h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

All written or spoken information is going to have a bias of some kind, because it will be written with some purpose in mind, and our backgrounds and points of view will shape the way we write something, however hard we try to be balanced. So we can never absolutely trust anything written or heard second hand because it will not be objective! However, we also need to remember that our own modes of seeing will not be objective either. We also need to remember that often the media is our only way of finding out what is going on around the world. So even if we don't trust it we can't afford to ignore it.

The best way to approach the media is to try to assemble as many viewpoints as possible on controversial subjects, figure out what their biases may be and approach them keeping that in mind. We also need to be aware of our own biases, and be aware of why we object to a particular media article... is it because the article is untrustworthy and shows unacceptable degrees of bias, or is it just that it approaches a subject from a worldview other than our own? The only way to read the media without falling into its traps is to be aware of what it is and what deficiencies it contains, whilst also keeping our minds open to the new experiences and viewpoints media articles can give us. If we choose to reject them, we neeed to look within ourselves and examine why. Are we being close minded and therefore in a way just as untrustworthy as the media?