Book Chapter Day

 

 Math and Media: Student Use Math to Track Media Bias

Summary

 Peterson stated that media bias occurs across media. For instance, according to the FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting – a media watchdog group based in New York) looked at the front-page cover photos for one month in the three major media groups (The Washington Post, New York Time, and USA Today) “found that women were dramatically slighted.” That is, women were not featured as much as men, and females of color even have less coverage than white women except the negative coverage (victims, poverty, and drug, etc.) The chart below can show how this front photo coverage impacted and promoted various people over a number of years ago. Here is the gender breakdown for the three major media below:

Gender/Media	New York Times	Washington Post	USA Today
Women	11%	13%	30%
Men			55%

 Here is the race breakdown below:

Race/ Impact	Positive	Negative
White Men	55% Government and business
Men of color	30% Athletes	14% Criminals

 

Petterson wants readers and students to realize (or do a study) how genders and races affect the front-cover page of the media either positively or negatively. Thus, positive images tend to promote positive communities while negative images tend to tear down and reaffirm stereotyping among people of color in that community. Furthermore, students can use math (simple computation, average, and graphing) to compile media data ranging from local newspapers to magazines, etc. There are endless possibilities to use math to collect data and analyze it. Students can also use color coding/highlighting to identify and organize various data such as quoting by gender, race, government vs. non-government officials, celebrity status, justice and peace, and crime and drug, etc. Using basic math calculation to compile data can show how media impact genders, people of color, and various issues out there, etc. The result would be eyes opening and interesting to see how media and math can be used. Let us have fun learning and discovering something new or something that also exists out there.

 Reference

 Peterson, B.(2016). Rethinking Popular Culture (2^nd Ed). Math and Media: Student Use Math to 

Track Media Bias (pp. 147-148). Milwaukee, WI: Rethinking Schools Ltd.