Deliberation Nation Extra Credit Response

On February 26, I joined the Deliberation Nation discussion, “Breaking News: Biased Information in Student’s Lives.” I felt it a very fitting deliberation to attend after all of the Twitter fire occurring this past week at a result of Keith Olbermann.

This team did a wonderful job with each segment of the deliberation. Their brochure that they gave to each participant was very aesthetically pleasing, and although concise, provided enough information to jumpstart the conversation. Also, each member of the team was very prepared with a plethora of questions, so that there was never a moment’s pause in the conversation. They targeted ethical values, political values, civic values, as well as identity-based and community-based values.

Approach one sought to discuss social media biases. We talked about the types of social media that college students use, and whether or not we trust the news presented on these sites. The general consensus was that if we read a headline of relevance, we tend to check it on another, more reliable news site. We also said that most social media political arguments, are highly opinionated and not worth the time or the energy.

For approach two, the team members explored how the environment affects our biases. We talked about television and newspapers, and most said that after coming to college, current event awareness began to diminish because there are not televisions in dorms and no time to read the newspaper. One vocal participant did a great job of advocating the New York Times app, and after the deliberation, most everyone downloaded it onto their phone because it is a quick and easy way to check the top headlines facing our nation.

Finally, approach three examined biases in academia. We were asked if it is alright for a professor to convey biases in a classroom. We also looked into how to teach students to see if they are being taught biasedly or not. We came to the conclusion that it is okay for a professor to be passionate or biased so long as students are still tested on fact and not opinion. We all agreed that it is a travesty when a student it forced to adapt to the professor’s opinion in order to receive a good grade, or maintain their integrity and risk failing. We also decided that our current English class does a good job in teaching us about rhetoric and how to analyze biases, so that answered the second question.

In the end, we concluded that coming into the discussion, most of us already understood the biases present in the media and in our lives and how to bypass them. It is frustrating that it takes time to search for the right information. However, we also noted that if the media were to stop polarizing everything, and remained neutral, most would stop reading. Our nation is only increasing in the group-think mentality, and a neutral standpoint would be hard to advocate for at this point in time.  After the deliberation though, we all decided to become more aware of our surroundings, and do our best to continue thinking critically and not let biases think for us.