Many of our students watched the Presidential debate between President Trump and Vice-President Biden on Tuesday. Naturally, they came in with questions and opinions; which makes my job infinitely easier. I noticed though the types of questions/opinions the students had was based not necessarily on what happened, but what was discussed at home/on the television thereafter. What broadcast the student listened to influenced in part what they thought about the debate.
In order to discuss the debate in as non-partisan a way possible (and to talk about fact and policy rather than opinion and punditry), we had to take a step back. In class, we watched three different news organization’s coverage of the debate (videos from each organization linked: CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC) and peeled the layers back. Why did one organization choose this photo or dedicate more time to a candidate in their clips? Why did the edits make it seem like one person was better than the other?
We spent the majority of our class time now focused on the influence of media bias as it relates to how our opinions are formed. It was amazing to hear the students pinpoint some of the bias they see/hear daily and for them to question each other respectfully. Continue this discussion at home and encourage your child to think critically about the news sources they watch.
This is exactly what all Americans need to be doing and in fact, did for many generations in this country. Learning how to separate fact from opinion, bias from truth and engage in respectful and necessary dialogue about challenging topics. Tribalism is very damaging to our democracy and community. I am proud of our faculty and students for learning and growing together.