Global Situational Awareness

Throughout history the people with the newest and most correct information were the ones who succeeded and prospered. Knowing what was actually happening where and when (situational awareness) allowed them to make better decisions and take advantage of the people around them who knew less. In the United States we have had a history of free press for this very reason. The free press were able to inform the people of what was happening in government, our country, and around the world so we could respond appropriately.

This has begun to change in a big way. Some of the changes have been good and some have been less than good.

• [GOOD] The Internet: The internet has allowed communication on a huge scale between individuals and organizations. The entire world has been upended. The number of organizations disseminating information has greatly increased. We are no longer limited to getting our news from a few sources.
• [BAD] The Internet: The internet has disrupted a lot of things. One of those is the newspaper industry. Newspapers used to employ large numbers of reporters who would go out and find stories in order to inform people. The number of reporters has drastically dropped as news has shifted towards more centralized electronic news distribution styles.
• [BAD] Editorialization: The big news networks (CNN, FOX, MSNBC, etc.) have become nothing but editorial commentators in regards to the news. Even NPR has increasingly started to show distinct bias in their reporting. Smaller organizations (blogs, special topic organizations) that have come in with the wave of the internet are very biased, pushing opinions not just information.
• [REALLY BAD] Political Alignment: In this 2016 presidential election we have seen numerous emails leaked showing that media organizations have been actively colluding with the Clinton campaign. To the point that while we technically still have a free press the press has chosen to not be free.

All this put together has created an environment where despite the increased potential for knowing more, the quality of the information that we are presented with is increasingly getting worse. No one is trying to present anyone with unbiased, fact based news coverage.

As citizens our situational awareness of the world around us is getting worse. We are only presented with news filtered through others opinions and prejudices. We need unfiltered news. News that simply serves to tell us facts. Editorialization is only useful in small quantities and if we understand the underlying facts in order to be able to judge the opinions given to us by others. Otherwise we risk falling sway to whatever propaganda and manipulation the powers that be want to push on us.

Freedom of the press is dying and the future of our democracy depends on its survival.