a moment to see what really happened cuz whatever is making you angry, probably did not happen how you heard it.

The more you learn, the less you hate!