Throughout media, bias and stereotypes are hidden and disguised, but they still affect our perceptions of society. We learned a lot from this unit, how to look for the real purpose of bias, why people use bias, and how to avoid it. But something we should take note of is that no matter what, bias in media can alter perspectives and influence an individual’s opinions. That’s not always a bad thing though, because sometimes it’s necessary for us to change our mindset in order to move forward as a society. How necessary is bias then if it helps us move forward as a society? Read about it in my reflection of our bias in media summative:
Tag: news
Dividing our Society – Bias In Media Summative
In the unit, we were taught about the types of bias and stereotypes that exist all around us in the form of commercials, news, videos, songs, really anywhere you can think of. To learn about what bias is, we were first told to use Checkology. The 4 modules on Checkology were all designed with a different purpose, talk about the types of bias, how bias spreads, the rights that allow people to be biased (as long as it’s not harmful to others), and how to detect bias. We also annotated some videos and articles that had either very strong bias or very little bias in order to get used to being aware of bias and stereotypes. During annotating and completing the modules on Checkology, I realized that bias occurs more often than I think, even in something that’s supposed to be neutral, like news. However, the bias is just hidden and not talked about because we don’t notice it, or we choose not to notice it. This summative is a reflection on all that we have learned about detecting bias and the purpose of bias. The first part consists of annotations on different types of media; news, print ads, commercials, songs, and shows. There are also annotations that go along with each of those forms of media in order to explain why I specifically noticed that part, or why I thought it was biased. The second part of the summative was to make a product to increase awareness of bias in society, so I made a comic. The comic shows a clear contrast between a society that pressures children into stereotypes and a society that just lets them be. It’s a reflection of gender bias that exists in the modern world even today and hopefully is able to show people that kids aren’t meant to be one way or another, pink or blue, there needs to be more colors because not everyone is going to fall into a stereotype.
News Annotation PDF:
Print Ad Annotation PDF:
Part One Annotation and Analysis:
Part Two Product (Click into Photo):
Product for Awareness Explanation:
Unit Reflection: Journalism
In this unit, we learned all about how to analyze the style, content, and technique of a news article or news media. There were a couple of different activities we did in order to practice annotating news articles for those kinds of things including; watching CNN10 then annotating on its style of presentation, annotating a news article for both the author’s craft and content, and writing our own article about an issue that affects people like us (other students or people in our community). Here’s a reflection of what we did in this unit:
Unit Reflection on poster:
The Glue Times – Journalism Unit
In our journalism unit, we were supposed to create a news article within a newspaper with our group and to compare to news articles at the end of the unit. So throughout the unit, we learned techniques that would help us to write our article and to annotate the 2 articles. These things include; author’s craft (technique and style), effect on audience, mood, tone, content, etc. In this post, you will see some of the things we did throughout this unit, like the final draft of article, the writing process, and annotation of the the news articles.
The Glue Times Newspaper:
Compare:
The articles “Texas Faces Major Flooding” and “Catastrophe in the Gulf” are similar because they both describe Hurricane Harvey as a historically large hurricane in order to grab the reader’s attention. Hurricane Harvey is a hurricane that hit southeast Texas, causing mass destruction everywhere it went. Many were trapped in the path of the storm and needed rescuers to save them from the flooding even though the storm had just arrived. In page 4 of “Texas Faces Major Flooding” the author quotes the National Weather Service, saying ““flooding in the Houston metropolitan area is expected to worsen and could become historic” while the article “Catastrophe in the Gulf” said “That has led to historic flooding, mass destruction…” In “Texas Faces Major Flooding” the author mainly focuses on the flooding in Houston and how the flooding issue caused by Harvey could become more severe and rise to historic heights. The author of “Catastrophe in the Gulf” focuses more on how the whole of the storm is historic including the amount of destruction it left behind, not just the flooding. However, both authors are using the word historic in order to keep the readers intrigued and interested in the hurricane. Both articles recognised that although the flooding was a major problem, the storm was still ongoing and could become historic, but is not historic yet. The authors of both articles know that in order to maintain the reader’s attention, they need to use key words/impactful words in order to keep the audience engaged.
Contrast:
The articles “Texas Faces Major Flooding” and “Catastrophe in the Gulf” are different because the first article is sounds more biased in its description of the hurricane while the author of “Catastrophe in the Gulf” lets the audience know that the descriptions are based off of other trustworthy news networks. Hurricane Harvey was an unusual hurricane because the storm stayed intact above Houston instead of breaking up once it hit land, and this caused massive amounts of rain to fall; many have died from this flooding. On page 3 of “Texas Faces Major Flooding” the author uses uncertain phrases such as “at least” or “though that number may climb.” The author of “Catastrophe in the Gulf” says on page 3 that the ”breadth and intensity of this rain fall is beyond anything experienced before, the National Weather Service said in a statement.” In the quote from the “Texas Faces Major Flooding” article, the author is using phrases that makes the hurricane sound like it will cause a lot more destruction even though the hurricane is slowing down. The author does not take any quote from a trustworthy news site when saying that the number of deaths may climb, but instead is saying that from his own judgement and from his own opinions on the subject. Meanwhile, the author of “Catastrophe in the Gulf” takes a different approach to describing the hurricane in order to avoid biased/strong phrases like “at least.” The author tends to quote sources that the readers trust, like the National Weather Service, and in the statements from those trusted sources, there are impactful words and phrases. The difference is however, that the author of “Catastrophe in the Gulf” is using key phrases taken from sources that are trusted and sources the readers trust to give pure facts. The author of “Texas Faces Major Flooding” is making his own statements sound like bias because he doesn’t quote other sources, but just explains what he thinks the hurricane will destroy next. By quoting official sources, the description of the hurricane in “Catastrophe in the Gulf” manages to avoid sounding biased.
Annotation of news articles:
News Article: The Mystery Of The Disappearing Rats
The Mystery of the Disappearing Rats
September 4, 2017
Paula Hsiao
On August 26, at around 8 pm Saturday, a rat was spotted running up the stairs before disappearing beneath the TV set and refrigerator. Witnesses at the scene say the rat was fairly small, compared to the other rats they’ve seen, but very quick. However, people at the scene during the incident say they could not find the rat after it’d ran under the TV, and that they are still searching.
According to the witnesses at the scene, they were just enjoying their dinner in front of the TV when the rat first appeared. One of the family members who first saw the ray way that the rat had been running up the stairs very fast when she’d seen it. That was supposedly when she screamed, which grabbed the attention of the others who were also there at the time. The screamed is said to have startled the rat, who ran underneath the television before any bystanders were able to catch it or hit it with a broom.
The family member who first say the rat says that “this is the 2nd time this has happened, so I think there must be a hole in the back door. There was another ray that had gotten in somehow a couple months ago and had run up the stairs the same way. So there must be a hole or something somewhere if they were able to climb up the same way.” The family is not too sure about where the rats were coming from though because they make sure to check that all their doors are closed every day.
“We waited so long for the rat to come out and we had even moved everything near the television away, but the TV set is right under the staircase so it’s a snug fit for humans. The rats have no trouble hiding there though,” claimed another family member at the scene. The rat was not able to be found despite their best efforts, so the family, who have said they’re going to set traps, says they have to take extra precautions with leaving doors open now.