A news headline on a laptop: https://www.pexels.com/photo/gray-laptop-computer-near-journals-177557/

Most recently it was the MAGA-hat wearing students that created an outpouring of support for the Native American elder and calls for the students’ expulsion. Then it emerged that there was a group of Black Israelites that shouted ugly remarks at the students and began the confrontation. Then it winds up the truth is something in-between. This situation is not new for the modern era of the news. An inflammatory event happens, the world gets angry, and people rush to get justice before they get all of the facts.

My goal is not to defend either side in this specific instance but to push for a more mindful culture of news consumption. While the internet is exceptional in its ability to spread information quickly, we need to push back with a shared culture of gatekeeping. In a world of fast technology, there needs to be a culture of slower, introspective news consumption. Below are tactics to develop more mindful reading.

Context

The shorter the video clip, the fuzzier the image, the larger the possibility that what you see is what someone chose for you to see and there is a larger unseen story. When you see a brief clip, the best thing you can do is to look for context. I offer a set of questions to begin this search:

What happened before and after this clip?

What event was this at?

Are there connections between the different parties that might not be immediately apparent?

Are there different cultural norms in this situation that might not be understood from the single clip?

But context is a facet of a story that often needs time to uncover. The best thing you can do when you see an inflammatory post is to wait. The next time you see an article that makes you angry, put the article away for a week. In the meantime, you can help other readers by thinking critically about the story.

Contemplation

Whatever the situation is, you should ask yourself these questions before you hit the Share button:

How specifically is this story spun? Who is the audience?

Where is this story coming from? Who published it?

Are there other interpretations to this story? What are others claiming?

What other reason could there be for these people’s actions?

How might this person’s actions have been misconstrued?

Are there ways in which the story might not be as black-and-white as it appears?

Why did this story become so popular?

Is there anyone that could be profiting from the divisiveness that this story causes?

Is there anything else in the world that is more important than this story that I should be concentrating on?

Are there political issues at play in this story? Who “wins” by my outrage?

This story is taking my attention. Who is profiting by securing my attention?

If after you think about these questions, you still feel compelled to Share the article, do so with compassion.

Compassion

Everyone does stupid things, in moments of carelessness or drunkenness or ignorance. Some unlucky people have their indiscretions caught on tape. Others have the even greater misfortune of their faults going viral. But these people never asked to be a symbol of a systematic problem, and to make them a symbol removes all of their layers of complex humanity. As symbols, people can pour into them all of their frustrations of a larger problem. This tends to mean justice is swift and disproportionate.

The MAGA video shows students that were racist, and Black Israelites that are confrontational. It is good that attention is drawn to these issues, and both sides should face repercussions. But these repercussions should be proportional to their crimes, and come from a place of belief that these people can grow past their current transgressions. It is good to push for these students to visit a Native American reservation, to take classes about Inequity in America. It is not ok to send death threats to them, to have them doxxed and to say their parents should be killed.

We are at an exciting moment in history where we have technology that can share information across the globe in seconds. Now we need to figure out the best cultural norms for how to use these incredible tools. For news literacy, the beginning of this culture means waiting a week to find context. It means reading about opposing views and thinking about multiple facets to the story in the meantime. It means when you act, to do so in a way that is proportional and compassionate.