JOUR 625 Lecture Notes - Lecture 21: Hindsight Bias, Eyewitness Identification, Eyewitness Testimony

• School: Ball State University
• Department: Journalism
• Course: JOUR 625
• Professor: Robin Blom

Document Summary

There are many factors that affect an eyewitness" recollection of an event, such as the eyewitness" age, race, repetition of questions, influence of majority opinion, self-interest, and personal bias. There are potential consequences of the misunderstandings about how human memory works by referring to how journalists or the media may perceive a forgetfulness amongst a source. At times, the media considers forgetfulness and inadvertent memory distortion as intentional deceit. This shows the importance of educating journalists on the reality of what some eyewitnesses may face when trying to recall important information about an event. This will help lead to more accurate and fair reporting in general and especially with criminal justice reports. In addition, to assist journalists in producing better and more accurate news reports, journalists need to understand the roles they may play in false eyewitness recollections of reality.