Friday, September 17, 2010

Lies the Newspapers tell us

I don't have cable TV and I have no subscription papers coming to my door. My belief (the truth) is that mass media is massively biased. I also personally feel it is too negative focused, but that's another story.

To pass the time, I will pick up the local daily papers that people drop on the floor of the bus.

Last week, picked up a 24Hrs, and read an article titled:

"Canada's at the Head of North America's snack pack, says study"
In a nutshell, the study says that Canadians eat more snacks than our neighbours to the south. Study says that Canadians aren't hesitant to eat between meals, a trend that sees us snacking more than them. In the past decade, Snacking has become our fastest eating occasion! Oh No!

Ha Ha! This article spoke to me as a good example of media skewing information. I ripped it off and stuck it in my purse!

The author seemed to be trying to say this was a negative. Boo Canadians for snacking more. I find that odd because we, in many other (All?) other studies are healthier, lighter, live longer than those in the US.

This study he refers to, does not mention, nor does he anywhere in the article tell the readers what KIND of snacking is going on in our country. Because of our fast food world and media programming most people see a picture of S.H.I.T food (Soda.Hamurgers.Icecream.Tacos)when they hear/read the words "snack food".

Average She on the bus, will read said article and believe that Canadians are now hoarking on SHIT food at a faster than ever pace.

BUT.. Canadians ARE healthier, lighter, live longer than our counterparts down below!!! Canadians buy massive amounts of trail mix and granola! (Especially here in BC.)

The truth is snacks between meals are healthy for us, and in Canada we have choices and we use them. We are buying more and more healthy foods, organic foods, and that includes snacks, than ever before. In our country, most kids know what vegetables look like, and they eat lots of apples! Why did the article not say some of these things?

A couple more sentences and people might come away feeling even better about being Canadian, maybe proud of themselves for making healthy choices. A couple of sentences would have changed the article.

So why? I very much hope that it was an incomplete thought, that the writer ran out of time? I hope it was not an editor asked to remove it from the work, maybe big FRIED oil owns their newspaper?

I honestly know nothing about the ownership of 24Hrs, nor do I need to. I read this article and it just pissed me off for it's incompleteness and the negative skew it projected. I see it as a perfect example of a blatantly imperfect mass media system. This article will most likely not change someones life forever, but there are bigger stories and bigger papers with bigger reasons to spin us a tale in someones favour. They might change people's lives forever.

Some people let the media tell them how to live their whole lives, I hope that for their sake, those in charge (McDonald's,BP,MONSANTO etc.) think carefully about what information they choose to put out. "They" are listening to you, watching and reading you everyday, I beg you to please try to give them an accurate picture of the world. Don't harm them too much (more)

3 comments:

  1. Now that is something that does need to be printed in the newspaper... Submit that one to the 24 Hours and I would bet they'll love to print it even for a joke type thing. Put it in Letters to the Editor Or?
    Massively Impressed!

    ReplyDelete
  2. thank you for your comment. I followed your thought, and sent it to 24 hours. See if I get a reply. if so, I'll post it here.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Those papers on the train are not real newspapers. They have no reporters a d hardly any staff beyond the managers of the folks that hand them out. They are mostly adds with free news sources dispersed in between.

    ReplyDelete