thank you so I thought I'd start tonight
with a little experiment I'm gonna put
two words on the screen and don't
overthink I'm just what terms come to
mind okay you ready all right yes the
media so how many people raise your hand
how many people have negative thoughts
going through their head right now yes a
lot of you that's okay yeah you know in
that that's not surprising because we
hear so many negative terms about the
media fake news biased slant slanderous
right so slanted so that doesn't
surprise me what about the rest of you
anyone had anyone have any positive
thoughts about the media a few good good
a little bit and so do I you know when I
think of the media I think of terms like
objective accurate watchdogs of society
and that's probably because and all
transparency I used to work in the media
all right it's a newspaper reporter
years ago I now teach at Penn State
Harrisburg I teach the future
journalists of tomorrow so I do still
have faith in the media but I know a lot
of people do not agree with me
and how do I knew that well I did my
research I saw an article in the
Columbia Journalism Review that just a
year ago they were interviewing people
about the media so the first one they
said it was a NAT night foundation
Gallup poll they just asked do you trust
the media 30% of those that were
interviewed said no not only that that
same 30% actually said that that
distrust was probably permanent there
was nothing that they could do to get
their trust back so that did you know
shocked me a little bit but then I saw
another Gallup poll of the same year
they asked people to rank major
institutions from most trustworthy to
least trustworthy the television and
news media came in second to last can
anyone guess who was last Congress yep
so but yeah this was shocking to me
because I still have faith in the media
and it's because of my experiences in
the media so I started thinking you know
our theme here tonight's chaos right
where do you go in times of chaos and I
thought whether you trust or distrust
the media you probably turn to them in
times of chaos so I started thinking
back on my own life
what tragic events have occurred in my
life where I turn to the media and
automatically the first thing that came
to my mind was 9/11 so if you're like me
I remember exactly where I was when I
found out about 9/11 I was actually
working at a State Association right
down the street in Harrisburg I was
meeting with our insurance director I
remember that and one of our co-workers
came in and told us that one of the
planes hit the towers so what did we do
we went up to the conference room we sat
in front of a television set and we
watched we watched live I said second
plane hit the second tower
we watched live as the smaller towers
came crumbling down and from what I
remember that day the media they
actually did a really good job
they didn't sensationalize the story
they didn't try to race to find out who
attacked us they simply reported the
facts that day but I'm a realist and I
know that's not always the case so I
started thinking all right what other
things in my life have I gone to for the
media and the next thing I thought of
was the Sandy Hook shootings so again
remember exactly where I was that day I
was at home actually feeding my infant
daughter watching CNN and CNN started
reporting on Sandy Hook and they were
reporting they didn't know yet what it
was but all of a sudden they had the
shooter they reported Ryan Lanza was the
shooter at Sandy Hook so this time
though I didn't just have TV I had my
laptop I had computer I had Facebook you
know now we had social media I could go
on and talk to people oh my god what's
going on and then all of a sudden I
started flipping through the channels
and this is what I saw Ryan Lanza on CBS
so then I went onto my computer
and same thing Fox News Gawker BuzzFeed
Huntington Post Huffington Post they all
found
Ryann Lanza's facebook page and they
actually linked to the Facebook page his
face was everywhere so there was just
one problem though
Ryan Lanza was not the shooter of Sandy
Hook it was his brother Adam Lanza that
did this horrific crime now I did read
an Associated Press article later said
that a law enforcement official had
transposed the brothers names because
when they found Adam Lanza's body he had
his brother's ID on him but that doesn't
matter it's the media's job to report
accurate information it's the media's
job to get it right and the media failed
that day the media created more chaos
for a young man who lost his brother and
his mom in one day so so yeah the media
failed and this is what I study so I
study the media and I remember when I
was at Temple University getting my PhD
I met an older man who lived in York
Pennsylvania he told me about a chaotic
event in his life he lived through what
was called the 1969 York race rise I
couldn't believe it this story was it
was like a movie I literally said to him
I said you've given me my dissertation
topic thank you I had to know how the
media told this story so I started
looking at it and if anyone doesn't know
if you don't know what happened I'll
just give you a brief overview in summer
in 1969 there was a young 12 year old
african-american boy he was placing
lighter fluid in his mouth I know and
was trying to spit it out and light it
to cause a stream of flames well he
failed this miserably and when being
interviewed by York Police he lied he
told the police that a white gang named
the Gerard urse doused him with gasoline
and set him on fire so that night that
uh the rumor spread yes pardon the pun
like wildfire through the streets and a
black gang seeking retribution for that
perceived crime went looking for the
Gerard errs and instead they came across
another white gang the Newbury Street
boys so a fight ensued and that was the
beginning of 12 days of violence so over
the next 12 days more than 60 people who
are injured more than a hundred
individuals were arrested and two
individuals lost their lives a 22 year
old white police officer Henry shod and
a 27 year old african-american woman
from Aiken South Carolina Lily Belle
