Week 4- Objectivity:When the Search for the Truth Goes Wrong?

Hello Everyone!

This week again has been pretty slow for me.  I am still awaiting the responses from the activists I hope to interview. In the meantime, I focused on the media impact of the Central Park 5 case. With a case like this, all media outlets had been racing against one another to bring the story to the public. The media was able to bring awareness about the situation at hand.  However, it was interesting to see that the boys’ identities were open to the public while on the other hand, the victims’ identity was not open to the public.  In my opinion, although these boys were the all alleged defendants, they were still underage.  They should’ve been given the same privacy the victim was given.  I understand that with these types of cases comes publicity, but nobody thought to keep their identities hidden.  The media was so focused on having these boys in the public eye and people started shaming them because they knew who they were and who their families were.  They couldn’t live a normal life without someone realizing who they are or what they’re connected to.  With the media, everyone’s adding in their opinions and that leaves room for assumptions and error.  It leaves the audience to wonder what’s right or wrong and in some cases, what they should or should not believe. 

The media, in my opinion, can have good and bad intentions.  But it also varies on how the audience perceives what is being broadcasted.  In this situation, the perception was negative and the media spotlight didn’t help the boys. 

I hope this was eye-opening for you all. I’d love to hear your perspectives, feel free to leave some comments.  See you back next week!

Kayla