Dr. Berg and his father.

Regardless of which team you supported yesterday, Michigan State University’s defeat over the University of Michigan provides a valuable teaching opportunity for reinforcing critical thinking skills.

First, there is the issue of author bias. I teach that all authors have a bias with which they approach material. I make the distinction that “author bias” is very different from “biased authors” whose intent is to deceive.

A great example of author bias can be heard in how the University of Michigan and Michigan State University reported the last 10 seconds of the game. Neither set of announcers were being deceitful, but their bias did show. As Timothy Burke explains in his “MSU’s Miracle Win Over Michigan, As Called by Each Team’s Home Radio Announcers,” the final 10 seconds of the game “left Michigan State’s radio announcers on WJR in ecstasy; it left the Wolverines’ announcers on WTKA despondent.” He includes clips in his article to support his argument.

When my friend and former Michigan State Spartan marching band member, Sally Webb Eilersen, recommended Burke’s article on Facebook, she began her comment “This is fun.” It will be fun to listen to these two broadcasters with my students who will still be talking about the game tomorrow. More importantly, listening will help students better understand the confusing concept of author bias.

Second, there is the difficulty of getting students to appreciate the necessity of broad based reading and consulting multiple sources. Another article written by Timothy Burke demonstrates the danger of a single source. As Burke recounts, Jamal Spencer reported on live television that the University of Michigan was victorious. After his error, Spencer tweeted “Not the first time I’ve made a mistake in my career and it won’t be the last. Gotta take the bad with the good.” Spencer was not trying to deceive his audience, but even good reporters—like good academics—make mistakes.

I watched most of yesterday’s game with my father, but had to leave for home at the beginning of the fourth quarter. As I drove home, I listened to the game on my car radio. But what if I had waited until I arrived home before checking only Spencer’s live braodcast? I would have gone to bed thinking that my favored team had lost to the University of Michigan with a final score of 23-21.

This brings me to the third lesson we can learn from yesterday’s game. When I started my drive home, I scanned the radio dial until I found a station reporting on the game. I soon discovered that I was listening to WTKA and quickly grew tired of hearing the announcers talk about “our” team each time they mentioned the University of Michigan. After scanning the dial again, I found the WJR station where the announcers identified “our” team—the team my father and I supported—as Michigan State.

Deciding to listen to the WJR sports announcers who shared my bias concerning the outcome of a single football game is harmless enough. However, creating an echo chamber for ourselves where we only listen to those who already support our positions causes confirmation bias that negatively impacts our work as academics and as citizens in a participatory democracy.

After tomorrow’s lesson, I trust that my students will agree with my friend that “This is fun” as well as educational.

–Steven L. Berg, PhD