Why do fictional television shows often do better than factual journalism at giving viewers a truer sense of the world in all its complexity? Here’s a big reason: TV script writers understand that viewers can deal with nuance and contradictions. …
Journalists, however, too often seem to believe that audiences can’t handle complexity. There are exceptions, but a vast majority of journalism actively avoids it. Or we quote both sides and think that’s complexity. Like television writers, we are searching for a compelling story, but we tend to find it in the clash of the shrillest sound bites rather than in the fine distinctions that transmit important truths. If we have details or quotes that don’t fit the narrative, we often strip them out.
It’s not fake news. It is all based on facts. But much too often it presents the most cartoonish and reductive picture of a very intricate world.
The consequences of this are severe. It increases polarization. Both Republicans and Democrats believe that people from the other party are more extreme than they really are — and that’s because journalists tend to present the extreme voices. CONT.
Tina Rosenberg, New York Times