MEDIA MANIPULATION

MEDIA MANIPULATION

Source: https://www.salto-youth.net/tools/toolbox/tool/mediamanipulation.975/ Aim: Understand what stereotypes the media can have about certain topics, and way they try to manipulate the news in order to get to their goals, and collecting recommendations from the group on how to defend from that and use it to the NGOs advantage.

Time: 1-1,5h

Materials: A4 papers, markers

Description of activity:

1.Division in 2 groups - journalists and interviewees 2.First group of interviewees get roles such as: bartender, fire brigade, politicians..etc Other group - the journalists - have to interview others and to prove that the person is a saint 3. Moderator asks the participants to go into the room and select one person they want to have an interview with and they do it for 5 minutes. AFTER 5 MINUTES question for journalist: who accomplished his task? just to check 4.NOW is vice versa but with different roles:

-who previously were journalists now got a role: 2 prostitutes, 2 priests, 2 bankers. -who before had a role, is now a journalist and they have to prove -(one half) that person would do anything for money - (the other half) we should feel sorry/pity for that person, that they need financial/social care

Moderator asks the participants to go into the room and select one person they want to have an interview with and they do it for 5 minutes. AFTER 5 MINUTES question for journalist: who have accomplished his task? just to check

Discussion in plenary

Moderator asks to reveal all the roles (from first and second round) - who enjoyed this discussion? - who felt to have been manipulated? - what was your strategy? moderator asks to reveal all the tasks - did you have any stereotypes? - think about the roles, what did you think about the roles and what do you think about the roles from TV/News/media - which idea did you get from TV about prostitutes/priest/bankers... -did you think about your rights? Did somebody ask in which newspaper i'm going to be published? Which rights does an interviewee have?

WHAT IS MEDIA BIAS?

Media bias is the bias of journalists and news producers within the mass media, concerning the selection of events and stories that are reported, and how they are covered. The term "media bias" implies a pervasive or widespread bias contravening the standards of journalism, rather than the perspective of an individual journalist or article.