Nov 1st, 2020: "How Can We Hear and See Correctly?"

 

Infodemic is what we have been dealing with lately. Here is its definition: "an excessive amount of information about a problem that is typically unreliable, spreads rapidly, and makes a solution more difficult to achieve." Some people have blamed various social media platforms for the most recent infodemic concerning Covid-19.

Information has become an incredible source of power. That is why some of the major news networks in the US don't like the phrase "fake news" being used to describe them. Whoever controls the flows, and the content of information will dictate the agenda. Suddenly, we have to witness how news reporters have created their image of self-importance for themselves. They think that they are the voice of authority. Everything they say has to be taken seriously. Even their voice and background sound important.

Information has been manufactured as ways to manipulate the masses. It is not just the news that we hear these days. We have to confront a barrage of different narratives of the news. When information is portrayed in these narratives, we no longer have the real truth. We deal with either the presentation or perception of it. This form of manipulation has been the source of intense anger for many of us. Nothing can be more problematic than having the feeling that we are deceived.

Information can be used to either scatter or gather people. We saw this past summer as protests happened across the US as social media circulate an incredible amount of information to mobilize people. We have also learned that many people left various urban centers to go to smaller towns in the surrounding areas to avoid the spread of the pandemic as the news networks began to be preoccupied with the attempt to flatten the curve. We see the US as the whole has become one deeply divided nation as different leaders and states decided to take different approaches to confront Covid-19. Americans don't seem to be able to agree on what needs to happen.

Infodemic has been the real struggle as we try to sort through what we hear and have been told. Sometimes we have also learned that although we have ears we might not hear, and although we have eyes we might not see. This will be the real challenge for next Tuesday's election.

Mark 8: 18

"You have eyes—can’t you see? You have ears—can’t you hear?’ Don’t you remember anything at all?"