Nowadays with a wide spectrum of different types of technology, news is recorded across all forms of media. Whether it’s visually or written in words there is a story or viral video put out every day. But, sometimes, those stories or pictures can be used as manipulation or will reveal incorrect context on the issue being told about.

It is the agreement of The Mentor editorial board that not only stories, but content that is visual can easily manipulate any consumer and by ensuring that this does not happen as frequently as it does, readers should check multiple stories, photos and videos.

With the recent controversial story on Nick Sandmann and Nathan Phillips at the Indigenous Peoples March, there has been quite a divide in the way it’s been broadcast contributing to media. There have been multiple different stories that have not only only created an issue between Sandmann and Phillips but also between the community of news readers. When journalists provide biased and/or incorrect information, it causes chaos between the readers who read those particular stories. In the article written by CNN, thay state:

“Other kids could be seen laughing, jumping around and seemingly making fun of the chants.”

But, in an article written by The Washington Examiner, they said:

“Videos of the incident suggest students weren’t doing anything to antagonize Phillips, and that they were instead shouting school chants in response to Black Hebrew Israelites who were taunting the group.”

When reading this, there is contradiction between both of these quotes. One insisting that Sandmann and the other kids were antagonizing Phillips and the other quoting that there was no video evidence of the kids antagonizing the Native American.

Even as a writer, it is very important to fact check any part of any story by checking multiple stories and comparing and contrasting the information to come up with a good idea on the truth, especially with sites like Wikipedia where anyone can edit anything themselves on those types of sites. With manipulation spread on multiple different sites and journalists providing biased and false information, it is very easy to fool anyone who comes across those platforms, expecting information on that certain news topic.

Not only do articles and stories mislead information to readers, but videos and pictures can also very much manipulate people as well. It is important for the consumers to, again, take a closer look at multiple photos and videos, because photographers and videographers, especially at national events with be at every angle there possibly is and one angle can completely be different than 20 other photos of the same event.

In conclusion, it is important for journalists to gather information from multiple sources. Even if they’re at the event, getting multiple interviews from people at the event will ensure that there is more perspective on the certain news story. Also, it is not only the journalists job to provide the correct information, but also any consumer and reader to use the information given smartly and maximize the amount of knowledge on the topic by checking multiple stories, videos and photos. Remember, your opinion isn’t valid without the correct information to back it up.