Media Bias

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/amber-alert-colorado-jessica-ridgeway-backpack-water-bottle-found-17421549

          The news video I picked out is covered by ABC News. This video discusses about a 10 year old girl named Jessica Ridgeway, who has been missing for a couple of days now. All that was left of hers when she disappered was her backpack and a water bottle. Her disapperance is now even discussed by the Amber Alert team, which is an emergency response program that broadcasts information and pictures of the missing child to the media. Since this story also revolves around Amber Alert, Dr. Cline's mention of visual bias would reflect on the this story the most. One of the reasons why this video contains the visual bias is because they are not only are they telling us details about the missing girl, but they also show us pictures of what she really looks like. If we weren't shown pictures of the little girl, then it would be impossible to look for her and help her get home. The pictures help us see what her apperance is in reality and could even make a few people feel some type of an emotional connection towards the story, especially mothers, just because it can happend to any child.
           Another one of Dr. Cline's bias that this video reflects on is the narrative bias. The narrative bias reflects on this story in many different ways, because it is telling a story about a missing child. From begining to end of the video, the news reporter discusses about what Jessica Ridgeway was doing til the miniute she went missing. There were many details on what she was wearing, what items were left of hers when she vanished, and what her mom was doing during that time span as well. They even described some controversities on who the kidnapper could be. Some people that were brought to mind were the little girl's father, because he had been fighting for custody since he and the mother of the child got a divorce not that long ago. These type of key factors give the story a type of drama, which will grasp the audience's attention better. As an audience, all these types of details could create a type of connection towards the story and could even help her be found. I also noticed that this story is constantly being updated with new information and discoveries, so the narrative bias is very strong towards this specific story.

Emily Shouse
(401 words).