If you trace back around 70 years ago, people would mainly gain information about the world through the use of news organisations, whether that be on television or on newspapers.

These days, there are many ways of learning about the world.  This has seemed to have a negative effect on news outlets, with more and more people distrusting them day by day, and turning towards social media for news.

But why is this? Why would people distrust the sources of information that they have been using for decades?

Perhaps a primary reason is what most people call ‘bias’. However, news sources being ‘biased’ is not exactly a problem. Biased just means that the source expresses a certain opinion in their presentation of the news, which is natural and normal. 

The truth is, all news sources are biased by very human nature. Choosing to report on a certain news story rather than another one has an element of bias, as the news source chooses that the story they are reporting is of greater importance.

In fact, me choosing to write this article about the information we can trust is being biased, as I chose to write on this rather than any other topic.

It is in fact not bias, but the spread of disinformation that stands as the main problem facing news sources today.

For example, the BBC, a news source previously praised for possessing a staunchly neutral view, has received backlash lately on their reporting of Israel’s ongoing siege on Gaza.

People on social media began to realise that the BBC were using certain word choices which may point people towards a certain view, such as when they posted on twitter (on the 9th of October) that 500 people have ‘died’ in Gaza but 700 people have ‘been killed’ in Israel.

This word choice has obviously been carefully selected  in order to build a certain idea of the conflict in people’s minds, and the BBC has been called out in twitter for their improper journalism.

Disinformation stands at one of the biggest problems facing journalism today, so next time you choose to read an article or a piece of information online, remember to fact check the information and try to read with a neutral view.