Detecting Media Bias
- Submitted by: mattinator123
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- Category: English: Creative Writing
- Date Submitted: 02/08/2014 07:59 PM
- Pages: 2
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Detecting Media Bias
Media have tremendous power in setting cultural guidelines and in shaping political discourse. It is essential that news media, along with other institutions, are challenged to be fair and accurate. The first step in challenging biased news coverage is documenting bias. Here are some questions to ask yourself about newspaper, TV and radio news. Political coverage often focuses on how issues affect politicians or corporate executives rather than those directly affected by the issue. For example, many stories on parental notification of abortion emphasized the "tough choice" confronting male politicians while quoting no women under 18 those with the most at stake in the debate. Economics coverage usually looks at how events impact stockholders rather than workers or consumers.
The first article that I came across when I did a search for national politics was one done by fox news, but since I have a bias against fox news I decided not to go with that one because I was not sure I could remain objective. The reason for my bias against them is that they have a reputation for having a particular political bias and I didn’t want that opinion to hinder my review of the article. Instead I have chosen to go with an article from The New York Times politics page entitled “9 Swing States, Critical to Presidential Race, Are Mixed Lot”. The reporting was clear and concise with plenty of depth and insight about the nine swing states for the presidential race: Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin. While the story did not consider alternative perspectives or worldviews it did report some very interesting facts without making assumptions. All political implications of which candidate could get the swing states were emphasized and I don’t feel that anything was ignored, but I do feel that the writer showed a little bit of disrespect to our president. Before President Obama I have never seen a...
Media have tremendous power in setting cultural guidelines and in shaping political discourse. It is essential that news media, along with other institutions, are challenged to be fair and accurate. The first step in challenging biased news coverage is documenting bias. Here are some questions to ask yourself about newspaper, TV and radio news. Political coverage often focuses on how issues affect politicians or corporate executives rather than those directly affected by the issue. For example, many stories on parental notification of abortion emphasized the "tough choice" confronting male politicians while quoting no women under 18 those with the most at stake in the debate. Economics coverage usually looks at how events impact stockholders rather than workers or consumers.
The first article that I came across when I did a search for national politics was one done by fox news, but since I have a bias against fox news I decided not to go with that one because I was not sure I could remain objective. The reason for my bias against them is that they have a reputation for having a particular political bias and I didn’t want that opinion to hinder my review of the article. Instead I have chosen to go with an article from The New York Times politics page entitled “9 Swing States, Critical to Presidential Race, Are Mixed Lot”. The reporting was clear and concise with plenty of depth and insight about the nine swing states for the presidential race: Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin. While the story did not consider alternative perspectives or worldviews it did report some very interesting facts without making assumptions. All political implications of which candidate could get the swing states were emphasized and I don’t feel that anything was ignored, but I do feel that the writer showed a little bit of disrespect to our president. Before President Obama I have never seen a...