Staying unSpun
I recently finished reading the book, unSpun: Finding Facts in a World of Disinformation, by Brooks Jackson and Kathleen Hall Jamieson. While I enjoyed the book and found it’s message to prudent for the general public. What I do find disappointing is my reaction to it which I’ll get to in a little bit. In my former life I was a high school Modern Media teacher and Media Literacy was a major focus for me. I worked with students to help them look for the meaning and motivation for the messages that we are bombarded with daily. Our focus was on media spin and the motivation for companies with their advertising. We watched the Mickey Mouse Monopoly from the Media Education Foundation, The Merchants of Cool and The Persuaders (both from Frontline on PBS) to get a sense of the types of spin that is prevalent in our society. We analyzed various forms of advertising and even created our own ads based on some of the techniques we were studying in class. The idea was to introduce to spin as a concept and make them aware of their own biases and buy-in to what they see in their daily lives. The students who were in these classes began to bring in examples of bias and spin in media and we devoted a wall in my room to these examples. That was a great class.
As I read the book, it reminded me of that wall and all the different examples that we had up there. While I understand that everyone has an agenda and that there are different motivations for people to behave in certain ways and say certain things, however, I always liked to think of my classroom as a place where we could discuss these ideas in an academic way. We studied the spin and looked at the intended and unintended consequences of it. I tried very hard to keep my biases out of the discussion and encouraged my students to do the same.
In ”unSpun”, the authors outlined tricks and warning signs and even gave us a way to verify the information that we find regarding political figures (go figure, it was factcheck.org where both authors hold the position of Director.). Had I had this book back when I was teaching Modern Media, I would have encouraged my students to employ some of these techniques giving them more tools in their intellectual arsenal. It would have been a valuable resource for us.
My reaction to the book was slightly different though. I found it informative and interesting, but I also felt like I was getting spun a little bit. It may just be the cynical side of me, but I felt like there were ulterior motives behind it. After all, “everyone has an agenda.” I went to factcheck.org to see if the purpose behind the book wasn’t to drive traffic to the site so ad revenue would go up. Nope. The site doesn’t seem to be ad supported. What was it that made me feel this way? Still not sure. Should the book be taken at face value and the techniques described therein be used in my daily life? Sure, the information is valuable and seems to be well informed. I’m not sure what bothers me about it, but there’s definitely something there.
It’s important to be able to identify truth in a world of disinformation. With the amount of advertising and politics that invades our everyday lives, having the skill and conscience to look at a piece of information and question it is important. To recognize that everyone has their own agenda and looks at a topic through their own lens is invaluable and it’s a skill that needs to be taught, not just be an expectation. Eventually, these students will be the creators of spin (many of them already are). They will be making decisions based on what they hear and read. Giving them the tools to recognize this spin will be an important step as they themselves try to remain “unSpun.” Just as the first line of the book states, “We live in a world of spin.” I don’t see that changing anytime soon.
(For the record, I don’t take issue with factcheck.org or their goals. I think it’s important for this type of education of the public to be known and to try to come up with the truth when facts are spun. This is simply a reflection of my eduational practice and some thoughts I had as I read the book.)
Photo from Cartoonbank.com.
