Hello, everyone. Welcome to America Under the Microscope advanced episode. Hi, lulu.

Hi James.

So let's continue on from our previous episode where we talked about American media, and I’d like to start by talking off about these news and the sources and the views that these different channels and news programs have.

So I know that people have this general perception of each news channel that we talked about last time like CNN, FOX, for example, based on what I know, people's perception of FOX news is fairly right conservative, is that fair to say?

Yes, it is very fair to say, a lot of the different news channels in America, they tend to focus on a core demographic, whether it's more liberal Americans or more conservative Americans. And they don't really do this for any kind of ideological reason. They do it for money because to say nobody's targeting these people, we can target these people and get the ad revenue from them.

So we'll make sure that our news stories align with their views. Same with like that's why CNN tends to be… err...skews more the left or liberal. FOX news skews to the right conservative because that's just their target demographics, it's where they get their money from.

If you are trying to be in the middle, then you don't make money I guess because either side don't really like you that much.

Yeah, that's what kind of complicated. Right now, a big problem in America is what we call echo chambers.

I think it's the problem everywhere really.

So people tend to get media only from areas that align with them personally, so it reinforces their views, so anytime that they're faced with a different side of the story, they disregard it without actually maybe they have valid points.

Yeah, they will just shout fake news or they would shout something like that. You're saying CNN is more liberal and FOX is more conservative.

Do they actually tag themselves as that? For example, FOX would they actually openly say yes, we're more conservative, we support this and that; or CNN says we're more liberal, we do this and that; or is it just implied or people perceive them to be.

It's implied but also backed up with the actual reporting and things that their reporters say.

So if you watch FOX news, you will notice that they actually support and back more conservative leaders.

Republicans.

Yes, and the CNN tends to back more liberal leaders, the democrats, and you can actually track this based on the reporting of what they cover.

So if you see them covering the same story which they do cover the same stories, you can see how they skew one way or the other.

Just completely different interpretations.

Yeah, point of view matters in news.

But they also fight with each other. They sometimes will sort of attack each other. And say this is what, for example, CNN would be quite sarcastic about what FOX news has been reporting and vice versa.

I think they just do that to get numbers. Because to be fair, I imagine the people that work at these companies know each other pretty well. Maybe off camera, they're probably quite friendly with each other.

It's all a money game. Yeah, I think especially last time we were talking about these big media groups, they're all privately owned, so obviously it's run like a real business, big business as well.

Yeah, it is a big business.

But would it be safe to say like if you're talking to an American, just by knowing what kind of news channel they subscribe or they watch, you kind of get an idea about their political standing or their general view?

You would, yeah, so if you hear piers like I only watch FOX news or I only watch CNN you actually have a good idea of where they're aligned on the spectrum, or if they talk to someone like which one do you watch? I don't watch either one.

I think young people nowadays don't really watch these channels anymore, do they? they just go on social media, that's a whole other story. You mentioned echo chamber, which is even more of a problem on social media.

It's huge problem. So nowadays these channels are actually suffering because young people don't watch them, young people get their news from social media. They get articles from Twitter, get articles from Facebook or other social media sites.

Now this does lead to an issue of echo chambers because these are not news sources, these are social media sources.

So people can share articles that may not be properly researched, properly source, not fact checked, but people don't know how to discern the information. So that's like this story about you know aliens taking control the government must be true. Like I'm gonna need you to give me some facts on that one.

Yeah, but I mean Facebook I thought before maybe I don't really remember if that's true or not, but I think Facebook or some other social media platforms, they're trying to introduce or include this fact checker to check if these sources or if these content or especially newsworthy contents, if they are authentic, are true or not.

Yeah, they try, but just because they try, it doesn't mean it's successful. People still will look for the things that align with their view. People don't really want to read, you know cross their lines, people like to stay in their box.

That's true.

Because for example, it's like if you've always believed, let's just say if you've always believed candies are sweet, and then one day you've been reading this piece of news that says candies are sour and then that challenges your original perception.

And it's gonna take you, I would say a lot of drive or a lot of critical thinking to even try to consider if that should be checked or if that could possibly be true. Most people would probably just say no, that's nonsense. The candies are sweet, right?

That's what would happen, definitely.

Yeah, but you know there's apart from social media just like reading on social media like Facebook or Twitter, we talked about vloggers that's even more probably even less trustworthy. I mean...

Yeah, so that's actually something that's been big right now in Americas where people get news from these vloggers, pod casters who produce shows that are, I would call them, pseudo news.

Oh, pseudo news.

Because they talk about the news story like with an air of confidence.

People are weird like you talk about something confidently. People will believe you.

Yeah.

They're not a news source, they don't really have the facts or they haven't researched, they just make claims, and people believe those claims.

I think that's a big problem because if you're actually reporting news, like in China, I don't know about in the US, but in China if you are reporting news, you need credentials.

But if you're just commenting on news, you don't. So you can just easily say I'm just commenting on it, I'm just talking, sharing my own opinion.

But then like you said, if you look confident enough, you have that sort of newscaster trustworthy face. People will believe in whatever you say, actually James think about we are pod casters, I'm also a vlogger, so being the influencer and then you say you present it confidently…

They should believe in everything I say because I'm extremely confident.

Exactly

I mean actually when we do our show, we do quite a bit of research and we try to make it fact based. But there are people out there who really don't base it on any fact whatsoever, It's more entertainment I would say.

Well, it's like I get it from my gut, and that entertainment thing is a shield that they used too, because whenever someone pushes them, it's like you're spreading fake news. They're like we're not a news media. We're entertainment.

You thought we were news? that's your problem, you should have known that we were a comedy show and entertainment show, this is thing because even on the channels like FOX news, they label their talking head shows as entertainment and not news media, so they can get away with saying things that can't be backed up with fact.

I see.

Because it's for entertainment purposes.

Yeah, I think we still have a long way to go to really ensure the authenticity of our news or to fact check everything. And even if the facts are checked, there are still perspective issue. So the attempt to lead or to mislead people even if you're basing it on fact.

Yeah, absolutely because I think for some people they're misleading them to like you shouldn't believe them, so you can buy my product, it will help you.

That's actually something that happens. So it's like you gotta be… it's really hard to know it's like, who should you trust what is real? It's like what is reliable?

I feel sorry for any new people who come to America, it's like what should we do?

Yeah, well honestly, it's probably the same everywhere where people are on all of these social media sites, I think it's the same in China, it’s very very difficult especially when you're talking about vloggers, influencers.

Yeah.

But before we wrap this up, so James, personally when you're reading news, not make sure about how do you at least try to get more credible sources of news.

I tend to stick with the big newspapers that have years of experience and reputation. I tried to avoid opinion pieces.

Okay.

Because I don't need someone else to tell me their opinion, I can form my own. I want more of …when I look for news, I'm looking for things that could just tell me the facts, the situations, the background, and let me to think about it myself; and I will come to my own conclusions.

I don't need someone to tell me how I should have an opinion on how to think, I want the facts.

So that's what I tend to look for in news.

I think that's definitely a very good tip. For me, I will also try to get multiple sources, especially...

It's a good one.

Sources that might have slightly different views or takes on things, putting them together. I can piece together my own perception of what has truly happened.

Yeah, I agree.

So if you are able to do that, I'm not saying you're definitely get to the truth, but you're getting closer, at least closer to facts and truth, right?

Yep. I would do that.

Okay.

On that note, we're gonna wrap up here, leave us a comment in the comment section and then tell us how do you fact check your news. Thank you, James for coming to the show.

Thank you for having me and thank you all for listening.

We'll see you next time.

Bye everyone.

Bye.