The media and Chapel Hill

The Media and Chapel Hill By: Gabriela Vitola On February 10, 2015 the news broke about The Chapel Hill shooting and stated, “Three Muslim students were murdered near the University of North Carolina.” But why is the religion of the victims so necessary to broadcast? It is highly unlikely for news reporters to mention the faith of victims, so why was this information in headlines? Obviously the media had intentions to provoke a religious riot toward Muslims. Kathleen Parker, a Pulitzer Price writer, wrote an article published in The Washington Post, titled, “The Irresponsible Reporting in the Chapel Hill Killings.” Parker writes this article in response to the irresponsible entitlement of the shooting in Chapel Hill. Parker speaks freely about the very inappropriate and unnecessary announcement of the victims religion headline posted for the Chapel Hill shooting. Currently, our world has been at war with the Islamic state and our news has been revolving around this subject for years. The United States have been receiving confirmation about the Americans who are being abducted, were being indeed killed. So why is the media broadcasting news about Muslims being dead? Why is the media controlling what they want certain people to hear? One can only conclude that the Medias headline was simply to cause hate and inflame people and the story. What I found interesting in this researching was that the media controls a lot of our minds. It has power and the news reporters take advantage of that. We believe what we hear because unfortunately we don’t receive the same information worldwide. That brings me to secondary source, which speaks about the negative perception Americans have on Muslims because of the media. The media we hear is very bias, not only directly toward Muslims, but mostly about anything that the government may want us to believe. I believe the media should not encourage discrimination among society by broadcasting what they want our perspective to be. The media knows better than to intentionally tab a community of people and magnify them. The media should be informational, not an ignition for riots. Americans that do not know any better than what they hear on the news, can be easily steered in the direction that the media points them to. What are the connections people make when they hear the religion of people that are dead? Maybe they were in the midst of a religious ceremony? Maybe they were targeted at because they are Muslims? Those are the two logical assumptions you can make when you hear the mention of a religion, but that is what they are, assumptions. News reporters should not have the right to assume the cause of a killing and take the news to a perception where they benefit from. No Media should bend any story in the way they want it to bend. The Medias motives had intentions to give a bad imagine. Why is it so necessary to intentionally cause riots? Have we not had enough riots? What good can come from this? What can we do to change that?