What You Don’t Know May Hurt You
Updated: Oct 15, 2022
We've all heard the expression, "Knowledge is power". In today's information age that expression couldn't be truer, especially when you consider all of the information we are bombarded with on so many different levels. Back in the day, we received our information from very limited sources. There were only a few television stations, a handful of newspapers, some local radio stations, and a manageable number of friends to get our information from. We also trusted those sources because they felt, even if they weren't, local and like they were looking out for our best interests. Accountability for the accuracy of information disseminated seemed to be held to a very high standard, not just socially, but also professionally.
Today we get information from tens of thousands of sources. Anyone who wants to get information out there, accurate or not, can do so in a hundred different ways. In today's technology driven world accountability for accuracy of information seems to be a thing of the past. Everyone has a platform for which they can be heard, which is great, but the platform can be used to influence in ways that are agenda driven and sometimes downright evil.
Therefore, the responsibility for finding the truth has shifted. No longer can the source be completely and unquestionably trusted. As receivers of information, we now bear the burden and responsibility of deciphering between what is fact, fiction, exaggeration, and spin. Spin may be the toughest of them all to sift through.
Cigarette Smoking and You
I was watching a video of the winning speech at the 2015 Toastmasters Championship in Las Vegas. The winning speaker, Mohammed Qahtani, begins his speech by sticking a cigarette in his mouth and proceeds to light it. He then goes on to share some facts, including "Do you know that the leading cause of lung cancer is not actually a cigarette, it's your DNA. You can smoke for years, and nothing will ever happen to you. This whole war against smoking is just to restrict the farming of tobacco." He goes on to admit that he made that argument up. However, he also shares that he used this argument with a group of his friends and five of them believed what he said. Why? Because the way he presented it and the information he used sounded believable. Unchecked, the consequences for those five friends could be devastating. Thankfully, he admitted to his friends that the argument was all a fabrication for sake of an experiment.
It's A Really Big Business
What many fail to realize is that the media and entertainment industry is a big business. In fact, it’s a really big business. A business that generates billions of dollars in revenue annually. Survival in the highly competitive media industry is contingent upon getting as much of that $660 billion + annual revenue as possible (https://www.trade.gov/media-entertainment). These players are smart. They know what gets clicks on the internet, grabs attention on television, and drives views on social media. Media know that people eat up sensationalized stories and fantastical headlines. They know drama sells. Media also know that most people will not check their facts or hold them accountable for what is reported, true or false, or how it is portrayed. Therefore, many people walk around with misinformation that could lead to their demise or the unjust demise and destruction of another.
Operating On a Need To Know Basis
As Mohammed Qahtani so eloquently communicated in his Toastmasters speech, "Words when said and articulated in the right way can change someone's mind. They can alter someone's belief." Media has the power to lift someone to the highest of heights or burry them in the deepest of graves, and they know it. Sadly, many times it is done to fulfill an agenda or simply to generate revenue. The concern for those impacted is secondary if it’s a concern at all.
Media, and unfortunately our "friends" on social media, either don't care or refuse to concern themselves with the consequences of the words they choose to use and the stories they choose tell. If we take all we read and hear as true we could very well be the one who gets buried one day when we "share" fiction for fact.
The Little White Lies
The business that is media and social media has now made it our responsibility to find out the truth. We must now do our homework and question all that is reported. Whether it be a newspaper article, Facebook post, Instagram post, LinkedIn post, Tweet, blog, commercial advertisement, news broadcast, cover letter, resume, or website, we must do our research to determine whether or not the facts are really the facts or if they are spun in such a way to influence us in one way or another.
A story can leave out many details and still be true. However, if the story appears much different when all the facts and details that were left out are filled in, the spin was on. Hopefully it’s not too late when we figure this out. Unfortunately, this happens more to us than we probably ever realized.
The Big Lie
What you should be realizing is that much of what you've been led to believe by media (for profit, not for profit, and social) was probably only partially true. The problem with partial truths is that they are still a lie. That's because the intention was to mislead. Otherwise, the whole truth would have been shared from the start. The most likely reason the whole truth wasn't shared from the "trusted" source was because if shared the recipient of the information may not have been influenced in the way or at the level the giver of the information wanted. If that were the case, the result that was sought wouldn't have been achieved.
Before You Go All In
A friend said to me one time that George W. Bush had the lowest IQ of any president over the last 50 years. Amazed by such a statement, I asked where he learned such a fact. He said he read it in some article on the web. As it turns out, there was an article that was run and allegedly based solely on a very questionable email. Needless to say, the reported fact was fiction. As a result of my friend's "if it’s in print it must be true" mentality toward what he reads, he didn't check the facts (apparently neither did the journalist who wrote the story), trusted the source from which he got his information, and has been looking like a fool for who knows how many years since coming across such an article.
Whether you're reading a resume or listening to a morning news broadcast, question the intent of the disseminator of information and check the facts. This is especially important if it is information you are going to share or allow to influence a decision you are about to make. We can blame the media all we want for spinning stories. However, it is we who are ultimately to blame when we get bamboozled and make bad decisions because of our failure to check the facts. Especially when we already know that most of what we hear and read is only partially true.
Remember, media is a business and for most media business has unfortunately become about making money more than it is about being socially responsible. For us, information is power and the sooner we realize that the most powerful people have the most accurate information the better off we'll be. Therefore, a business with integrity and a purpose is the best business to do business with. The same is true for people we employ and people we choose to do business with. Values, purpose, and integrity matter, a lot.
Randy Stepp is a Principal with Renaissance Leadership Group. RLG is a full-service business and franchise development company whose purpose is to help business owners realize their dreams of independence and freedom.
Visit Renaissance Leadership Group at www.renaissanceleadershipgroup.com to learn more about business development.
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