Allen so my question was how did the
media do and I had this hypothesis
because I learned in my journalism
classes the media in the 1960s was
mostly run by middle-aged white males
right diversity in the media would not
happen for gender and race until years
later so I thought I'd find a bias but
happily I was wrong the York media
actually did a really good job and I
thought it was because you know they
didn't just blame one group they didn't
blame one event now they did they talked
about the the rumors they talked about
the infighting of the gangs the murders
but they went deeper they knew the
violence in York was years in the making
decades in the making they knew that the
inequalities between blacks and whites
with housing education employment
recreational area horrible police
misconduct that fueled the anger that
led to the 1969 or gray Sarai's now was
the media perfect no like I said no
institution is for example I remember
seeing this this was pote this was on in
the newspaper on July 24th 1969 so if
you look at it you can see that they are
reporting that a raid happened nine guns
were taken and they specifically say
what race of the area they specifically
say is in a black area and at first
apply doesn't really mean anything but
when I found this photo the very next
day
it says guns seized on North Newbury
Street North Newbury Street was known as
a predominantly white area yet the race
is not listed not only that remember
the white gang the Newbury Street boys I
had mentioned earlier the leader of that
gang lived in that house
more guns and ammunition were found in
his one house than in the entire black
area yet the race of him and the area
was buried in the in the article so you
know was the York media perfect no but I
still thought they did a really good job
all right so I fast forward then 30
years later the same to York newspapers
decide to do commemorations of the 30
year anniversary of the York race rides
because that's what media do we like to
commemorate things and they did a really
good job too they did their research
they talked about the rumor talked about
the gang fights talked about the two
lives that were lost but what was
interesting these articles did not just
tell this story to new audiences they
actually helped initiate the reopening
of the Allan and Schad murder trials so
in 2000 people started being interviewed
by law enforcement and in 2001 11 white
men would be arrested for the murder of
Lily Belle Allen in 2002 two black men
would be arrested and convicted for the
murder of Schad and this is where things
where the media started to create more
chaos and not just cover it you see one
of the eleven white men that were
arrested that summer was the then mayor
of York mayor Charles Robertson you see
in 1969 he was a police officer and
there were rumors going around mostly
from the gangs that he was at a white
rally and he handed out ammunition to
the white gangs that could have been
used to murder Alan so and what happened
was though weeks before he was arrested
almost a month before he was arrested
the media just reported on rumors they
painted him as a racist guilty
individual weeks and weeks before he was
arrested now don't get me wrong I'm not
saying that this story is not newsworthy
in fact when I teach journalism I show
my students all
these issues that will make a story
newsworthy you need at least one his
story hits them all hey so yes is a
definitely a newsworthy story but the
incessant reporting the sensationalistic
reporting really did ruin his political
career so by the end of the year the
leader of the gerard earth and the
leader of the Newbury Street Boys they
were actually the ones that ended up
being convicted of the murder of Lilly
Bell Allen mayor Robertson he was
acquitted of all crimes in September but
his life was ruined
his life turned into his own realm of
chaos so where are we today I talked a
lot about the past but what's our media
scholars like myself looking at what are
we looking at today when it comes to the
media and chaos and I found this UC
Berkeley article a lot of scholars today
are looking at how do the media cover
mass shootings and I thought this was
really interesting because they were
saying that when the media cover mass
shootings they might actually perpetuate
or encourage future mass shooters so
this leads me my first takeaway for
every one media media literacy we need
to evaluate our sources we are
constantly bombarded with information we
need to make sure our sources are
credible we need to make sure the
sources our sources are using are
credible so that's what I did
so I look to see what is UC Berkeley
using to tell us that the media might
perpetuate mass shootings and I found it
they actually used this journal article
right here from last year I researched
Michael Jenner and Jay Walker they are
respected in their field and yes they
looked at ABC News from 2013 to 2016 and
they too said that if the media
glorified mass shootings they might
actually be encouraging future mass
shooters so I'm going to do more
research on this and this leads me to my
second takeaway tonight is please don't
help create more chaos I'm not going to
go to Facebook and start saying the
media cause mass shootings no I'm not
going to do that I'm not going to
start tweeting about it I'm not going to
go to social media and start spreading
something that might be misinformation
and that's what I implore for everyone
is you know if you see fake news and
misinformation don't create more chaos
by publishing it and if the media are
creating chaos
let's not help them let's not use the
internet social media to create more
chaos so you know to end this that's
what I was thinking about when I thought
about those surveys in the beginning I
believe in the media I am NOT going to
be part of that 30% that I mentioned in
the beginning of people that distrust
the media I believe in the importance
the media has to give us correct
accurate information I believe in the
role media plays as being our watchdogs
of society but I also believe that the
media should stick to covering chaos and
not create more chaos thank you
[Applause]