Discouraging Consensus

Whatever happened to consensus? It seems so much of what is reported in the media is that people of all persuasions are driven by certainty of opinion; certainty of conviction. People know what they know and by God they are not backing down one iota.  Gun control, climate change, health care, tax legislation, gay marriage are just some of the issues and points of debate on which have drawn their lines in the sand.  They state their position and that's all there s is to it. End of discussion. Not only are those who disagree wrong, but they are bad people who are either unpatriotic, evil, just plain stupid or all of the above. And that's all there is to it.

Is the media feeding this perception? No doubt about it. For one reason, men and women who are cloaked in certainty and speak with unbending conviction are more newsworthy and easier and more fun to interview and report on. Coupled with that, from the perspective of a viewer or reader, it is more engaging to watch and/or read about persons who are adament about how they view the world and various issues.  By tuning into such people, we can either feel good about ourselves because they agree with us or we can spout off with righteous indignation about how off- base they are and how wise we are.

The public relations industry is also contributing to this perception. Communication professionals advise their clients to come across as being self-assurred and strong. As a result, the communicators claim, the public arena has little or tolerance for those who struggle or who do not see every issue as being either one way or the other. Bottom line: neither the press nor public relations practitioners handle or encourage nuiance very well. Consequently, they do not it. This is unfortunate because we are the public are presented with a false reality. The truth is while people, generally, do have strong feelings about a host if topics, they also often see both sides of things and are willing to work toward consensus. The press and public relations industry need to do a better of job of acknowledging and supporting this reality.