Post #6

For this assignment I read "Math & Media: Students Use Math to Track Media Bias" by Bob Peterson.

What the Experts Know: 

Over a decade ago, the Fairness in Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), a group based in NY who monitors the media concluded that the front page photos of three major papers unfairly represent different groups of people. 

They observed the title pages of these three dailies for a month and recorded their findings as: 

  • 30% of the men of color featured on the front page were athletes, and 14% were accused/convicted of crimes.
  • 78%. of articles were based on information provided by government officials
  • Washington Post front page photos
    • 13% were women 
    • All women of color featured were victims of fire, poverty, or drugs.
    • 13% of  quotes came from women
  • New York Times front page photos
    • 11% were women 
    • 6% of quotes came from women
  • USA Today front page photos
    • 30% were women (55% of the men were in politics & business, but none of the women featured on the front worked in those fields)

Research in the Classroom:

  1. Decide on which newspapers/magazines will be monitored
  2. Decide what you will be tracking (front page, photos, quotes, etc.) 
  3. Decide what information you are looking to assess
  4. Mark up the newspapers/magazines with highlighters 
  5. Categorize the results using their identifiers (race, gender, jobs, etc.) 
  6. Analyze the results (how often do reports use mugshots, or quote activists instead of politicians, etc.) 

My suggestion: 

I think it would be even more impactful to have youth identify and select the information and sources that they would like to research. It would also be interesting for young people to discuss then identify their own action steps to address the issue (creating their own news source, reaching out to established news sources, etc.) 

A more relevant news source would be social media, since most young people rely on social media to stay up-to-date with current events. Is there any identity bias in what we're consuming outside of the mainstream news? Perhaps an action item could be to create a social media account that is less biased, or reach out to creators about their findings, etc.)

Comments

  1. Kendra MartinsJuly 2, 2022 at 4:16 PM

    Jenneya, I think your suggestions would be really beneficial to our students. It is important that we engage them in the learning process by giving them the reigns and letting them decide what they would like to learn about. I also think incorporating social media would be a great idea. So many young people (and myself included) use social media as a way of receiving news. It would be interesting to see how students use social media to stay up to date on current events.

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