It is easy to be manipulated. Every person has something that they feel strongly about that is going to cause them to be a little bit biased. Learning how to remedy that situation, however, is the most important task to master in these situations. The exercise we did in class regarding possible biases and how to remedy them in our reporting was a good exercise. For example my bias or belief that republican politicians are unfair and closed-minded. This could in fact be said of any politician, but my partiality to the democratic party has swayed my views. I think I have in some ways been manipulated by the democratic party. I agree with alot of their viewpoints, therefore I am much more likely to be critical of the republican supporters. This could certainly pose a problem for any political reporting I do, but could be remedied by talking to sources from the republican side, even if I may not agree, and attempting to understand or at least get their views and what they believe. I could also do as Cheyenne suggested and talk to someone I know who is a supporter of the republican side and get their thoughts and feeling on the matter and their side of the story. I think an openness to at least understand the ideas of others, even if you do not agree, is a huge leap and is vital to the sucess of an unbiased and informative story. Same goes for my favoritism to Chick-Fil-A. If I had to right about scandal at Chick-Fil-A I might be tempted to make it seem less important than if scandal hit McDonald’s. However, I can eliminate these potential biases by making sure that I don’t let any emotion or personal attachments slip in, in the first place. You should report only the facts and not try to lessen or strengthen the impact to sway the focus of the story. It is easy to be manipulated becasue everyday we are manipulated by television, ads, and other forms of media which tell us how we should look, act, think, dress, and what we should buy. Although avoiding manipulation completely might seem a daunting task, we should not let out emotions get in the way in the first place.
