Speaking of the media…

…which the Vatican did in that message below (in the post ‘Teaching Peace’), the topic is always relevant and full of angles to cover.

The current issue of Crisis Magazine has my story on the state of media bias, an ever evolving topic.

Walter Lippman hit on this phenomenon in the early 20th century and turned his thesis into the timeless classic Public Opinion, “a bland title because its contents are so explosive,” claimed the opening line of the book. Lippman was a journalist and political scientist, but it was his role as government propagandist for military intelligence that opened his eyes to the real problem…

A key question Lippman hit upon remains central today: How do people interpret information, accurate or not? How do people know if information is accurate?

It’s a critical concern, because we form our opinions on knowledge we get, and we get much of it from the major media, especially in times of crisis. How they handled that in the immediate aftermath of the Virginia Tech shoots is the topic of this piece in MercatorNet that I did after the first few days. Now, the analysis is pouring out into the public arena, some of it media hand-wringing over what happens when they become part of the story. And what should.

Benedict has advice on that, which is in the MercatorNet article.

“The call for today’s media to be responsible – to be the protagonist of truth and promoter of the peace that ensues – carries with it a number of challenges,” Pope Benedict wrote in his message for the 40th World Communications Day. “These are distortions that occur when the media industry becomes self-serving or solely profit-driven, losing the sense of accountability to the common good.”

The message out of the Vatican today calling on the media to be instruments of peace is timely. As it always is.