Perhaps one of the first things to look for is the presence of incredible information. This is always a straight give away. The second, which by many is considered to be the most important, is the presentation. If the presentation is not good, the entire work/source of information suffers as an image ion your mind.
On the Internet it is often noted that many traps and illicit sites are cheaply publicized and advertised on other sites. It is very easy to spot this.
However perceiving and assessing does not only take place through independent accumulation of data and information. A large part of this is formed through dialogue or with some form of interaction with another person. This is where a number of factors come into play that help you, or don’t help you form an opinion of the person who you are interacting with. Depending on their body language, the way they answer questions and their opinions about certain things that you believe, you form an opinion about that person. It is this very complex set of tests that you are putting your friend through in order to trust him/her. It is important to keep an open mind for it is the first impression that lasts with us the longest. If we come down on every small nuance about a person then it is impossible for us to like them and to trust them. Every bit of information will be suspect and there will be no trust at all.
But the main point in all of these examples is that only after consistent exercising of this ability does one’s ability to read different sources of information become powerful.
As mentioned before, the best way to differentiate between actual facts and mere propaganda is to scan the appearance of the source. We can often find flaws in articles and advertisements that have these flaws visibly sticking out.
In one of our previous TOK classes we were assigned 2 articles. Both these articles appeared fine to the eye. But it was only when we began reading it that we understood that both were farces and that it was complete propaganda. The first article was about a shaman in the Amazonian forest who claimed to be able to control he weather and the climate of the region. The most obvious of the flaws was the fact that the person who had written it, his name was “Ken U Bleevit”. This was an obvious give away that the article was pure propaganda and that it was probably some tabloid in Canada that had printed it.
The second article was about an oil tycoon, a billionaire who spontaneously caught fire while sunbathing. The comment after that was that oil tycoons soak up a fair amount of oil making them highly flammable. This is also pure propaganda is spread only for attention.
So we see how there are certain ways in which we can differentiate between what is to be trusted and what is to be held in contempt and to be suspected. It is in the end up to us to decide what it is that is reliable and what is not. The only way to make out is to use source of information that are reliable and that can be accounted for.
We must learn to differentiate between a person’s personal opinions even though it may conflict with our own. However we should always question unrelentingly at every stage and we must challenge, at every stage, for it is only then that we, in the future may develop as human beings and not just existing in this world.
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