Strategies for Consuming News
"The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction. . . and the distinction between true and false. . . no longer exist."
This section is indebted to the work of Lawrence Eppard, Ali Dagnes, Michael A. Deas, Adam Grant, Tom Nichols, Lee McIntyre, and Bruce Bartlett, among others.
A healthy news diet should have multiple credible sources known for providing reliable accounts of the news of the day with limited bias (click here for some examples of reliable sources).
Avoid locking yourself in ideological and information silos. Nobody's knowledge is complete, and nobody's beliefs are perfect. Surrounding yourself with people and information that only reaffirm your worldview and never make you question your beliefs will allow flawed beliefs to persist and will make your views more extreme and ideological.
If a source has a history of pushing misinformation/disinformation or fabrications, doesn't correct/retract these stories prominently, and/or keeps making the same mistakes over and over again, this source is not to be trusted.
Good news sources operate independently of government and special interests.
Always identify whether you are reading a story that is designated as news or as opinion/commentary. This is an extremely important distinction, and reliable news outlets will label stories appropriately for you.
Avoid getting your news from cable news, partisan websites, social media, pundits, or personality-driven shows (whether on radio, television, or elsewhere).
Reliable news outlets describe where their information is coming from and give you confidence that a story has been verified.
When you see a particularly important news story, a controversial story, and/or a hard-to-believe story, see if it is being covered by multiple credible sources and covered in the same manner. If not, ask why.
A news story should provide you the weight of the evidence, not one contrarian perspective.
Search for reasons your beliefs might be wrong. Rigorously test your assumptions.
One way to understand flaws in your beliefs and gaps in your knowledge is to practice explaining a firmly-held belief as if you were talking to an expert. If you cannot do so thoroughly and without your argument breaking down, more knowledge is necessary.
Actively seek out information that might contradict your beliefs and assumptions. Everybody has blindspots in their knowledge, and you will not identify yours if you only read things that you know you will agree with.
Argue vehemently against your own ideas. Do they hold up? If so, you've made them stronger. If not, you need to rethink them.
Engage with the strongest opposing arguments, not weak straw men.
Our brains are wired to keep out threatening information, and when core beliefs or deeply-held opinions are questioned, we tend to shut down. Welcome this threat. If your beliefs can withstand threats, that means you were on to something to believe such a thing in the first place. If they cannot withstand scrutiny, you'll be smarter for realizing this and pivoting to a better understanding. Yes you were wrong, but take this opportunity to be less wrong moving forward.
Which do you desire more: to win an argument/prove you were right all along, or to know the facts? The former allows your cognitive biases to distort your reasoning abilities. The latter is what we should strive for.
People like being members of groups because we all have a desire for status and belonging. And we are naturally inclined to have animosity towards groups that threaten our group, threaten our identity tied to that group, or compete for resources with our group. Be aware of these tendencies when reading information about groups you do and do not belong to.
We use beliefs to navigate the world and make sense of our surroundings. Threats to our beliefs destabilize our views of the world, and thus we resist these threats. But many of our beliefs are flawed.
Always ask yourself: what new information would be necessary to make me acknowledge this deeply-held opinion is wrong? Then be on the lookout for such disconfirming evidence.
Be actively dispassionate about information, even (and especially) when it is about people and institutions that you like. Try not to become emotionally invested in ideas.
Make sure the news sources you rely on seek appropriate experts to include in their stories.
Identify the many areas you are not an expert in, and be able to identify who the appropriate experts are in these areas.
When you see opinion statements, attempts at persuasion, and/or selective or misleading info, this should alert you that the news source is of poor quality.
Headlines meant to trigger strong emotions should raise a red flag.
If a story makes you feel particularly good or particularly angry, you should ask yourself why. Be particularly suspicious of stories that make you feel good.
Avoid being tribal - no side has a monopoly on truth.
Avoid letting your opinions become a part of your identity. The less you tie your opinions to your identity, the easier it will be to change them and the smaller the chance there is of being embarrassed when you’re wrong.
Avoid beginning to read a news story or seeking information with the answers or solutions already in your mind. Start with questions that need to be answered and puzzles that need to be solved.
Constantly doubt what you know, rethink your beliefs, and remain curious about what you don’t know.
Constantly check your beliefs against evidence and update your views/pivot to a new understanding when new information is available. Evolve rather than affirm your beliefs.
The best writing goes through many drafts, each time getting better. Even after a piece is published, writers know they could keep making it better with endless subsequent drafts. Your ideas are like pieces of writing - keep revising them, over and over and over again, throughout your life. They will only get better and better with each draft. All of your ideas and beliefs at any given moment should be tentative - simply a reflection of where you stand at a given moment with the information you have at that point - because you know with time and more information they will inevitably change for the better.
Refuse to let your ideas become ideologies.
Test your hypotheses and then test alternative hypotheses.
Know what you don't know and the limits of your understanding. If we are certain we know things that we really don't, we won’t look for gaps in our knowledge and then correct them. We all have blindspots in our knowledge and opinions.
Admit when you are wrong and learn why. Being wrong is extremely useful if you learn from it and rethink your beliefs and ways of gaining knowledge, but damaging if you simply ignore it.
Value humility over pride, being right over feeling right, doubt over certainty, curiosity over closure, and flexibility over consistency.
Support reliable news sources (financially if you are able) so they continue to exist.
“Psychologists find that many of our beliefs are cultural truisms: widely shared, but rarely questioned. If we take a closer look at them, we often discover that they rest on shaky foundations.”
"Learning requires the humility to realize one has something to learn."
"If you don't look back at yourself and think, 'Wow, how stupid I was a year ago,' then you must not have learned much in the last year."