7. What must we, as writers be wary of when we report on a story or event?

History is reported differently in different areas and by different groups because people tell the story as they know it. They can only relay the information that they have, themselves, heard from different sources and been able to get and different groups have axcess to certain iformation and if one groups has axcess to some information, that doesn't necessarily mean that another group will be able to get the same thing. Another reason why it may be reported differently is because of pride and respect. If something bad or 'humiliating' has happened to a country, it's reporters will try their best to defend their country by changing the truth a little bit. They will criticize the opposing parties and make their side/country seem better. However, the same thing will be happening on the other side of the issue where reporters will be bragging about their 'victory' and in the end, if you look at the two opposing side's stories, they may very well not be alike.

In my opinion, neither side actually decides who is right or wrong because both sides have their differing stories and opinions and people will support either side depending on which one they favour. Their decisions may depend on which side has the most convincing argument or which side's story actually sounds realistic. However, their decisions could also depend on which side they may be bias towards depending on their past experiences about the countries/groups. Nevertheless, a person will always have on his/her mind that the defending group/country might be making the information up because they're trying to save themselves the embarrasment and humiliation of the truth.

There are several reasons why people have differing perspectives. One of which is the way people or groups pay attention to facts. One group may pay attention to on one fact while another group's perspective might be based on something totally different. Look at the Atomic Bombings as an example, the Americans payed attention, in their argument, to the fact that the Japanese were being very brutal and barbaric in treating prisoners of war and the like but Japan didn't even mention that fact. They payed attention to the fact that there was no reason to use nuclear power against them because they were already defeated. When two sides have differing perspectives about one thing, they usually don't mention the cons about themselves but just elaborate and put a lot of emphasis on the mistakes and actions of the opposing side. Another reason why people have different perspectives is because of the way they interpret the information. One side may not pay much attention to one fact because they don't think it's important while another side may have it's whole perspective based on that fact because the reporters of that group think that it's very important

Bias is the way or form of supporting one side or a natural favouring towards one gender,country,or thing. It affects our lives in the stories we hear everyday because we only here the side and/or perspective of that certain channel, or newspaper which may convey the political stance of that country but it doesn't give you the whole story. These forms of media only give you the perspective and side of their country or to the gender, country, or thing that they are bias towards. Take CNN as a prime example. Since it is an American channel, it only conveys the message and stance of Americans and the people or groups which get their information from that channel are only getting one side of the story thus they are only able to report one side of the story.

People who report the news should definitely be wary of the different perspectives and sides of the stories. They have to use different resources to get their information so they can get the differing perspectives of the opposing sides. Some reporters fail to get the different stories and they then report those stories to other people and that's the way in which these stories spread throughout the country. The only problem with that is the people are only able to get one side of the story and they therefore jump to conclusions and take immediate actions without actually having heard the differing perspectives.

The way this assignment will affect how I form opinions about the world is that I will not always jump to conclusions after hearing just one story about an issue because where ever there's an issue, there has to be an opposing or differing side to it and unless I have heard the differing perspectives, I have no right to make conclusions about a certain country or region.

When reporting a story or an event, we, as writers should be wary of the facts and only the facts. We should not put in opinions without clearly specifying that the opinions are of the authors because information like this can be misinterpreted very quickly and spread around quite fast so we have to be cautious and also find out the differing perspectives before writing an article so we can also provide the public information about the perspectives of the opposing sides aswell.