Ideological Bias

In our current day and age biased media runs rampant through millions of televisions and papers in America, which provides a platform for deceptive and subversive reporting. This ongoing struggle has grown in recent years and is beginning to cultivate a fan base of one-sided thinkers. The unremitting attack on political standpoints is beginning to corrupt our political structure, calling for unjust checks and balances, and the overall downfall of our economic system.

“Media bias refers to the bias of journalists and news producers within the mass media. A political bias in journalistic reporting, in programming selection, or otherwise in mass communications media is an example of media bias.” Alleges of media bias in the United States consist of alleges of liberal bias, conservative bias, mainstream bias, and corporate bias. An array of watchdog organizations that try to find the details behind both biased reporting and unproven alleges of bias were founded to prevent this.

The first treatment is a list of tenants that the liberal and conservative ideologies maintain on specific issues. This treatment was designed because our literary review revealed that conservatives consistently perceived more media bias. Thus we inferred that the more an individual knows about ideologies (or at least on ideology in the case of conservatives), their ability to perceive media bias should be greater. Also, in an effort to ensure that those who are politically polarized do not create outliers, we asked participants to identify their personal ideology on a scale from negative three to positive three (negative three being the most liberal), to serve as a controlling factor for our experiment. Our second treatment deals with teaching people different tactics that are used to create media bias. Such as omission, word selection, and source selection. Such treatment is intended to cause participants to question how the news is being presented while viewing the news.

Media have extreme power in setting cultural guidelines and in shaping political debates. It is vital that news media, along with other news outlets, are challenged to be fair and accurate. The first step in challenging biased news coverage is documenting bias. For years, people have accused news co-operations of airing bias stories which producers and editors are still denying to this day. It is impossible for journalists not to air a story free of bias, that doesn’t mean the news is wrong or irrelevant just because it is influenced by bias. Even if a reporter tries to report a story honestly and fairly to the best of their ability, they’re still biased because human beings are biased by nature. Bias in the news is inevitable, and although

Each day in more than various states across the country, there are dozens of reporters that are investigating topics such as government waste, corruption and fraud. But they are not employed by traditional television stations and newspapers. Recent polls have shown that nearly 80 percent of Americans believe news stories are often influenced by the elite, and many others state that the media tend to favor one side of issues over another. The rise of commentary by partisan cable broadcasters, radio hosts and bloggers has blurred the lines between news and opinion in a numerous amount of people's minds, stimulating concern that slanted reporting is replacing media objectivity. At the same time, newspapers,broadcasters, and even some partisan

Scholars and researchers were under the impression that media were such a persuasive channel due to the response of consumers through presidential campaigns and elections. According to A Measure of Media Bias by Tim Groseclose and Jeffrey Milyo, based upon previous studies of media bias, most journalists are liberally biased. When researching the elections of 1992, based upon Povich reports 89% of voters voted of Bill Clinton over George H.W. Bush.(1193) “Of course, however, just because a journalist has liberal or conservative views, this does not mean that his or her reporting is slanted” (1193). One may refute the idea of political bias or slant reporting because, all of the media outlets cover elections, nominations and other political coverage. True, all outlets cover factual evidence, however it is how and the context in which the various events, and situations are

One of the easiest ways to see the influence of media bias is through the election season. Political propaganda has a major effect on potential voters during this time because of the magnitude of the event. There was a study done in 2007 that discovered that Fox News, who is known to be republican bias, had convinced 3% to 28% of their listeners to vote republican (Knight, Chiang, 2008). On the reverse side, readers of the primarily democratic Washington Post’s probability to vote democrat, increased by 8% (Knight, Chiang, 2008). What this shows is that in a

“The roots of media bias go back to the nineteenth century, and complaints about bias in part reflect a questionable idea about the media’s role and purpose: that newspapers and other dispensers of public information exist to transmit objective, factual information gleaned and communicated by credentialed professionals.” – Bruce Thornton

Most of all Americans get their news in one form or another, and with the introduction of smartphones and other technology to our daily life, receiving news has never been easier and more accessible. However, not all media outlets are equal. Many news media outlets contain bias and opinions. Some bias can be subtle, while other propaganda can be extremely obvious. Spotting the propaganda is not always easy, however it is important to know the difference between fact and opinion in order to formulate your own opinions.

