Listen Here
By Kendall Westgate, WestgateK@Findlay.edu
Fleeing from poverty and violence, hundreds of thousands of Haitians have migrated to the United States, with about 15,000 moving to the Springfield, Ohio area. Springfield, Ohio is about two hours away from the University of Findlay, so many UF students grew up in Springfield.
“I don’t live in downtown Springfield so I haven’t directly been impacted too much by immigration in Springfield,” Grant Goodfellow said. “However, I have seen that there seems to be more homelessness and poverty. I haven’t had any direct negative interactions with any immigrants.”
New stories are posted daily regarding the issues with Springfield. Earlier this week, the city of Springfield had to cancel their Downtown CultureFest and all sporting events at Wittenberg University due to bomb threats.
Wittenberg University published on their website on Sept. 16, 2024 that all classes and operations will be delivered remotely through Sept. 22, 2024 due to the ongoing threats.
National news outlets have descended on Springfield looking for the real story. The City Manager posted a video on Facebook Addressing the national attention. But others have club to the rumors about the debunked idea that legal Haitian immigrants are stealing pet cats and dogs to eat. Professor of Media and Communication Dr. Diana Montague says it’s important to know which stories are coming from a reputable source.
“Media literacy is critical in this situation because people are repeating falsehoods that are not only inaccurate, but they are also dangerous. The inaccurate claim that people are eating pets in Springfield, repeated at the presidential debate Tuesday (Sept. 10), has brought negative national attention to that community,” Professor of Media and Communication Dr. Diana Motague said. “People repeat rumors out of fear, ignorance, and often confirmation bias. Some of the worst, most inaccurate and hateful information gets published on social media sites, and then people share millions of times without checking its veracity or considering the impact those lies will have.”
During the presidential debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump made a claim stating that the immigrants in Springfield ate dogs and cats. Due to this, many schools in Springfield had no school due to bomb threats.
“I have heard the rumors; all of America has at this point and to be quite honest they were going around well before Trump said things during the debate,” Camden Perkins said. “I think that until I see full proof of such a thing happening, specifically in Springfield, I have yet to believe that the rumors are true and don’t believe any of them. I don’t know if that is even common in the Haitian culture as I am uneducated but to my knowledge, none of it has been going on here.”
While the rumors regarding immigrants eating dogs and cats, many think this is taking the light away from the actual issue at hand.
“I have heard rumors about immigrants eating dogs and cats recently. I haven’t seen any concrete proof of anything so I am not really paying much attention to those rumors,” Goodfellow said. “I think these rumors are distracting from the real issue, which is that it doesn’t seem like the city of Springfield has the resources to support a rapidly increasing population of immigrants. I think people should focus on trying to find solutions instead of making the situation more problematic.”
Dr. Montague stated that social media sites are not journalism, so most information will come out as biased. Reading from multiple, standards-based journalism outlets can ensure believable, reputable information.
“There are many good fact-checking sites such as factcheck.org, politifact.com and snopes.com that you can use to see if information is true or has been proven false,” Dr. Montague said. “Many professional news organizations have their own fact-checking departments as well. People can use reverse-image sites to find out when and where a photo was first published, or if it is an image that has been altered.”
