Why I am interested in researching social media bias.

 

    Writing a research paper is something that can be hard at times with all the work that ends up coming with it but as long as one is interested in their topic one can end up finishing it quickly without a real struggle. For me social media is something that is interesting to me as well as computer software. Because of the topic I am searching up is about social media bias, if it is true or not, as well seeing if hate speech is more relevant on social media as well. They talk about using something called a BERT model that searches though all the words that are being posted to identify what kind of language is being used to identify who is the person behind the text and then it records how the algorithm is pushing out their posts because of the person behind it. That may not be all right but that is the general idea behind it. 

    It has intrigued me to see if how someone is typing for their race or someone's else's are either being shown the same or being shown less than the other because of it. I am not too sure who exactly may be interested in this topic but I can see teens being interested in how social media is working behind the scenes. If teens are not too interested in the topic I know some people who are fighting for social rights are going to be interested if this is something the companies are doing on purpose or not and will want to end it. As well as them I think the general public would enjoy reading this to know what is going on in general. Of course the people who enjoy being on social and posting on it may be interested to know what is going on with their posts and would most likely want to end the discrimination if there is any and some others in the community would want to take advantage of it and post stuff to fit the criteria.

    With all that said I think this is an interesting topic that many people would be into looking at. In recent times as well if many of the things going on the world some people would want to tear this system and put in a more refined one in the making. I personally do not think there should be a bias towards a certain race and that hate speech should not be allowed on social media since it is not to spread that type of energy around.  

Sources used:

       “Fake News And Media Bias? It's Actually Me-Bias And Most Of Us Are GuiltyIn His New Column, Trigger Warning, Social Commentator David J Swift Suggests Those Who Embrace Alternative Facts Can't Handle the Truthby David J Swift.” Mountain Journal, mountainjournal.org/those-who-embrace-alternative-facts-can-not-handle-the-truth.

    Mozafari, Marzieh, et al. "Hate speech detection and racial bias mitigation in social media based on BERT model." PLoS ONE, vol. 15, no. 8, 2020, p. e0237861. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A633690359/OVIC?u=ggcl&sid=OVIC&xid=e71698ec. Accessed 22 Oct. 2020.