Reflection

Content Reflection

Throughout the course of the research, I learned a great deal about not only this most recent election, but elections in general and election coverage. I found that even though we have come many years since that time and therefore should have seen progress, female political candidates still do face some media bias based on their gender where they should really not face such a bias. Specifically, this was seen in the numerical coverage of Harris throughout the election, as she was statistically significantly less dominant than Trump in the articles across the sample. Not only this, but Harris was numerically underrepresented for masculine issues and over represented for feminine issues when compared to Trump, which also reflects patterns of gender bias, even though this data was determined to be statistically insignificant. Moreover, I found that contrary to my initial hypothesis, Trump did actually receive more coverage of personal issues than Harris, particularly in the form of negative coverage. This reflects a broader pattern of negativity in the media, as explained in a previous study by Professor of Government and the press, Thomas Patterson. Patterson asserts that the press is trending more towards negative coverage of all political candidates, which is reflected in my research, as the most common personal trait referenced was a negative personal trait. Based on the data that I collected, it became clear to me that there is significant bias present in the media, and knowing this shifts my outlook on political media as a whole and how I get my information about elections. I will continue to use this content to inform myself and others about potential bias in the information that they are getting for future elections, and encourage people to do their own research about politicians and their policies to make more informed decisions without the possibility of outside bias being present. 

Product Reflection

From the final product, my actual presentation and paper, I learned a significant amount, specifically how to write a research paper on a humanities based topic, as well as learning how to create and present an attention grabbing and effective presentation. Previously, I have had experience in writing academic research papers, but this was in the form of scientific research, working within the APA format and not the Chicago format, the format I used for my current research. This formatting issue was a sharp learning curve, as I had to write this paper differently from any other research paper I had written before. Moreover, in formatting my presentation and working to fit this into the time limit, I had to work to decide what information was useful, relevant and attention grabbing enough for me to include in my presentation. This was incredibly useful because I often find myself being overly verbose and focusing on less important details, however by focusing on specific aspects of my research I was able to get a better grasp on my core understanding gained from my project as well as how to make information more concise for the future. All of these skills can be applied to my future learning, as in college I will likely be expected to give presentations and speak on certain issues, and in those situations I will have to be particularly conscious and weary of what I say and how essential it actually is to the project. Moreover, in writing the paper I gained a better sense of deadlines and their importance, as well as how to overcome barriers to writing such as formatting or understanding levels. Moreover, the skill to perform my own research and come up with my own methodology is incredibly important, as I intend on doing undergraduate research, so having this experience can be incredibly beneficial to me in my future research endeavours.

Process Reflection

The process of this research taught me many things about myself as a researcher and as someone who lives in the United States. The first thing I learned about myself as a researcher is that in order to get things accomplished I cannot have an incredibly spread out schedule for data collection, as things happen in my life that make it hard to stick to a light but spread out schedule. Instead, what I found works best for me during the semester is having a broader weekly goal, as opposed to a daily goal, and working as hard as I can to meet this goal whenever I have time in a week. Moreover, I  discovered that political science may be something thatI want to do more with in the future. In terms of a college degree, I will be going in a separate direction, but I have discovered that political coverage and information is something that I am very passionate about and may want to continue to talk and think about in the future. Furthermore, I also realised how susceptible people are to the media and its inherent bias, including myself. This is especially present in how the politicians are portrayed, especially in terms of their negative characteristics. I have realised that I too am a victim of overly negative media, often focusing on this portrayal of both candidates as negative or bad people rather than determining which candidate is objectively worse or better for the country. Moving forward, I will definitely be on the lookout for my own personal bias when it comes to talking about certain issues, as well as the bias of others when speaking on topics, especially politics, and especially when female candidates are involved. Moreover, I will carry the lesson I learned about myself forward into my future by continuing to look into political based issues and performing my own research.