The Article, Media Bias And Reputation By Jesse M. Shapiro

Introduction: Media bias is a real issue. No matter what news source you are observing, everyone is going to have their own opinion about a news topic. In order to make sure that we are receiving the truth, we must make sure that we are doing our own research prior to making conclusions. My goal is to inform you about media bias so that you can learn ways to identify the truth rather than what journalists want you to believe. I also want to show you the influence that media bias has on young American teenagers.

Media has been playing a significant role in our daily lives by developing our personalities, enriching our knowledge and providing us with different sorts of information. It has a tremendous power in framing cultural guidelines and shaping political dissertation. If the information provided to the U.S. citizens is distorted, then they cannot make informed decisions on the matters of public policy. Thus, it becomes vital to the American democracy that the news media and its institutions remain unbiased, fair and accurate. Media bias happens when a media systematically and persistently emphasize one particular point of view that is usually below the standards of professional journalism. There can be various reasons for media bias, some of

It being the leading source of news since the printing press. We put our faith in the media to report accurate facts unbiasedly. Between 1983 and now the media industry has consolidated from 50 individual companies to 6. That means that though the impression given is that there are a multitude of sources to attain information, the messages being communicated are all one in the same. The limitation of media sources cause a ripple effect of limited information, allowing these companies to control the public’s perception on

The media today has become a topic of concern for many members of the general population. Am I getting a reliable source of information? Is this source withholding the truth and ameliorating a topic? If I know that the information being reported is false, how can I trust that any other information from this source can be trusted? These are several questions that a particular citizen might make on a day to day basis, and when the question of bias is thrown into the mix, an overwhelming feeling of mistrust in our media can ensue. Media sources today are siding more and more towards their viewers political views, and this creates a form of media-bias that can spread untrustworthy information out into the public. Depending on your media source,

In a general sense society derives much of their beliefs and indifferences from stories that are covered in the media. If the stories are being reported biased, how can we, as a society, see the whole picture? The author's purpose is to inform readers about the different biases that news and media sway by and to provide evidence that proves instances when these biases have weakened the validity of the reporter's story. "Journalist are like dogs-whenever anything moves, they begin to bark." (Gladstone, 2011/2013, P.25)

”The world is not responding to events in this country, but rather to the description of these events by news organizations. The key to understanding the strange nature of the response is thus to be found in the practice of journalism….” (Friedman, 2014)

The “roots” of bias in the media date back to the nineteenth century, and criticism about bias partly reflects a controversial idea about what exactly is the media’s role and purpose. Newspapers and television alike are suppose to exist to relay objective, factual information gathered and communicated by journalists and reporters.

News media has a largely, overwhelming influence on Americans in this day and age. Over the years, audiences have been exposed to various types of broadcast journalism, each with their own forms of bias to generate attention towards various topics. The audience perceive bias in news media program. An in-depth analysis of bias on opinionated news compared to non-opinionated news is key to figuring out how the news media may be sensationalizing a problem.

During this week I investigated many different news sources and different tactics they use. My research has shown the incredibly strong bias that the media has. To get a full grasp of the biases I had to use source diversity. My sources ranged from social media, to television, to web-based articles. Through my research, I discovered the effective and prevalent uses of loaded language, social media, sensationalism, bias in quotes, and the role of gatekeepers in media.

Using a “common understanding” of what liberal and conservatism means, National Review and the Progressive were chosen to be the standard of conservative and liberal media. Time and Newsweek were considered to be largely more neutral in their coverage. So, by comparing the two neutral magazines to the two partisan magazines the amount of bias could be measured (Adkins). The results found that Time and Newsweek proved to be largely centrist; however, there was a slight bias to the center-left. This finding, however, was not statistically significant and the two publications remain in the “center” range (Adkins). Other studies have shown that there is little evidence to support the notion that the media as a whole is significantly biased in one direction or the other. However, there is evidence that there is a slight liberal bias in television network news (D’Alessio). Despite these findings, 70% of Americans believe that the media as a whole are biased compared to just 55% in 2014. However, earlier findings and studies show that on a large scale there is roughly a balance between conservative and liberal media sources which refutes the idea that as a whole the media are “biased”. Instead, it is more akin to a “tug-of-war” in which each side balances each other out. So this leads to the question as to why a greater number of

In the mid-twentieth century, the news media were one of America’s most trusted institutions. The 1956 American National Election Study (ANES) found that 66% of Americans thought newspapers were fair, while only 27% said they were unfair. These views were bipartisan, with 78% of Republicans and 64% of Democrats viewing newspapers as fair. When the Roper Organization asked a similar question about network news in two 1964 polls, 71% and 61% of the public thought it was fair, while just 12% and 17% thought it was unfair. In 1973, when the General Social Survey (GSS) began regularly measuring con dence in various national institu- tions, only 15% of respondents had “hardly any” con dence in the press.

In today’s society, remaining connected and knowledgeable of current events and the newest trends is vital to staying ahead in business, education, and social standing. This information is supplied to everyone through the internet, newspapers, television, and radio. One can tune into stations such as CNN, NBC, Fox News, Al-Jazeera, and many others (“SQs of Media Outlets”). In order to meet the needs of viewers, readers, and listeners, the ideal media system would contain accurate, quick information, with a purely impartial view on the facts as they are known. However, this modern media system has not maintained an objective view, pushing opinionated and slanted reporting onto the population in order to create profit and gain customers. The exploitation of information media for personal gain has created a toxic and inaccurate present, constant in today’s society.

Throughout the course of Mass Media and Politics we have learned about how the news is made, who makes the news, why certain things are news, and how the news impacts the public. One underlying question that remains is about the bias that the news presents or if there is a bias at all. The debate about the bias in national news is a pressing one that many may not be aware of; however, its importance is crucial to our

The following is a discussion centered on further exploring bias in new media including that factors that encourages bias news sharing in new media cites, how new media platforms encourage having biased perspective when it comes to news and information and access, and the impact of new media usage in traditional news media outlets. Specific cases will be used to demonstrate the impact of new media in biased news reporting and a discussion on the implication of this continued

This paper will cover the omnipresence of media biases and their implications in three news stories from various newspapers including The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times and The New York Times through content-analysis and comparison. Matthew Gentzkow and Jesse M. Shapiro in “Media Bias and Reputation”from the Journal of Political Economy argue that media biases, distort information to make it conform with consumers’ prior [political] beliefs in order to shape reports in whatever way will be most likely to improve the reputations of media outlets [thus increasing future profits by expanding the demand for their products] (Gentzkow & Shapiro, 2006, pg. 282). Additionally, in Four Information Biases That Matter W. Lance