Find Respectable Opposing Views

You won’t see Samantha Bee host a smart conservative for her audience to take seriously. Deliberating with a GOP rep who has a valuable point to make on behalf of their party doesn’t make good infotainment. Instead, these shows share the most bizarre policy proposals and laughable public statements from the opposing side. Sure, there’s Meet the Press, but infotainment is way more fun to watch and more sharable on social media, where more people are getting their news.

media types consolidated to one social media feed

animation by TED-Ed

We know by now how the internet works as an echo chamber. Then, many of us actively curate our social media feeds and are quick to click Unfollow when acquaintances offend us (guilty 🙋🏻).

Finding balance in our media diets mean actively incorporating reliable sources with beliefs opposing our own. This isn’t about following hateful meme accounts or reading the comment sections from hell. It’s about finding a few people or organizations who use reliable facts and their own logic to present a view different from your own.

I asked myself, ‘What’s a right-leaning news source I trust as reliable, if not relatable?’ and came up blank. A quick search brought me to this Guardian article, So you want to get out of your bubble: try reading these conservative websites. Yes, I did just share my Google result with you–this is a communal journey, people.

I did remember a time I read the Heritage Foundation‘s proposal for an alternative to the ACA*. I didn’t agree, but I was able to engage with their argument in an intelligent manner. That’s what we’re going for. But I’ll admit, this single example I could muster was 6 years old, and assigned to me during my graduate program. Yikes.

I believe that exposing myself to smart (enough) approaches from other ideologies presents more opportunities for productive dialogue.

But we’re keeping it sustainable here! We’re not talking about engaging across viewpoints yet. For now, take this baby step by spending a few minutes to find some sources you can stomach on the ‘other side’–whatever that side might be.

Pray tell–what sources do you follow for the sake of cracking open your echo chamber?

*This proposal is all kinds of long but Heritage has tons of 3-5 minute reads that could be more easily integrated into your media diet.

Checking Your Sources

After learning about my reps, I ran into some knowledge gaps about a few policy areas. If that was your experience too, you might have found yourself in the expansive internets of politicking.

Animation by Patrick Smith

First, know that you don’t have to be the expert on all things! Finding comfort in saying “I don’t know” is a liberating exercise we all need to re-condition ourselves into.

When you do want to learn more, evaluate your sources. You don’t have to limit your sources to academic journals to be considerate of which sites you trust and which sources you follow on social media. Here are some questions you can ask about a source:

Is this person an expert?

Do they have experience working in this field? With the communities of people involved in this issue?

Are facts present and from a reliable source?

Is there data to support this person’s claim? What do contradicting studies say? Is the way this person presents research data representative of how the research authors are summarizing their findings?

What’s at stake for this person/organization?

Is this article trying to sell something? Are they connected to a line of funding at stake? Is it their job to defend a group of people or a resource?

Admittedly, this is complicated to assess as content itself is a commodity. Driving traffic to a site or app earns ad money.

About domains…

Old school advice says to look for a .org vs .com domain extension, but this distinction is less meaningful as anyone can launch a .org domain. The .edu extension is supposed to imply a higher degree of integrity, but it’s not full-proof. Universities are creating open web spaces where students, faculty and staff can create content freely on their own .edu spaces with no vetting before publication. Good for creativity, community and free speech, potentially bad for the integrity of the .edu domain.

Resources for Fact Checking

Over time you’ll become more familiar with which sources you find to be reliable and fact-based. Check that stats and quotes are present, and then check if they’re real. You’ll probably use a mix of timely fact-checks around political debates and speeches, sites like factcheck.org and your own research skills to get a feel for reliability. Do remember that third party fact checkers are still human and can still be biased. Consider: what facts are checked? How do they summarize partial-truths?

Shades of Grey

These issues are often complicated and there are two sides, as well as two sets of data, for each argument. You won’t always get a conclusive answer on which side is ‘right’, but you can get a sense of which facts are true, offering a bit more clarity around a complex issue.

There’s a lot more to say about media literacy and a balanced ‘media diet’ but we’re talking sustainability here so I’m serving you one course at a time. More next week!

Enlightened Content Consumers: Any other resources you use to determine reliable sources vs “fake news”? Do tell.

Get Acquainted with Your Reps

Remember, I said I was starting from the very beginning!

Your elected officials make decisions on your behalf. You pay them to represent you. Get to know who they are and how they vote. Eventually you’ll communicate with them but this post is about just getting familiar. Buckle up! A broad range of feelings is likely in your future.

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If you’re starting from scratch here, begin with your congressional reps: govtrack.us/congress/members

Govtrack.us has a fancy pants tool that will show your reps if you type in the address (pay attention to the example address format, and match it). Each senator and representative has their own page. It shows you the ratings they got from advocacy orgs, gives them liberal–conservative ideology score and a leadership score, like this:

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And lots of other good nerdery should you choose to dive deeper. While you’re at it you can subscribe to notifications about their “major sponsorship” and voting activity, follow them on Twitter, etc.

Today’s climate is so polarized that it’s typically straight forward to see which side your rep sits and what to expect from their votes. Since we’re trying to stay sustainable here, only subscribe to these email updates if you’re really invested in learning about your rep’s choices. The automated messages have the original bill language, which often doesn’t have much meaning without context. Many reps will go to social media and explain why they voted one way or another, in case you do see the bill summary and want more info.

Get to know who your representatives are, where they align on issues that matter to you, and when their term ends.

Already know your congressional reps? Good! How about your governor? Your mayor? These sites aren’t quite as cool but they’ll get you started.

Got that too? Look up your state legislators. Ohioans should start with this lookup page and everyone else can Google or start at this map to find your state legislature website.

Ballotopedia has a clumsy name and a sad UI but everything you need to know about upcoming elections at national, state and local levels.

Ohio Senate elections in 2018

Ohio House elections in 2018

– use the menu on the right hand side to select another state & the chamber

State executive official elections in 2018
– and for those wondering, Jerry Springer declined to run for governor this year.

Learn about what your reps care about, what promises they’re making and how they make themselves available to constituents like you. This can vary–you’ve probably seen headlines about town hall dodging or even cease and desist letters from one particular Senator (eeek!).

You’ll also feel smart when your rep enters the room at an event. Even if you have no idea what to say to them at least you’re hip to what’s going on. I was this close to saying hi to Ted Strickland at Rambling House Soda once–see, cool story right?

There’s a bunch of resources for staying in touch with your reps. Any I missed? Elected offices you like to watch but I didn’t mention here? There are quite a few. Parents, for example, might keep up with their kid’s school board. Share your go-tos in the comments to help us all tune in.

lucy – ramos

Mindful leadership for challenging the status quo.

Tag Archives: civic engagement

Find Respectable Opposing Views

Checking Your Sources

Get Acquainted with Your Reps