Muslim in America – Voices

While I think that their delivery is flawed—they tend to focus on the sensational and often stray from concrete facts in favor of biased opinion—I have learned a good amount about current events involving Muslims that I would not have experienced in my daily life.

I live in a place where there is a very slim Muslim population, and so I do not see conflict or hear the perspective of people affected by the tension first-hand. I have relied on the media to receive information about what these people are facing in our country, and I think I have a pretty good knowledge of the conflicts up-to-date.

That’s not to say that I haven’t been vigilant in how I consume my news. I know that some media outlets are more biased than others, and so I make sure I keep tabs on multiple sources to get a balanced perspective. In my opinion, this is essential for understanding current events with the most accurate understanding.

While I have benefited from using the media because of my balanced approach, many people neglect to do this and ended up assuming the biased outlooks of the few sources they consult.

This is a huge problem, and while it takes vigilance on the part of the consumer to understand what’s going on with Muslims in our country, this is also a problem inherent in the media world itself.

News outlets shouldn’t make people have to go to different sources to get different facts—only differing opinions. I think it’s a problem that many news outlets tend to blur the line between fact and opinion, especially in regards to the topic of Muslims in America.