The Difference Between News, Opinion and Propaganda

Many of us get our "news" from social media. It's likely propaganda or opinion. Let's sort things out.

On Sunday the internet was not exactly lit up with what was being touted as a shocking revelation. Tulsi Gabbard, the U.S. Secretary of whatever, released a three-minute video exposing the existence of American-funded biolabs around the world. She made it sound like some giant conspiracy. It isn’t. There are biolabs all over the world, which is why we can recognize viruses, track infections and understand the very complex world of infectious disease.

But to have a senior member of the U.S. administration breathlessly announce that she has discovered funding for biolabs, I say learn to read a line item in a budget. The video was then amplified by the richest man in the world on the social media platform he owns. It all strikes me as a little silly.

So let’s look the differences between news, analysis, opinion and propaganda. The Gabbard video, and pretty much anything Musk posts, lands squarely in the last category. What I try to do in this column is analysis. Here’s how the categories actually work.

A lot of people consume opinion and think they are getting news. Others swallow propaganda believing they have finally found the real story. Some confuse public relations with journalism because the press release has quotes, statistics and a cleverly posed photo.

That’s how we get played.

So please allow me, veteran journalist and newly minted media critic to walk you through what’s what.

News tells you what happened, much of it is boring.

News is the basic account of events. A government tabled a bill. A court issued a ruling. A company laid off workers. A storm hit a town. A minister resigned. Charges were laid.

It answers plain questions: who, what, when, where, how. It tells us what is known, what is not known and where the information came from. It follows facts.

Good news reporting is usually less dramatic than people want. That’s the point. It doesn’t exist to give you a dopamine boost. It exists to give you an accurate account of events.

This is also why responsible journalism can seem slow. A nasty rumour travels in seconds. Confirmation takes work. Documents have to be checked. Sources tested. Video verified. People given a chance to respond. The dull parts of journalism are often the most important parts.

News is not perfect. Reporters make mistakes. Newsrooms have blind spots. Deadlines are brutal. But the purpose of news, done right, is to establish what can be fairly and honestly said to have happened.

Analysis explains why it matters

This is what I am trying to do with these columns. I start with facts and ask what does this mean, why is it happening and who benefits. I have a good sense of history and a few decades in journalism. Analysis is important. I try very hard to do it well.

Analysis is not neutral the way a straight news report tries to be. It has a point of view, and that point of view is built on evidence, experience and reasoning.

A good analysis piece does not just say, “Here is what happened.” It says, “Here is why this may matter.”

When I write about Alberta politics, separatism, public trust, media failures, health care, charities or the grievance industry, I am connecting dots. I am taking the noise of the week and asking what is behind it.

Opinion tells you what someone thinks.

To me some of the best writing is opinion. People like Andrew Coyne, Lorne Gunter, or Jen Gerson make substantial arguments on issues they discuss. This is wrong. This should change. This policy is dangerous. This person is failing. They say what they think and why.

There is nothing wrong with that. Democracy needs argument. Public life needs persuasion.

The problem comes when opinion dresses itself up as news. You see it constantly. A host rants for twelve minutes, someone slaps a headline on it and suddenly it looks like a news story. A partisan outlet takes a government announcement, adds outrage, strips context, and calls it reporting. A commentator starts with a conclusion, hunts for evidence, ignores everything inconvenient and presents the result as truth.

That is not news. It may be opinion. It may be advocacy. It may be entertainment. But readers should know what they are being served.

Propaganda: Information with a mission

Propaganda isn’t just information with a bias. It is more purposeful than that.

Propaganda creates a world to heroes and enemies. Your side is virtuous. The other side is corrupt, stupid, dangerous or evil. It doesn’t want you to think. It wants you to belong.

That’s why it works. It gives people emotional certainty. It offers identity. It explains failure. It provides villains. It turns complexity into slogans.

Propaganda often sounds like courage. It claims to say what others are afraid to say. It insists that mainstream sources are lying or bought. It flatters you into believing you’re among the few who see the truth.

But take a look behind the curtain.

Does it identify enemies more than solutions? Does it treat doubt as betrayal? Does every correction become proof of conspiracy? Does it ask you to distrust everyone except the person speaking? Does it make you angrier but no better informed?

Public relations tells you what someone wants you to believe.

PR is not automatically dishonest. Companies, governments, charities, police services, universities and sports teams all need to communicate with the public. That’s normal.

But PR has a client. Journalism has a public to serve. That distinction matters.

A news release will contain facts, but is not designed to tell the whole story. It’s there to tell the client’s side of the story. A company doesn’t announce layoffs the same way workers experience them. A government doesn’t describe a failure the way an auditor would. And clearly charity doesn’t lead its fundraising pitch with administrative costs.

PR is managed information. Sometimes useful. Sometimes necessary. Sometimes slick. Sometimes deeply misleading.

The danger is when it gets laundered into news without scrutiny. That happens more often now because newsrooms are thinner and communications departments are larger. Fewer reporters. More people paid to shape what reporters see.

So where does that leave you?

With a job to do. Before you believe, share or rage, ask what you are actually looking at. Is it news telling you what happened? Analysis explaining why it may matters? Opinion telling you what someone thinks? Propaganda telling you who to hate? PR telling you what someone wants you to believe?

The categories overlap, but they are not the same. Confusing them is one of the reasons public debate has become so poisoned.

Not everything that looks like news is news. Some of it is explanation. Some is argument. Some is marketing. Some is manipulation. Much of it looks like journalism but isn’t.

The trick is not to become cynical about everything. The trick is to become harder to fool.