In information theory, two of the key concepts are encoders and decoders. An encoder will convert some message, typically via compression, so that it can be sent through a channel more efficiently. The decoder is on the other end of the channel. It receives the coded message and tries to reconstruct the original.

We are constantly receiving and decoding messages from a variety of sources. News organizations, bloggers, friends on social media, etc. They are all encoding some fact/message/story in order to transmit it. We then decode it to make sense of it. Because of this there are two sources of variation, the encoder and the decoder, which can affect how you see events and information that is sent to you.

To get a more robust picture, you can increase the number of encoders that you get information from. You can also adjust your internal decoder, in an attempt to reconstruct a more faithful version of the message that was intented.