Sponsored by the Rhetoric Department and the President’s Distinguished Speaker Series, Vanessa Otero’s lecture on Sept. 19, 2023, focused on media literacy and navigating the various media sources in our world today.
Otero was introduced by Wabash Student Body President Cole Bergman ’24.
As Otero told Wabash students, all news is biased. It’s not the bias that is the problem, it’s the not knowing what the bias of your source is.
“I’m going to talk a lot tonight about how media content can divide and polarize us,” Otero said. “I’m going to invite you also to take a look at the kind of rhetoric that does mislead and polarize us, and see what you can do to rise up above it, develop the skills to make those connections because the more connected we are as fellow citizens, the better our society can become as a whole.”
Otero was interactive with the crowd, and asked students, faculty, and staff to raise their hand if: they visit at least one actual news website or app every day and if they visit two or more; they actually watch a TV news program every day; they listen to at least one podcast every day; and they get their news from sources like YouTube. The questions were designed to force the audience to think about where they get their news and the diversity of sources they engage with.
“At most people are consuming around 85 different types of content per day,” Otero said. “And usually, you’re consuming stuff you like, right? It’s stuff that you agree with, stuff similar to each other. You don’t typically consume news content that you hate. … The content that comes into your head directly affects how you think and how you act.”
Wabash President Scott Feller and First Lady Wendy were very interested in Otero’s points about media literacy.
Otero gave tips on how to navigate the news and engage with people who may have different viewpoints. “Be kind. When you are facing someone about a topic that is difficult and you don’t agree with their point, don’t start the conversation with ‘You’re stupid and wrong,’” she said. “Being kind usually involves asking questions, getting specific, and finding out exactly where somebody got their information.”
“Look things up together and be willing to learn something new,” Otero continued with her tips. “It can be uncomfortable, but it’s a great exercise.”
Students asked many questions during the Q&A session with Otero.
Otero visited Professor Jeff Drury's RHE 270 class, Misinformation in a Social Media Age, on Sept. 20 to discuss media bias and her media bias chart. Here, Drury (left) and Otero share a laugh before class begins.
The students were engaged and came with plenty of questions.
"The news landscape is complex, but they have the tools to discern it for themselves," she told the students.
She said of campus visits, especially to classrooms, "It's really helpful for me because I get to see what educators deal with on the frontlines every day. This is new--having tens of thousandss of sources--it is a relatively new phenomenon. I appreciated their questions. It's really helpful to come into college classes to see the generational differences."
"There are folks of all ages who struggle with media literacy," she said. "It's a different challenge for somebody who is in their 70s, compared with someone who grew up with all the different types of, the handfuls of channels. The older among us at times will just take anything that they see on TV as credible, versus a generation now that grew up with so many more channels at their disposal. With screens and access to unlimited information, it gives me a lot of hope for the future to see the discernment and the skepticism that young people display."
Otero said, "This touches everybody's lives. I always get lots of questions. These questions are particularly insightful. They are interested in how the news landscape has changed over time."
"It just shows that students are really thoughtful," she continued. "The men, and Wabash in general, have been exceptionally thoughtful about this topic. It's really gratifying to hear that."
She founded Ad Fontes Media in 2018 wth a goal to rate the news and make a positive impact on society.
As the media bias chart has grown in influence, much to to hard work and a steady focus. she said, " It goes to show that you don't have to necessarily have a particular background to make change and lead in a space. I am a thought leader in this now, because I've spent so much time over the last seven years, really deeply dissecting and studying this issue."
"I read write content with my analysts every week," she said of the ongoing efforts."How I train our analysts has evolved. When you think deeply about a subject for a long period of time, you can develop an expertise."
Studnets were very attentive.
Much of the class session was question and answer, since the students were very interested.
Nearly every student offered at least one question for Ms. Otero.
Plenty of active listening was on display.
Ad Fontes is Latin for “to the source,” because, according ot the company biography, that is the key goal: look at the source—analyze the very content itself—and rate it.
Students asked about specific examples, posed questions about how the bias chart functions, and were interested in how opinions change over time.
They were interested in potential local media bias and how that may compare with regional or national outlets.
Otero talked through the importance of time. Many local media outlets don;t have the time to tell stories in the same way as national media, so how that covrage is presented is vastly different.
If the studnts weren't asking questions, they were taking notes.
The level of detail shared with the students was impressive.
"I don't know if I've spent 10,000 hours yet," she laughed, "but we're probably getting pretty close."
Otero’s visit on campus included a lunch and Q&A with editors and staff members of The Bachelor, Wabash’s student newspaper since 1908. She talked about the creation of the Media Bias Chart, how bias impacts journalism, and provided the student-journalists with tips on how they can improve their own reporting.
Otero’s visit on campus included a lunch and Q&A with editors and staff members of The Bachelor, Wabash’s student newspaper since 1908. She talked about the creation of the Media Bias Chart, how bias impacts journalism, and provided the student-journalists with tips on how they can improve their own reporting.
Otero’s visit on campus included a lunch and Q&A with editors and staff members of The Bachelor, Wabash’s student newspaper since 1908. She talked about the creation of the Media Bias Chart, how bias impacts journalism, and provided the student-journalists with tips on how they can improve their own reporting.
Otero’s visit on campus included a lunch and Q&A with editors and staff members of The Bachelor, Wabash’s student newspaper since 1908. She talked about the creation of the Media Bias Chart, how bias impacts journalism, and provided the student-journalists with tips on how they can improve their own reporting.
Otero’s visit on campus included a lunch and Q&A with editors and staff members of The Bachelor, Wabash’s student newspaper since 1908. She talked about the creation of the Media Bias Chart, how bias impacts journalism, and provided the student-journalists with tips on how they can improve their own reporting.
