A lot of this is our fault

I have recently been watching Youtube videos, and this morning "the algorithm" suggested a commentary on US and international media, and in particular media literacy. Several of the speaker's points seemed accurate or at least sensible, however I was left asking about the thing of most interest to me as a teacher, school leader and I hope at least to some extent, as an educational influencer. She did not mention the role of schools and school programs in the various things of which she spoke.

One of her points concerned, somewhat inevitably, the idea of bias. She of course, equally inevitably, did not define this or explore this. Although she did usefully argue that bias is in the eyes of the beholder. Interestingly, she noted that a study or studies show that in other countries or cultures, the media can be seen or more or less neutral and more or less reliable. Conversely, here in the US, it is inevitably seen as biased and unreliable.

But the key point she made, I suspect unwittingly, is that in the US, positions are either a or b, black or white, left or right, dates or names. In other countries, multiple positions can be observed.

I think that we as teachers and schools have a lot to do with this. Almost all of our evaluations are True / False, fill the gap or multiple choice (eliminate the absurd option, then the distractor and then consider the two remaining options. In other words, we train our citizens to believe that there is always a right and a wrong with no graduations, or black and white without grays.

I caannot tell you how many times I turn on the news to hear, "We are now going to look at both sides of the issue" and "Here is Professor X to present the opposing view". Again and again and again we are told that very complex matters can be reduced to two postures. As a former president once said, "You're either with me or you're a terrorist." Translation : You can't be against the 9/11 attacks and also against attacking Iraq.

We have no nuance in the US.

And I think much of this comes from, starts in, is reinforced by our schools. We are the ones who say all that matters is content, and content can be reduced to "x" or "y".

(btw, for non-teachers, do you know that in many states teacher certification requires a multiple choice testt? The best way to teach reading is a / b / c / d. The right way to split an atom is blah blah blah True or False?)

Media literacy and savvy consumers result from seeing that we live in the middle, and that we should make our decisions accordingly. If you view the world in two dimensions, then everyone and everything that does not present or represent your view (at that moment because of course, things change), is biased. 

Update - I just listened to another commentator who proclaimed that Americans do not like taxes because the country was founded on "no taxation without representation". However, I'm pretty sure that other factors were also important.

**Please leave comments and queries below**

Further reading (watching)

I watched European news and it changed me as an American