I was on Facebook the other day and was scrolling through when I saw an article about a Marine captain and how he had a gender reveal while he was overseas. It is a very heartfelt and light story that is great to watch and read about. What I saw in the comments however is what this post is really about. Some guy commented on the post saying that he was so shocked that CNN would post such a story and then abruptly stated that oh wait it wasn't because it is actually posted by FOX. This comment just reestablished the idea that people like to listen to media that they believe align with their beliefs. In a majority opinion CNN is more liberal, while FOX is more conservative. So, if a person leans more on the conservative side they would be more inclined to watch or read news from FOX. Big companies like FOX and CNN hold a lot of power of the public and this comment is just another way that reiterated that in my mind.
Below I have attached the video of the reveal.
http://www.fox13news.com/trending/marine-reveals-babys-gender-while-deployed-overseas
That is quite possibly the most blatant example of an echo chamber I've ever heard of. The degree of cognitive dissonance in media consumption is stunning--people will ignore reality if the information comes from a source they don't believe will corroborate their worldview. (Which isn't to say that most news organizations are politically partisan. Partisan bias is strikingly minimal among news outlets that are not ideologically-branded cable news--like Fox and CNN). However, to think that someone completely changing their opinion of a story (or at least, changing their opinion from negative to positive) based on the source is absolutely terrifying. It demonstrates a reckless disregard for the truth, for reality. And sadly, I think we'll be seeing a lot more of that.
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