As humans, we live in a primarily visual world. We see the things around us as they are presented, then make judgments and beliefs based on those observations. Perception is a funny thing, full of gray areas; what one person perceives as funny may fall flat for another, or what someone perceives as wrong could be right for someone else.
The issue has been brought up most in recent times concerning the media and celebrities. Our celebrity culture has developed to such a point that "creating an image" and producing stories for a person's life has become a vast, flourishing industry. For a celebrity, every word, every action, and every public outing has a full team of people behind it. So how are we, as consumers of this media, supposed to decide what is real and what is empty publicity?
But celebrities are not the only ones suffering from this problem. Mainstream media sensationalizes and spins stories as well, their motivation being getting as many hits or views on the story as possible. For example, there was the story of an aunt suing her nephew for jumping on her and breaking her wrist at his eighth birthday party. The public was outraged, calling the woman the "Antichrist" and sending countless insults and death threats to her via Twitter and even to her home. Two days ago, however, a new angle on the story broke out rife with crucial information all the initial articles happened to have left out. U.S. News reports that the aunt was not suing her nephew for revenge or spite. It was the only way she could have her medical bills supported by insurance.
There is also the example of Taylor Swift, the most mercurially received pop star in the past few years. She has gone up and down in the public eye, starting out as America's country sweetheart with her guitar and transforming into a serial dater with a penchant for immortalizing details of every breakup in her songs. The latest criticisms directed at her have been for the creation of her "squad" and parading various famous friends around at her concerts, as well as for her passionate battle against copyright infringement, going so far as to mute a couple's entire wedding video on YouTube because they danced briefly to "Shake It Off."
The problem with perception is that these are all things we are being presented with -- by the media.
The same media that sang Taylor Swift's praises for being brave enough to put her heart in her lyrics turned around three months later, saying that she couldn't keep a guy around. The same media that posted article after article on the horrible aunt suing her own family is now pointing fingers at ghosts to try and set the blame for reporting the "off" story. The same media that reported on Justin Bieber's endless downward spiral now lauds his efforts at contrition and maturity.
There are teams and full corporations whose entire job it is to create a facade and spin a story. Celebrities and others who live in the public eye depend on their PR teams to continue upholding their image and ensure that the media only prints what they want and when they want. This creates massive gaps between the celebrity, the media, and the consumers. We, the public, have virtually no way of discerning the truth because of the web the media spins around it, so we are at their mercy for information, whichever way they choose to present it.
The only thing we can do is what my father always told me: Read every source you can, get angles, think for yourself. And maybe, just maybe, you'll find one true fact among all that nonsense.
