To be honest, before the talk I wasn’t familiar with Brooke Gladstone or any of her work. When I googled her, I was impressed by how much she has accomplished throughout her career. Regarded as “an expert on press trends” and published author, I was slightly hesitant in how her talk regarding her book would actually relate to anything we were doing in DOC 150.
I was completely mistaken in this assumption, and I found her talk to not only be interesting, educational, but also useful in regards, to my work as a documentarian. I never really connected documentary to reporting, which was very naïve. Documentarians are reporters too. It is important to understand how the media can portray an issue, and how to sort the fiction from fact.
I think it was important that she discussed the tragedy in Las Vegas, and how it exploded in the media. Unfortunately, information always gets twisted, especially in a crisis situation like an active shooter. It’s hard to find the truth, and in most instances, what information is first released usually wrong. This is dangerous. Media has so much power. After listening to Brooke Gladstone, I definitely think media should be managed and consumed better.
Before the talk I never really thought what type of media consumer I was. To be honest most of the news I consume daily comes from Facebook. I was not aware that Facebook sorts through stories and feeds me with what they think I would find most interesting based on what I have previous read. If I never realized how biased the media I was consuming was.
Obviously, there are unreliable sources that no one should be getting their news or information from. But as Brooke discussed, it is important that we read the information from sources that don’t always align with our views.
I agree with Brooke and I am going to make conscious effort to read articles that from sources that maybe tend to lean in a different direction as myself. To go further than my Facebook feed. To be a more educated news consumer, I need to consume the full truth even if that comes from sources or authors that in principle I disagree with.
In reality to only read information that fuels the opinions I already have isn’t helping myself. This idea goes hand and hand, with the principles associated with being a good documentarian. In documentary to uncover the full story, a documentarian needs to be educated to expose the full picture. This could involve people and opinions that I do not always agree with.