Poll: Believing everything you read.

[EeveeElectro]

My brother is fairly new to the Internet and thus, can always be found posting some sort of made up chain mail story on his Facebook. The most recent being, "DO NOT JOIN [this group] IT IS A BUNCH OF PEDOS OUT TO GET YOUR PICTURES!!!one11!!!1" I quickly dispelled this for him, and told him to take everything he reads with a pinch of salt. (Although, he does have children, so there's no harm in being cautious...)

[sub]"Perry the Platypus gave a 5 year old caner! OMG! Must repost!"[/sub]​

The Escapist reguarly tells us about the bullshit newspapers like to spew at us. (Mainly via The Daily Fail by the looks of it).
I'm sure you've strolled into your local corner shocked, glanced upon the newspapers and seen a story so hyperbolic it made you either laugh or cry.

I figured the Escapist seems like a pretty smart community, with a lot of common sense *shuffles feet* so I thought I'd get your opinions on it.
Then again, there seems to be a lot of cynical people who may not believe a word they read.

What do you believe? Do you think everyone is out to troll you unless proven otherwise? Do you figure the News will rarely lie to you because they've gained your trust over the years? Do you put your hands in the air, like you just don't care?

Me personally, I take everything with a pinch of salt, especially on the Internet.
It's like at school, people don't seem to realise how easy it was to make up rumors about someone.
Did you know Bob from the other class is a crack addict. Seriously, take my word for it. Don't bother asking him though, he's probably too drugged up to answer.

 

[Lewghis]

well considering some of the 'proofs' that i've heard on the internet, i'm always skeptical of anything i read, and without proof you've got nothing.

 

[standokan]

I definitly trust newspapers more than the internet but I can still be quit naïve at times.

 

[TheEndlessSleep]

Simply follow four rules:

1). Don't automatically belive all you read on the net.
2). Don't automatically disbelive all you read on the net.
3). Discern the truth using common sense.
4). Look it up in other places to check.

To be honest, most people do these anyway unless they're not smart enough to use the street unattended.

 

[GraveeKing]

I don't believe everything at first glance, but if it's been said before - sure I'll believe it, I doubt everyone is TRYING to conspire against me to make me believe lies.
I mean heck sure they may present the facts in a bias manner but they'd get in a hell of a lot of trouble if they were found to be openly lying - They'd certainly lose views whoever they were, meaning they're less influential in future.

It's like fox news - nobody would listen to those idiots in a million years now (other than other idiots) if you cock up and people realize it they'll go somewhere else.
Hence I like to think 3 or 4 separate news bits from different sources cannot all be lying.

 

[lobster1077]

just question everything you read. Job done.

 

[xxmyhero64xx]

Well there's definitely a grey area. I mean if you don't believe anything you read then you'll never be able to get any information at all. In my opinion I like to look further into a matter I find interesting or questionable instead of just reading a headline. I also like to compare different sources to see if they agree or not.

 

[thylasos]

I tend to just read wikipedia for an introduction to a topic, then if I'm particularly interested in the suject, I'll read a well-review book on the subject.

I largely trust the BBC's news services, though I've certainly been skeptical on a number of occasions at the angle they've taken, or the sudden disappearance of an element of a news story, as happened on a couple of occasions, most recently during the student protests.

I tend to prefer BBC Radio 4 to the internet-news, since the journalists and panellists tend to actually have differing opinions, and the questioning of important figures is rather more serious.

I don't own a TV, so I can't really speak for the BBC's coverage thereon.

Getting back on topic, I tend not to read a great deal of spurious bullshit, so it's not a terrible problem for me.

 

[WolfThomas]

Spoiler: Reminded me of this...