You don’t know anything until you experienced or witnessed that first hand, as a real encounter isn’t the same as watching it on the news. You don’t understand the struggle of a refugee just by watching the news as you’re not physically there. Their perspective differs from the medias narrative since they saw with their own eyes how these events unfolded in real time & mention details omitted on media. I.e. hearing about a plane crash isn’t the same as being a surviving passenger.
Imagining things or media coverage aren’t comparable to those who were on the ground or have lived through those times as survivors since a camera can only cover so much but behind the scenes nuance and logistics are omitted. Media only shares information to the masses rather than trying to capture the emotional trauma of tragedy since only those who have survived it know first hand how brutal it is. Watching news of Iran isn’t the same as being there (incomparable).
Generally speaking, I don’t know who people online are. I don’t know if a random online account really witnessed an event or if they’re just lying for engagement, a state actor, or other ulterior motives. People also misremember things. That’s actually especially the case with sudden and traumatic events like plane crashes, where different people will often have wildly different memories and an investigation is required to establish what actually happened. So while I’m not saying that first-hand accounts should be disregarded, they’re just one piece of the puzzle if you want to gain understanding about an event and, especially if you can’t verify the source, they’re not inherently more trustworthy than something like the press.
First hand info is also called anecdotal information. Both reporting and anecdotal information (first hand) should all be taken with a grain of salt.
Because memory is flawed as fuck, people are biased, people lie, and I don’t trust the news either. Do you have hard evidence? Fuck off then.
I don’t think that’s true. There’s a reason they sabotaged TikTok, people believed the first-hand accounts they were seeing more than they believed the narrative being promoted by the media.