In this paper I will be introducing the credible sources that will be used in my final presentation of my chosen topic, the reasons I chose these sources, and their relevance to my presentation. The topic of my paper is “How the Media Portrays Multiple Different Political Issues”. I will investigate different political issues we as a country face today and use my chosen sources to obtain a better understanding of reporting and the biases that each different network holds. I chose the topic “How the Media Portrays Multiple Different Political Issues” because this is something that affects us Americans everyday, the biases and the way a story is portrayed can affect our understanding of a topic and how we as an individual stand on a certain

Mirror mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all? Is it CBS or ABC? CNN or FOX News? Liberal bias is undoubtably an orthodox notion among consumers of mainstream broadcast journalism. For decades, Republicans have repeated a mantra alleging that the media as a whole are biased against their party and their politicians. However, with the rise of conservative talk radio and TV programming, democrats have somewhat embraced this “bias” thus, digging a deeper void between politically active audiences. This was my elementary perspective of this contentious issue. As a young college student pursuing journalism, I couldn 't help but feel obligated to understand these accusations. In order to analyze the case for liberal bias, we must conduct an empirical examination of the matter. Fundamental questions must be asked: Where is the partisanship coming from? Is the news supposed to mirror reality? Who are the determinants of political news? Why do we assume liberal bias in news media?

The emergence of new media and the rise of different forms of media outlets have greatly changed global media, providing audiences with multiple novel options for news consumption. This extremely high choice environment undoubtedly has some major implications with respect to politically charged news. Before the advent of radio, cable news channels, and most recently, the Internet, local newspapers and evening news broadcasts served as the primary outlets for political news. Moreover, the dynamics of how audiences consume -and now, even produce- media are changing, in addition to the ways in which media industries define their audiences. New media technologies at the heart of all of these changes such as print, broadcast television, cable news and even the internet give audiences increased control and increased choice over when, where, and how they consume mass media that is slowly transforming the relationship between audiences and the media. Concurrently, new technologies for measuring and monitoring audience behavior are revealing aspects of how and why audiences consume different forms of media that previously were unknown. As a result, there is a commonality to the news people consume regardless of their geographic location, issue positions, or ideological stance.

The news is one avenue that connects all individuals, regardless of identity, character, or background. The news is everywhere and is constantly impacting people, whether they are aware of it or not. However, due to this universal method of communication, not all types of news are shared or spread in the same manner. In many ways, news media must adjust their agendas in order to fulfill specific demands of a network, and of their audience. Consequently, these alterations create various effects on consumers of news. The four information biases, coined by W.L. Bennett, describe key flaws that arise in news reporting and the transmission of media. These terms are not the only ways to detect bias, however; Iris Korthagen explained how certain bias affects the actors in news stories and their impact on audiences as well. No matter how “objective” a news outlet claims to be, partialities towards one side of an argument will always be present to some degree in its reporting. After scrutinizing scholarly sources and various online material, the four information biases are evident in the creation and consumption of news media.

In United State mass media has always been known for being biased. And that’s dating back in the early 1700s. For instance, in 1798, 4 laws of Alien and Sedition Acts was passed by the Congress of U.S in which they state that “The Sedition Act made it a crime for American citizens to “print, utter, or publish… any false, scandalous, and malicious writing”. Thus, these laws straightly go against the political parties and the journalists and newspapers. Consequently, by the beginning of 1801, this act was abolished. Until the 19th century, it’s clearly that the rise of bias in mass media has never gotten any diminished. These mainstream such as CNN, BBC, NBC News, MSNBC, Daily Show, or New York Times versus Fox News, Wall Street Journal, Drudge Report or Rush Limbaugh Show still battling for their political supports, Democratic-liberals versus Republican-conservatives. Their biases are most likely to be seen in the editorial section of the newspapers. However, it’s seemed to be true that the vast majorities of mass media nowadays tend to be biased, more towards progressive-liberal values. The Gallup reveals that the polls of American’s Trust in the Mass Media has been decrease by a lot since 1997. 53% in comparison to 40% in 2013. The people confidence in television and news also dropped majorly, 46%, almost 50% in 1994 in comparison of 18% in 2014. In addition, a fewer number of Republicans believe in media to report as such “fully, accurately and fairly”. Also, we

The media plays an important role in American’s daily lives. As an apparent influencer, media shapes American’s mindsets regarding politics. Whether the outlet be TV channels, articles, social media, images, or websites, the media affects citizen’s viewpoints. Therefore, Americans, typically, trust journalists and believe the information presented by the media. Depending upon which outlet accessed, the media, unfortunately, is a bias source towards progressive- liberals and conservatives. For example, Fox News is claimed to have a conservative agenda, while CNN, NBC, ABC, and MSNBC strongly promote a liberal agenda. Deliberately or unintentionally, the media persuades American’s opinions on certain topics and political candidates. Either by distorting stories, concealing the truth, misleading headlines, or withholding information, the media is a bias source of politics.