Anger. Anxiety. Fear. Doom and gloom. Fake news. Misinformation. Disinformation. Conspiracy theories… It can be pretty overwhelming to consume the news these days. A study published in Science found that fake news spreads six times faster than true news on social media. Another study published in Nature Human Behavior found that “negative words in news headlines increased consumption rates (and positive words decreased consumption rates),” which naturally incentivizes negativity in news publications. How can Christians tell fact from fiction and engage with the news without the soul-crushing consequences?
We have five suggestions for you:
- Know the difference between fact and opinion.
- Watch out for bias.
- Keep things in perspective.
- Respond in prayer and action.
- Leave the rest to God.
Know the difference between fact and opinion.
Facts are hard to find and expensive to get right, but giving an opinion is easy… so there’s a lot of opinion out there. We need to learn the difference between reality (the facts) and someone’s commentary on the facts (opinion). Facts can be verified by evidence, whereas opinions are expressions of an author’s beliefs, ideas, or feelings. To guard against an unhealthy relationship with the news, choose sources that are heavy on facts and light on opinions.
Watch out for bias.
Learning how to detect bias is key for Christian media discernment. Here are a few things to look out for:
- Story selection. There are zillions of stories that could be told on any given day. What makes the front page is not always a reflection of which story is the biggest. News outlets may have financial or ideological incentives for highlighting certain stories and burying others. Avoid this kind of bias by getting your news from multiple sources that offer different perspectives.
- Selective details. When you get your news from several different places, you’ll notice that some include details that other outlets leave out. News aggregators like AllSides and The Flip Side can help readers identify patterns and see through bias. Avoid sources that repeatedly leave out the facts that undermine the story they’re telling.
- Word choice. Does a source refer to abortion as “healthcare”? Do they call things “woke”? Do they use the term “illegal immigrant” or “migrant”? Word choices like these can help you detect a source’s underlying assumptions and biases. When you’re looking for news, watch for when sources use emotionally charged or dramatic language.
- Editorial rigor. Reputable news sources put their content through a rigorous editorial process to reach a trustworthy, objective final product. They issue corrections, cite sources, and are disciplined about avoiding (or at least not obscuring) their biases. Be wary of blogs and social media accounts, which often skip this step.
Keep things in perspective.
While we want to stay engaged and know how we can serve the needs in our community, we need to keep the big things big and the small things small. Most of the stories we read will be forgotten by next week, let alone 1,000 years from now. Believers know that we’re all part of a much bigger story, and we should read news stories with that in mind. Avoid sources that sensationalize everything, and remember that every piece of earthly news is just a blip on the timeline of eternity.
Respond in prayer and action.
News outlets make more money when their audience is fired up because it keeps them coming back for more. If you find yourself angry yet unable to do anything about the situation, you could be being manipulated. Unfortunately, when news shifted from being primarily about local events to national and international events, this manipulation became the norm. As author Neil Postman already saw back in 1990, “The tie between information and action has been severed. Information is now a commodity that can be bought and sold, or used as a form of entertainment, or worn like a garment to enhance one’s status.” Try paying more attention to local news, which can inform action in your community. And even when action or donation isn’t possible, Christians can always respond to the news through prayer.
Leave the rest to God.
It’s valuable to be informed. But once you’ve investigated, prayed, discerned the facts, and taken any action you can in your local community… What more is there to do? Before the Apostle Paul’s passage in Philippians 4 about focusing on “whatever is true, noble, right, and pure,” he encourages Christians to present all of our anxieties to God in the form of prayer. Entrusting the matter to the God who is infinitely more capable of solving the problem than we are frees us up to focus on whatever is true/noble/right, etc. When the news looks bleak, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness” (Matthew 6:33 CSB) and leave the rest to Him.