firmly back the president but still
question some of his moves.
“Growing up in southwest
Missouri, it’s incredibly red,
which is great,” says Gunter. But a
journalist’s job is to gather facts
so that others “can voice their
opinions and have their beliefs.”
BEYOND THE BINARY:
RESOURCES FOR
DEVELOPING NEW SOURCES
AND POVS
Bursting the filter bubble
has never been so easy. A
social media favorite since its
launch in May 2016, BlueFeed/
RedFeed is a Facebook-driven
tool that offers an “at-a-
glance” look at both sides of
the political divide.
Though posts offer as much
heat as light—and some might
question what algorithm The
Wall Street Journal uses to
designate pages as “liberal”
or “conservative”— BlueFeed/
RedFeed makes comparing,
contrasting and following new
points of view easy.
The drawback: It works for
only a few selected topics,
such as immigration and
abortion. But that leaves room
for students to engineer their
own, like Wingspan editors
did.
News editor Sophia Jackson, 17,
concurs: “Before you can write a
story about politics, you have to
throw your own opinion out the
door and research the facts.”
Thanks to Sen. Roy Blunt, R-MO,
Gunter and a friend had tickets
in the blue section, in the center
of the inaugural seats and close
enough to see Trump. Arriving
early, Gunter’s friend took a
“beautiful” shot of the sun rising
over the Capitol building.
But the mood changed as
inaugural guests arrived.
“People would just boo and yell
and ask for the president instead
of listening to the people that he
had invited to speak. And I was
kind of astonished,” said Gunter.
“You’d think that the people
who were there to attend would
respect that. But that didn’t
seem to be the case.”
While there was no physical
aggression, “there were a lot of
racial slurs yelled” and negative
comments on “anything Islam
or Muslim,” Gunter said. When
Hillary Clinton appeared, “there
[were] a lot of chants directed to
her and truly being sexist, saying
‘Get that woman out’ and the ‘p’
word.”
Gunter was shocked: “As a
journalist I had known it would
be there, but being there and
seeing it and hearing it I was
not prepared for.” Yet she’s glad
she went: “In some ways, it’s
changed my viewpoint. It’s made
it more realistic.”
After the inauguration,
Wingspan editors put more
emphasis on state and national
politics. Students covered
a speech by Trump during
an August stop in nearby
Springfield, including comments
on tax reform.
A year later, “looking back, I have
no regrets [about covering the
inaugural],” said Gunter, now a
freshman at the University of
Arkansas, where she’s majoring
in international business.
“Despite my differences in belief
with our current president, I got
to be a part of history, and that
means everything.”