Personally yes i try and take everything i read with a pinch of salt, everyone who writes does so with their own opinions on a situation and there will always be their own bias in the words they use. some of the tabloids representations of immigration and assylum i think are can be downright dangerous and promote a witchhunt. I find it can help to do some research on anything i do want more information on, but thats time consuming and honestly i dont do so very often unless a story really gets under my skin.
I'm more wary perhaps now than i was after my friend got caught for a graffiti case this year, and it went to trial. The whole newspaper coverage was conducted second hand from a police report and contained inaccuracies that had been dismissed by the defence during the case was presented as fact. i believe the media can be very selective at chosing which facts to print to strengthen the point of view they want to put across- but the i suppose any writing, essays, books, journals are probably guilty of similar things.
People believe what they read in the media because its easier not to question it. And if its something that reinforces their previous beliefs/ stereotypes they'll believe it more. It's not that the media lies, not deliberately, its just that it distorts things because all news is open to human interpretation before being written up.