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Alex Richard, Hannah Scarpace, Nick Lauscomb, Ethan Hicks
Bias in the news can easily be detected by the source, or sources that the news outlet uses. Political bias is the setting of cultural guidelines in the media and sharing those guidelines with the appropriate audience. Some simple ways to detect bias in the media is who the guest speakers or guest stars are. If a source consistently talks to liberal activists then the news platform is most likely left leaning. Another easy way to detect political bias is to spot diversity. If the source doesn’t use diversity when talking about certain subjects (for example 5 white men talking about black lives matter movement), then they are most likely going to be biased when they are arguing their points. The way you lean on the political spectrum can differ from person to person. However, it is natural to lean either conservative or liberal. Often the way you lean directly correlates to what news source you use. This is also an example of political bias. You will be more likely to believe a news story put out by your favorite source rather than the opposing source. Everyone has some sort of bias when it comes to the media, and while that is not a bad thing, it is our job to make sure the biased information stays accurate.
How-to-detect-bias-in-news-media
Why biased news doesn’t necessarily mean fake news?
Bias in news is a spectrum. If one accepts a major facet of journalism and news as the objective relay of facts, some news is very biased (Huffington Post, Breitbart, to represent far left and right examples) and some is less biased (The Associated Press, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, NPR, National Geographic). But the least biased may still take a decidedly biased stance on certain issues. Bias can appear in many different ways, while still technically reporting real news/facts. If a news source reports extensively on one issue, drawing a news-consumer’s attention to one particular agenda, reporting contextual facts that create a skewed narrative, this is a form of bias, while still being based in fact (the details reported actually happened).
Does Political Bias Affect What News Sources People watch
I believe our groups topic is extremely important in today’s political standings. As social medias such as Facebook, and Twitter grow in population, more and more, people have been turning to them for their news. These types of news outlets can be extremely biased because anybody can voice their opinions to potentially millions of people. Not all political biases are only found on social media, most are found on television. In my opinion the two biggest news sources that are poisoned by political biases are Fox and CNN News. Television is the main place Americans say they get their news from at 55%, leading the Internet at 21%. CNN and Fox News combined make up about 15% of the overall 55% of Americans who get their news on television (Gallup News, Lydia Saad). CNN has always been looked at as a very liberal bias news source, when Fox has been a republican bias news source. A survey of around 9,000 US respondents in 2003 found that 33 percent of Fox News watchers believe that weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq by October 2003, compared to 22 percent overall. These estimates imply that Fox News persuaded 11 percent of the respondents that did not previously believe that such weapons were found (http://eml.berkeley.edu/~ekaplan/wbpaper.pdf). Findings of this type suggest that exposure to the media could swing voter opinions heavily. I believe that the reason why Fox could persuade this large of a percentage was because of political bias. Without even knowing it people like to believe their opinion is correct, so for example, if you are a liberal and watch a republican bias news source such as Fox News, you probably wouldn’t be able to keep an open mind. Since these two news outlets are the biggest on television, majority of Americans get their news from sources that are bias.
Citations
Gallup, Inc. “TV Is Americans’ Main Source of News.” Gallup.com, 8 July 2013, news.gallup.com/poll/163412/americans-main-source-news.aspx.
http://news.gallup.com/poll/163412/americans-main-source-news.aspx
http://eml.berkeley.edu/~ekaplan/wbpaper.pdf
Brennan, Tola. “How To Detect Bias In News Media.” FAIR, 19 Nov. 2012, fair.org/take-action-now/media-activism-kit/how-to-detect-bias-in-news-media/.
http://fair.org/take-action-now/media-activism-kit/how-to-detect-bias-in-news-media/