There are many controversial topics this day in age in the political world. One of these controversial topics are the rights of the members of the LGBTQ community. The liberal side of the spectrum tends to support these rights, where the conservative side tends to be less accepting (although this does not apply to every individual that identifies as a liberal or conservative). I am probably a little bit bias on the topic, given that I am gay, but I am not here to talk about whether they should or shouldn’t have certain rights.
Recently, our new President, Donald Trump, has revoked the transgender bathroom guidance in schools. Former President, Barack Obama, made it acceptable to use the restroom for the gender in which the student identified with. The transgender community saw this as a huge win. Knowing that Fox News was a conservative based news source, I checked their website for what they had to say on the topic, and how they wrote about it. I did not see too much of a bias in their article,Trump administration revokes Obama-era transgender bathroom guidance for schools. They stated their facts for the most part, and showed views on both sides of the story.
CNN is widely known as a democratic news source, so I headed over to their website to see how they published this new event. I immediately saw the tactic they used to draw people in. The title of the article was, Caitlyn Jenner to Trump: 'This is a disaster’. Caitlyn Jenner is very well know for being transgender, (formerly Bruce Jenner), so I did not even have to read the article to know that it was going to be about this issue. The article primarily focused on Caitlyn’s tweets, saying “Republicans need help understanding LGBTQ issues and I'm here to help!” and “Well @realDonaldTrump, from one Republican to another, this is a disaster. You made a promise to protect the LGBTQ community. Call me.”. The second tweet also had a video attached to it, telling transgender kids that they are winning and calling out the bullies for preying on the week. It is clear that she and CNN and taking the emotional route on delivering and reacting to the revocation of these transgender rights. Using the emotional route is a great way to persuade people because people usually react on emotions first rather than facts. Not only did they use emotion, but they used a celebrity name that many people know to draw people into their article to begin with. People want to hear what celebrities have to say, so this is another persuasive tactic that they used.
To be quite honest, I did think that Fox News would have been more opinionated about the topic. They did not particularly use a lot of emotion in their writing, staying relatively close to the facts and storyline. I would say that they were a little cold on the topic. I expected CNN to be more emotional on the topic, and they met my expectations. They also used Caitlyn Jenner as the focus of their news story to get more people to read the article. I’m sure there are more right or left leaning news sources, but I figured these websites were the most trustworthy and most well-known.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/02/22/trump-administration-revokes-obama-era-transgender-bathroom-guidance-for-schools.html
http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/23/politics/caitlyn-jenner-trump-transgender-trnd/index.html
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/02/22/trump-administration-revokes-obama-era-transgender-bathroom-guidance-for-schools.html
http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/23/politics/caitlyn-jenner-trump-transgender-trnd/index.html
This is one of those issues where the debate seems to have diverged away from the actual consequences of legislation. Yes, it's true that this story has centered on the narrative of whether the Trump administration had "removed" protections for trans-students; but that would only be the case if the Obama administration policies amounted to "protections" which were then "removed" by this president.
ReplyDeleteCaitlyn Jenner's involvement in this issue is certainly an indication of public attention to this matter. Jenner describing the order as "a disaster" adds a lot of emotion without any additional understanding. Would Jenner have similar opinions regarding other criteria that schools must follow to qualify for federal funding? The sort of discourse that occurs over Twitter isn't anything that could be described as persuasion as much as "generating publicity."
Be careful of applying preconceptions to different networks. Try to resist the assumption that what gets reported on Fox represents one side but what gets reported on CNN is the other. It's certainly true that each news outlet leans its own way, but it would be a mistake to suggest that each news outlet is the source of the competing narratives. Instead, each outlet reflects an agenda and perhaps highlights a particular perspective, but they do not create the narratives.
That said, would you suggest that this is a debate about how the federal government protects students? Or is it about how the federal government funds schools? Be careful of highly politicized statements like how Obama "made it acceptable" for students to use certain bathrooms. The backlash which has accompanied the executive orders from this president clearly indicates that an executive order does not automatically determine what is "acceptable" in any situation, right? Sometimes the real debate is over what the debate is really about...
Good stuff here, but you need to go deeper. Let me know how I can help.
Dr. Ron,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your valuable feedback. You bring up a good point when you say “Sometimes the real debate is over what the debate is really about”. The two sides could be fighting over two different things. In the eyes of the left wing, this is a fight about how Trump is stripping the transgender community of their new privilege of using the bathroom that they identify with, and how the government is not providing a safe learning environment for them. The main point is that the democrats are seeing transgender students’ safety and privacy getting taken away from them. They are not looking at how others may feel about sharing a bathroom with an individual that was not born with the sex that they identify as. After watching videos on Facebook, not that the social network is a credible source of news, I saw a lot of opinions of the right wing conservatives. These may have been extremist options, but many people who identify themselves as republican see the right to use whatever bathroom you identify with as a transgender student is dangerous to the other students. Not only do they feel this way with schools, but any other public restroom. They believe that if the government offers this privilege to transgender students, sexual predators will take advantage of it and identify themselves as transgender to get into the opposite sex’s bathroom. This theory goes beyond schools, but it is certainly a possibility that they can see it happening in schools as well.
I do believe it could also be a fight over how the government funds schools. Democrats would definitely support this cause for transgender students. Most would have no problem with using the governments money to make sure that every student, transgender or not, feels comfortable using the bathroom at school. Republicans tend to be more conservative in the way that they think the government should spend its money. They may see extracurricular activities being cut from schools, like arts programs, and not react well to the government funding these new policies. They may have the mentality that if the government can fund a new policy for a small portion of the student population, then they could definitely afford after school activities for everyone, rather than just benefiting that small group of people.
Democrats and republicans have two very different mindsets, so it hard to reach agreements on some things. My mom is republican, and would always tell me that if a republican took you fishing, they would give you the tools you need to catch the fish, but they wouldn’t catch it for you, implying that democrats just fix things for everyone without them learning how to do it. In this situation, though, there is nothing really for transgender children to change. They are the way they are, and they can’t fix school policies on their own. They authors of these articles are just framing the way that the article is perceived, whether it is a good light or bad light.
This post represents a solid understanding of how folks in different ideological "camps" might understand conflicts in dramatically different ways. Consider how those different arguments might be framed or what sort of evidence would be most appropriate in each - because those things wouldn't be the same.
ReplyDeleteRemember that our project is not about evaluating which of those "very different mindsets" you believe or support; rather, the goal here is to hone your capacity to recognize the strategies and tactics used by advocates for their respective positions. You mention how peripheral issues, like funding for the arts, might be conflated with this issue as a way of broadening the appeal of certain points.
I think your mother's metaphor is an interesting aphorism to sum up the philosophies of the two political parties. You describe transgender children as being completely without agency - requiring specific help from sympathetic leaders to "fix" a situation which is assumed to be oppressive. Consider that your scenario also presumes that the leaders who are in the best position to "fix" the situation are those at the federal level - which is certainly one of the points in dispute here. Be careful to remain objective as an analyst. Your opinions are as valid as anyone's; but our goal here is to identify and examine persuasive strategies, and not the moral quality of any particular position.
Good stuff here! Let me know how I can help!