By Madeline Baker, Times Chronicle
As a journalist whose work gets posted on social media, I’ve seen firsthand how wildly people can misinterpret the headline on one of my stories and take to their own pages to shake their fists about an issue that does not exist, and has never existed.
Is this really a problem when everyone else can go read the story and work out the truth for themselves, or when someone can drop into the comments and correct them? Well, people certainly can do those things, but that doesn’t mean they do.
Unsurprisingly, people who gain all their information from headlines or get whipped into headline-related frenzies are often the least likely group to scroll through comments and see if any real facts have been offered. Not only that, but the kneejerk human urge to avoid ridicule too often leads the original poster in this situation to defend their misunderstanding with justifications that further muddy the waters of truth.
This issue weighs particularly heavy on my mind with civic elections approaching, because misinformation on social media sites can make it so impossible for anyone to know what’s really going on. Does the incumbent really support that awful thing? Did the board actually vote against your special interest group last year? And that’s before small town gossip enters the equation and the smear campaigns begin.
Civic governments can create an impressive amount of change in small communities like Osoyoos and Oliver, more than most people likely realize, but it requires a level of involvement from the public that means stepping away from social media and attending meetings. Reading all the boring, dry small print on public notices. Learning how each level of government works and what you can reasonably ask your town to do for you.
Not only that, it requires a clear flow of information from the public to directors, town staff and council members about their greatest needs, and that information is just as likely to be warped and misinterpreted by the lens of social media. It’s too easy to wind up in a situation where people who don’t understand what’s happening hurl verbal abuse at other people who are desperately trying to help and any real action slows to a halt as a result.
It’s understandable that very few people trust politicians at any level of government in our day and age, but members of civic government are literally your neighbours and co-workers. If you really believe you’re driving the community into the ground, you can even take their place and do the job how you see fit – or maybe learn why the previous board never could in the first place.
If that feels like more than you can handle, you can still be the squeaky wheel at every board meeting that eventually gets the grease. Every person who becomes directly involved also becomes a shield against the kind of misinformation that muddies up all the processes through which change actually happens. Any step you take at this point can only make things better.
At the very least, though, please read the articles published by your local newspaper. At least read the first two paragraphs, which tend to hold the factual meat of a story. And if you really don’t intend to read more than a headline, consider the old expression about how those who don’t vote have no grounds to complain about a government’s actions.
Maybe it’s time to apply that same logic to people who speak up angrily about local issues without taking the steps to find out what they are.