Otero’s visit on campus included a lunch and Q&A with editors and staff members of The Bachelor, Wabash’s student newspaper since 1908. She talked about the creation of the Media Bias Chart, how bias impacts journalism, and provided the student-journalists with tips on how they can improve their own reporting.
Otero’s visit on campus included a lunch and Q&A with editors and staff members of The Bachelor, Wabash’s student newspaper since 1908. She talked about the creation of the Media Bias Chart, how bias impacts journalism, and provided the student-journalists with tips on how they can improve their own reporting.
Otero’s visit on campus included a lunch and Q&A with editors and staff members of The Bachelor, Wabash’s student newspaper since 1908. She talked about the creation of the Media Bias Chart, how bias impacts journalism, and provided the student-journalists with tips on how they can improve their own reporting.
Otero’s visit on campus included a lunch and Q&A with editors and staff members of The Bachelor, Wabash’s student newspaper since 1908. She talked about the creation of the Media Bias Chart, how bias impacts journalism, and provided the student-journalists with tips on how they can improve their own reporting.
Otero’s visit on campus included a lunch and Q&A with editors and staff members of The Bachelor, Wabash’s student newspaper since 1908. She talked about the creation of the Media Bias Chart, how bias impacts journalism, and provided the student-journalists with tips on how they can improve their own reporting.
Otero’s visit on campus included a lunch and Q&A with editors and staff members of The Bachelor, Wabash’s student newspaper since 1908. She talked about the creation of the Media Bias Chart, how bias impacts journalism, and provided the student-journalists with tips on how they can improve their own reporting.
Otero’s visit on campus included a lunch and Q&A with editors and staff members of The Bachelor, Wabash’s student newspaper since 1908. She talked about the creation of the Media Bias Chart, how bias impacts journalism, and provided the student-journalists with tips on how they can improve their own reporting.
Otero’s visit on campus included a lunch and Q&A with editors and staff members of The Bachelor, Wabash’s student newspaper since 1908. She talked about the creation of the Media Bias Chart, how bias impacts journalism, and provided the student-journalists with tips on how they can improve their own reporting.
How do we keep bias out of stories?
It was one of the many questions members of The Bachelor staff posed to Vanessa Otero during her recent visit to campus as part of the President’s Distinguished Speaker Series. Otero is the CEO and Founder of Ad Fontes Media and the creator of the Media Bias Chart.
There might not be a clear-cut answer to the question, especially at a place like Wabash where the average class size is 13 students, nearly 50% of students are varsity athletes, and most are involved in at least one of the more than 50 student clubs.
“It’s such a small campus,” Sam Benedict ’25, Bachelor’s editor-in-chief explained to Otero during a Q&A lunch with the newspaper staff.
“There are many times where we find a reporter’s involvements or interests overlap with the topics we are writing about,” he said. “What are some of your tips to help avoid that possible bias? What can we do to stay objective?”
The discussion comes at a time when trust in the mass media nationwide continues to decline.
A recent survey conducted by The Knight Foundation and Gallup News found that only 26% of Americans have a favorable opinion of the news media, while 53% hold an unfavorable view. Additionally, 50% say there is so much bias in the news media that it is often difficult to sort out the facts.
“In journalism and in law, the most helpful thing I ever learned was that ethics is hard,” said Otero, a former patent attorney who holds a B.A. in English from University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and a J.D. from the University of Denver. “Admitting that it’s hard, and that these conflicts of interest and mitigation of bias are not easy, that’s a good first step.”
There is no such thing as an unbiased journalist, Otero explained, just as there is no such thing as an unbiased human being.
“The fundamental thing about journalism is mitigating conflicts of interests,” Otero told the students. “And, in small communities, they’re not always avoidable. If you’re an active student —involved in Student Senate and tennis (for example)—you’re just naturally going to have that conflict of interest. What should you do, just not have that conflict of interest? No. You have to work with it.”
Otero said journalists have dealt with this issue for a long time, and one solution is to “create dividing lines.” She gave the group a couple examples of conflict of interest that happens in her own business, Ad Fontes Media.
After success of her original Media Bias Chart graphic—which rates media sources in terms of political bias and reliability—Otero founded Ad Fontes Media in 2018 to meet demand for a map to help people navigate the complex media landscape, and for comprehensive content analysis of media sources, according to the company’s website.
Today, Ad Fontes Media uses a systematic approach to content analysis in which a team of politically-balanced professional analysts examine and categorize news content. This creates data that is useful to news consumers, educators, marketers, and even publishers themselves.
Communication is key, Otero told The Bachelor, even when it’s uncomfortable.
“You have to be very clear with each other (editors and reporters on staff) and with your readers about expectations and what your purpose is,” she said. “You have to stand up and lay out what your values are as a publication. People can still criticize you and your motives, but transparency and keeping an open line of communication will make a huge difference.”
Logan Weilbaker ’25, Bachelor’s managing editor, said Otero’s visit was both enlightening and reassuring.
“I think she reinforced a lot of good practices that we have already been doing,” he said. For example, Bachelor reporters purposely try to avoid writing stories in which they have a personal interest.
There is always more room for improvement, however, when it comes to tackling bias.
As Otero advised, student-journalists must: seek out comment from diverse sources; think critically and be mindful of word choice as “writers can easily manipulate how people perceive an issue through the choice of words;” avoid opinion; and support statements with research and verifiable facts.
Benedict said he appreciated the opportunity to learn from Otero and her own experiences.
“It’s extremely helpful for us to get to talk with professionals involved in the industry,” he said. “I think all of our writers took a lot away from meeting with her.”
“She gave us additional tools,” Weilbaker added, “to be ethically-better journalists.”