I am a 19-year-old college student, attending DVC, living in Concord, California. In this most recent presidential election, I was finally of age to vote. I want to bring awareness to the destruction of only hearing a biased source can do in elections. I have been aware of prior elections, but could never voice my opinion as I was too young. But it has come to my attention that not everyone has heard news from both sides of the bias like me.

According to Harvard’s Library Guide, they studied over 7000 news sources and placed them on an axis of where they leaned politically. While many are not aware of this chart, it can support people wanting to know the reliability and bias of the news sources they support.

In this most recent election, disinformation and preconceived notions were major supports to the problems of viewing only one news source. Through social media, adults and children are fed an algorithm based on their beliefs. Due to this, stories of Haitian immigrants, lack of hurricane relief, inflation due to Biden, and false claims of immigrants voting diswade those viewers from supporting Harris and Walz.

In times like this, there is an urge to push more unbiased and reliable news. As the country becomes more divided,  so does the news. With social media, AI, and the spread of disinformation, more than ever we need to expose US citizens to both arguments to become a united country once again. Below I have included a link to the Harvard Library Chart that people can access to learn more about where different sources fall.

Sincerely,

Kaitlyn McNevin