It is all too common that people take what is reported by the news and media at face value and fail to believe that it could be bias or twisted in a way as to present the situation in a manner that is untrue or not covering the whole story. It is concerning to see the media, even credible news stations, present information and stories so skewed and full of hidden agendas and see people take it for what it is and not second guess it at all.
Typically, the media will convey a story in a manner that captures people's attention, it will be dramatized and presented to the public in a way to get a specific response out of them. They will report what will get the people talking, whether it isn't completely true or one sided.
I saw this in the recent coverage of the video of South Carolina police officer forcefully removing a student from the classroom. This post is not about the right and wrong of what happened and whether or not any of these actions were justified, it is about how one sided the media can be.
I looked up this same story on many different sites and noticed the same thing, it was all told from the side of the girl in the video. No one took the time to get the police officer's side and let him defend himself. Very few articles on this issue mention how students reported that the girl in the video also got violent with the officer at one point. I've seen so many individuals post their opinions on what happened based on opinions they made from very one sided articles that only tell one person's side of the story. It is important to remember that the entire incident didn't take place in the less than one minute video. There are events that happened before that camera started to record and after it stopped and it is very important that people realize that because they take to what they see people post online about certain situations.
This is true about everything reported to the public, and there is bias in everything. People need to learn to be skeptical and not form a hard opinion on something until they do their research because what is reported in the news is commonly misleading.
See the video and read about what happened here:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-34644336
http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/27/us/south-carolina-school-arrest-video/
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/10/27/video-surfaces-showing-south-carolina-school-officer-tossing-student-onto/
This post fits very appropriately with the theme of my blog. You're right Aspen, we should all learn to be very critical of the information we are exposed to. Bennett explained in our text that the media is profit-driven and that a lot of people look to the media for entertainment so it is no surprise the media would portray the story from the perspective that would gain the most controversy.
ReplyDeleteAnna Edmonson- "My friend calls articles with titles that are interesting and popular, "click-bait." I think that's part in what draws attention to these videos. The video that you specifically mention in this post takes the stance of the girl, likewise in other recent videos there are also cops tossing kids around that refused to cooperate and are enticing the officers. I don't understand why some people accept the "fact" that police officers are evil and violence driven, but refuse to accept that sometimes kids and young adults are disobeying the law and those whose jobs are to enforce it. I feel that in many cases, although I could be wrong, there must be some credible factor before the attack that enticed a police officer to act as they do."
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