海角大神

These days, there鈥檚 lots of talk and concern about 鈥渇ake news,鈥� and it鈥檚 easy to see why. Social media and the fracturing of the news landscape into countless television channels and online sources have changed how we see the world. Today, we can easily piece together a view of the world that confirms our beliefs. The definition of 鈥済ood journalism鈥� often seems to be based on whether the conclusions it reaches conform to our own ideas rather than to the processes involved.

But journalism itself has not been without fault. Journalists have their beliefs, too. How willing have they been to challenge themselves and their own views?

Certainly, the best journalism has done this and continues to. But consider this: As fake news has arisen 鈥� allowing people to choose their own news along partisan lines 鈥� most media organizations have reacted by becoming more partisan. The two trends have ended up working in concert to fuel one of the more unfortunate tendencies in human behavior, which is 鈥渋n-group bias.鈥� In other words, human beings express an innate tendency to tribalize. There is no question that more-partisan journalism can still do essential, groundbreaking work, but it can also set us more concretely into competing factions.

For this reason, narrative-busting is one of the most powerful functions of journalism today. This is author Malcolm Gladwell鈥檚 superpower, for instance. He takes something that we think we know, and then completely blows it to pieces, forcing readers to confront their own biases and worldviews. This process of compelling readers to recalibrate their own opinions 鈥� to look at the world dynamically and flexibly 鈥� is healthy. It is how fake news is defeated, because it teaches us all to wrestle with how the world is, not how we wish it to be. That is when progress is possible, because that is when we identify challenges honestly.

And that is why I love Ann Scott Tyson鈥檚 cover story on Hong Kong this week.

The prevailing Western narrative about Hong Kong鈥檚 resistance to Chinese influence is a powerful one. They are fighting for individual liberties against the creeping anti-democratic agenda of the mainland. And this narrative is 100% true.

But it is also incomplete. The fact is, Hong Kong鈥檚 pro-democracy movement is also fueled by underlying concerns about how a major influx of mainland people and money is changing the place. There is a justifiable reason for this concern. China appears to be embarking on a policy of assimilation, undermining Hong Kong鈥檚 unique politics and culture with a colonizing wave of mainlanders.

Yet Ann also shows there are hints of xenophobia and prejudice in the Hong Kong mind. For me, her story was a narrative-buster, forcing me to see the mechanics beneath the Hong Kong protests in more nuanced ways. It doesn鈥檛 mean I have less respect for the resistance. Nor does it lead me to dismiss China鈥檚 potentially insidious intent. But it does mean I now see that there is more to the story 鈥� and more than just politics at work.