Legendary journalist’s journalist and celebrated editor and author Sir Harold Evans recently spoke out on the “disgraceful” Google and Facebook practice of not detecting or stopping fake news.
It’s always been difficult to tell the difference between propaganda and factual news. Even so-called objective publications have their editorial slant that influences everything they publish — even their book reviews and cartoons.
In small business enterprise and entrepreneurship, you need an ultra sensitive detector to distinguish between “fake” and “real” news from various media and gooroo advisors who make wild promises of fast and easy success.
You have to be careful about what you believe today with the world changing rapidly. Look at technology. Those who doubted the digital impact on publications are now suffering — newsstand sales have collapsed, declining subscriptions have jacked up prices of newspapers and magazines to record high costs for consumers and businesses and special supplements or editions are killing sales of their regular publications.
Similar impact of digital in the music industry: major music companies are making something like 30% of what they did 20 years ago. Digital has opened up the world to music artists who have gone indie but how many are making a living off their music or grinding away at being road warriors?
You pretty much need solid information to operate in the new economy in a state of flux — with low or no growth how are you going to move ahead? Information like “Prosperity without Growth: Economics for a Finite Planet” provides some pointers. It’s more realistic than those who pushed out the fantasy land dream of “The Long Boom”.
In the present turbulence with negative news and misinformation, what would you focus on? It makes more sense to strengthen your inner world. Here are some areas to consider:
- building your health to cope with stress
- adopting a positive mindset to counter the phase of negativity
- find a broken place in the world where you can use your talents to help with healing
- raise your level of awareness of dehumanising propaganda and practices (whenever anyone labels someone they are dehumanising people)
- understand how time works in your world — past, present and future and learn the difference between future positive and future negative time and its consequences for you
- practice discernment: examine which people, behaviours, situations and experiences take away from your life and balance and those that enrich your life
- stop yourself from blindly following the first approach that comes to mind and determine how you can add your unique perspective to make something better and create more value
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Chesney Bradshaw
