Media sources play a significant role due to the dissemination of essential and relevant information. Moreover, they have the power to convince and form public opinion about various phenomena. The Black Lives Matter movement has become one of the most significant public initiatives fighting for the rights of the black population, especially in the United States. One of the most recent instances when this movement received special coverage in media sources, was the murder of George Floyd by a policeman in 2020. After this incident, various sources of information paid particular attention to this movement. However, both a video source and an article in an online newspaper can represent this topic with a certain amount of bias, which can negatively affect its reliability and contribution to society.
The first media source that was selected for analysis in this work is an article by Buchanan et al. titled “Black Lives Matter May Be the Largest Movement in U.S. History.” It was released by The New York Times in light of the events that occurred after the murder of George Floyd. The main focus of this medium is to provide information about the protests related to the Black Lives Matter movement that took place in the country. Particular attention was paid to the presentation of a significant amount of statistical data that proved that these events caused a great stir in society, and millions of people protested (Buchanan et al.). Moreover, the authors focus on changing demographics during these events and the difference in the number of white and people of color coming out to make changes.
The media source also highlights the impact of the pandemic on the increase in protests related to the murder of an innocent black man. Thus, the authors note that “with being home and not being able to do as much, that might be amplifying something that is already sort of critical, something that’s already a powerful catalyst” (Buchanan et al. para. 21). At the end, the article points out that despite the relatively rapid decline of the protests, the movement has left a contribution on legislation and police forces in many states of the country.
The second media source to be discussed in this essay is a video posted on the YouTube platform called “George Floyd: Black Lives Matter Protests go Global.” The video was uploaded to an online source by the BBC World Service channel. It, like the article, focuses on the increase in the number of protests after the death of George Floyd, which have become global. However, the main difference of this source is that it provides segments of interviews of real people who expressed their opinion about the arisen issues (“George Floyd: Black Lives Matter Protests go Global”). These individuals are people who felt fear and pain from what happened in America, which caused them to organize mass protests. The main themes of these initiatives were the opposition to racism, which is rooted in modern society, and the struggle for the rights of black people around the world.
The task of this research paper is to determine the amount of bias in the selected sources. First, it is worth noting that the information and data referred to by the authors of each medium contributed to the formation of the opinion. Hence, the article by Buchanan et al. did not show the characteristics of objectivity and bias since it relied heavily on statistical data. Despite the fact that this source mentioned the opinions and quotations of various researchers and professors, all of them did not express a critical personal opinion that could negatively form a negative idea of the topic presented. Thus, the effective maintenance of each expressed point of view contributed to limiting bias.
On the other hand, when watching the video “George Floyd: Black Lives Matter Protests go Global,” doubts arose about the objectivity and bias of this source. This opinion appears because unlike the previously discussed article, the authors chose a particular group of people to survey and provide an opinion. It is worth noting that the inclusion of the personal experience of black people who have faced racism has value and importance for conveying the main point of view of the video. At the same time, in order to limit objectivity, a possible solution would be to involve respondents from other ethnic and racial groups who also participated in organizing initiatives within the Black Lives Matter movement. This is because this problem concerns the whole society and requires recognition by all people, regardless of their nationality, culture, or race.
In conclusion, bias is a rather difficult aspect to limit, especially when it comes to media sources. To prevent the occurrence of this characteristic, it is essential to rely on various sources of information and statistically sound data, such as in the article “Black Lives Matter May Be the Largest Movement in U.S. History.” Despite the fact that the experience of people who have encountered the problem themselves is crucial for covering the topic, this kind of choice can be perceived as biased.
Works Cited
Buchanan, Larry, et al. “Black Lives Matter May Be the Largest Movement in U.S. History,” The New York Times, Web.
“George Floyd: Black Lives Matter Protests go Global.” YouTube, uploaded by BBC World Service, Web.