This week, one of our assignments in CEP 811 was to get a better understanding of our media consumption. I spent the week changing a few things that I followed in order to see just how different my feeds became. I was shocked to find the differences that just a few searches caused. One thing that I noticed was that after a few additions and subtractions, the ads that I was seeing started to change. I engage with a lot of hockey media because I love the sport. I added a few political figures and soon I saw that my ads were changing to campaign ads and political material. I have heard that this also changes based on location. I had a friend who went to Pittsburgh for a weekend and he was getting Steelers ads for a month. One group that I specifically added to my news app on my phone was Fox News. I thought that it would be interesting to see the different things that they report on and the stories that get sent to my phone. An example from today would be that CNN sent a message out about former First Lady Rosalyn Carter dying. I did not receive the same message from Fox News. There were also some stories that were sent from both platforms to my phone that were worded drastically different. One thing about this idea of filter bubbles that really scares me is the effect that it has on my students. I grew up in the mid 2000's and early 2010's and we did a lot on trusting media sources. My students now fight back on this idea of media sources and how trustworthy they are. I believe that because of these filter bubbles, students, and many adults, are using their own confirmation bias to discredit anything that is not being given to them. I also believe that this is causing students to struggle with critical thinking because they are relying on what their phone or a certain program is giving them.
Perlberg.S, (2020). It’s 2020, and CNN and Fox News are still battling over Comscore numbers [Picture]. Digiday. https://digiday.com/media/its-2020-and-cnn-and-fox-news-are-still-battling-over-comscore-numbers/
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