University at Buffalo (UB)
Heidi Julien quoted in NBC story about how media handled story of 10yo and abortion
Heidi Julien, a professor of information science who specializes in digital literacy at the University of Buffalo, said even though the report was substantiated, there should be little expectations of people changing their minds.
“If you construct an identity around a particular political persuasion and a particular set of news sources, and you construct a reality that is an ‘us against them,’ kind of stance, then you can’t make space for any right or any truth on the other side,” she said, which is why casting doubt and attacking media reporting on it is such common practice among many conservative pundits. It’s easier to deny that abortion patients like the 10-year-old girl exist, she said, to justify that abortion should be “limited at all costs.”
“The bottom line is that all of us tend to operate in our echo chambers,” Julien continued. “And we tend to discount information or news that comes from political perspectives that differ from our own.”