Since the topic I wrote about is very current and publicized, there are both positives and negatives that come with researching it. Starting with the negatives, one of the main issues the protesters have brought up is President Biden’s funding of the Israeli government and the US’s involvement with the war. These questions along with the upcoming presidential election have resulted in many news sources twisting the story or only telling a certain perspective to fit their political agenda. For example, a heavily conservative news source such as Fox News might focus on events that could be seen as deprecating to President Biden; whereas a liberal news source such as MSNBC might stay away from talking about Biden and the role he has played in these protests. Here is a great chart to look at if you are ever wondering if the news source you are looking at is reliable and unbiased-
Along with political biases, I found that another bias that infringed upon my research was bias towards Israel and Palestine. This bias was definitely more obvious than the political bias I talked about earlier, and a good way to detect it is to look at the other articles on the site. Usually ones with Israel bias will only talk about how Jewish students have been affected and paint the protesters in a more violent light. In contrast, ones with a Palestinian bias will often empathize with the protesters and not talk about any of their negative actions or repercussions they may have caused.
Keeping these biases in mind, when I approached researching this topic I made sure to use educated, unbiased, and trusted sources to ensure I was telling the full and honest story about these recent events. I used google scholar for the majority of my research, all of the sources on there are primary sources, meaning that they are peer reviewed. For my research about the protests on the Columbia campus and the Kent State protests I used the newspapers from both the schools. I thought an insider perspective and someone who was directly involved and affected by the events would be the best source for finding out exactly what happened on the campuses. Along with the primary sources I used, for news sites I used ones that fell closer to the middle on that media bias chart, such as the New York Times and BBC. I also used many sources recommended from the Westminster librarians, such as Brittannica and History.com.
Overall, the best recommendation that I could give when researching is to look at many sources. Don’t trust the first headline that you read and especially nothing from a 15 second TikTok video.
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