What the news says and what it doesn't

Depending on the news source of your choice, you're hearing radically different messages, and none of them are neutral. I will be upfront, I consider myself to be a moderate democrat, and my news sources on a consistent basis are Fox News, The New York Times, and Ground News. I wanted to preface that so you know that I have bias from my news sources and also from my experiences as a white person. I would also like to say that I don't have any social media accounts. All the reels that my political fury comes from are sent to me by my friends, and I am aware that other content exists on Instagram. I am not here to berate you, judge you, or characterize you as a human being. I am here to encourage your critical thinking and to contextualize how news shifts across different platforms and why it matters.

If you have recently listened to Fox News, you hear about the domestic terrorists, the almost happened massacres, the ICE agent whose finger was bitten off, you hear about all the murderers pulled off our streets, and how patriotic these ICE agents are. You hear about how lovely Kristi Noem is and Steven Miller talking about how ICE has federal immunity, and nothing can touch them.

If you listen to MS Now/MSNBC or ABC or almost any other news source, you hear about the families torn apart, children used as bait, victims' stories and lives and families, you hear about the protests and the signal chats. You hear about Ilhan Omar being sprayed at town hall and all of Trump's most outrageous statements.

If you're on a certain side of Instagram, you see thousands of videos comparing the current US to Nazi Germany before the Holocaust and Russia before the gulags. You hear fear-mongering, escape plans, and information with no news sources cited, used to provoke anger and rage rather than promote critical thinking. They don't talk logically or explain their reasoning; they don't talk about what to do or why you should care. Their platform is not regulated by journalists and editors, but rather propelled by a passion to beat the algorithm and go viral, leading them to make short, sensationalized videos that lack true meaning. It's propaganda.

Each platform has a story to tell, even when reporting on the same things; the headlines, details, comments, and overarching message change with each one, not because the stories are truly different, but because the incentives behind them are.

While the rage Instagram promotes can be helpful in small doses, this is not the way forward. We will get nowhere by fury; let passion be your fire, and choose a medium in which to share the message, not to inflame but to inform. This is not a battle won by anger but rather by decisive action. Don't let your feelings get the better of you; use them to your advantage.