Young generation of voters face challenge of finding reliable information
Editor:
In September of last year, I turned 18 years old and was officially eligible to vote. I had done pre-registration, so I knew this was going to happen, but I didn’t think too much of it. In addition, I was out of the province from September to April doing my first year of university. As I got back, my parents informed me that there was some mail waiting for me. When I opened it, I saw my voter card which informed me of the fact that I was a registered voter. A somewhat surreal experience.
I did all of my high school education in Alberta and did fairly well in Social Studies 20 and 30 so I had some personal connection to Alberta politics.
In addition, I was blessed with a good teacher who emphasized good, well sourced information and keeping an open mind for all viewpoints. Due to my education and other experiences, I understood very well that it was my civic duty to vote when I was eligible, and that voter apathy is arguably the greatest downfall of democracy.
Therefore, my decision on how to vote this election will be based on information from reputable and reliable sources, and the campaign promises of each party.
So what exactly are these “reputable and reliable sources” which I have sung the praises of?
The news landscape for my generation looks vastly different than it did 10 or even perhaps five years ago. TV news and cable television has largely fallen off since a large part of my generation does not watch live TV, instead using TV’s as vessels for streaming services or as computer monitors.
I read the newspaper articles since my parents pay the subscription, but I am the only person from my high school who does.
Therefore, the modern source for election news is social media, primarily containing advertisements directly from the party and outrage-fueled “discourse” from strangers on the internet.
With these sources and my background, myself and the rest of my generation are left with the challenge of finding information from good sources.
It is almost impossible to judge the validity of a social media source: an account with the name of the candidate may not be run by the candidate, either being an impersonator or hired agency management. Posts related to news articles can be grossly misrepresentative with attention-grabbing headlines and thumbnail images which can be hyperbolic in comparison to the facts. From a personal perspective, it would seem that the best way to make an objective judgement on who to vote for this election would be to abandon all social media news sources and instead get my primary information from more classical sources, such as TV news and print media.
I have done half of that statement. I have (for the most part) abandoned social media as a news source.
But classical sources are left with their own problems. Other than the fact that they do not cater to my demographic, the media industry does not operate with the primary goal of providing quality information to the public.
The primary goal of mass media is profit, as with any other industry. As such, sensationalized articles often referred to as “outrage-bait” by my generation have been a problem as long as mass media has been around. Someone is more likely to buy a newspaper or stay around for a TV broadcast if they feel as though something they value is under attack.
More sales and viewers lead to higher profits, thus increasing the motive to misrepresent the truth.
While classical sources are better than modern sources in practice, the nature of the industry leans into some very heavy criticism based around conflict of interest.
What does all this mean if I want to navigate an Alberta election as a new voter?
In high school, this generation was taught that voter apathy is a significant issue. Due to the overabundance of political information on social media, this generation is arguably the most involved with politics. But because of the problems with social media information, the vast majority of voters give into preconceived notions about the political landscape which are exacerbated by social media algorithms recommending similar content and filtering opposing content. If people such as me choose to block out social media, they are instead greeted by the common criticisms of classical mass media.
All things considered, this generation will be composed of voters which either retreat further and further into algorithmic trends and grow increasingly far apart from the opposition, or remain perpetually undecided and drive up voter apathy due to a lack of reliable information.
What a nice note to end on.
Gaurav Gaur
Lethbridge