I am very fascinated by how knowledge and information are produced, spread, and believed, and I am particularly interested in how this process manifests itself in the 2016 US Presidential Elections (or any political movement and momentum in general). Firstly, I would like to highlight the concept of miseducation discussed by Booth. Upon reading Booth’s work “Media Rhetrickery”, I learned that there are two types of media rhetrickery: unconscious, undeliberate miseducation and conscious, deliberate miseducation. While I was aware of these ideas prior to this reading, Booth helped me clearly categorize the ideas while taking the distinctions into regard.
In an attempt to better understand the application of Booth’s ideas, I would like to highlight is Trump’s idea of “fake news”. Fake news in itself is not an invalid concept – it brings to light the issue of unconscious media miseducation, which Booth discusses. For instance, news outlets frame events in ways that further a particular point of view and cater to their target audience. Discomfort is a phenomenon that arises if we disagree or are unable to understand, and media outlets do not want to risk this discomfort causing their audiences to change the channel. And so, the constant cycle of producing streamlined information, mindlessly consuming it as long as it aligns with our biases, and reproducing it in order to spread its reach is something that takes place regardless of our position on the political spectrum.
Furthermore, I would like to assert that outside of unconscious, undeliberate miseducation, the media ascribes to conscious, deliberate miseducation as well. Because media news outlets are still companies competing for capital, they are understandably driven by profit, and this profit often results from high viewer ratings. This means that the outlets must produce information that can be easily consumed by its viewers. As Booth outlines it, they follow some or all of the four motives that cause conscious miseducation: money, political support and personal safety, celebrity, dogmatic commitment. I would personally assume that money (profit), political support and personal safety (for network executives), celebrity (reputation as a news source0 and dogmatic commitment (especially with regard to the promotion of certain religious, moral, social and political ideals) all play a role in media outlets’ decisions to produce conscious, deliberate miseducation.
And so, we arrive back at Trump’s idea of fake news. Understandably so, this term can be described as creating both unconscious and conscious miseducation. However, it describes miseducation nonetheless, and is arguably miseducation itself, as it frames specific news outlets as being proponents of fake news and reproduces ideas that are spread to and often supported by Trump administration supporters and non-supporters alike.