Catalonia was an interesting news story to cover, particularly because of its European implications. “The Guardian” newspaper, “Sky News” channel and “Aljazeera.com” are three distinct platforms I selected to monitor. This is mainly because of their reputation and political dissimilarities. These UK-based media platforms were expected, in such a case of Catalonia, to report this story in depth. My analysis of the coverage will follow the chronological order of these platforms, which is the same historical appearance of newspapers, television and Internet. This may also facilitate how we understand the strengths and weaknesses of each medium in covering this Spanish crisis. “The Guardian” is centre-left and favoured among Labour Party …show more content…
Even the space for his speech was very short (4th October). On the other hand, the Guardian included a picture of a pro-Spain rally in Barcelona and quoted from Spanish leaders. Bias, if it was so, can be also seen in attributing ordinary Catalan people, which were divided over independence. Even when the correspondents quoted what a pro-Spain thinks in page 4 (2nd October), it was a woman that changed her position to support the independence because she was pulled out by the police. “Sky News”, which is described as a pro-conservative according to the media blog (2010), treated the event quite differently. For instance, the report in “Sky News at 10” (2nd October) included a sound-bite of a pro-Spain Catalan to balance the news story. This may reflect impartiality in this outlet coverage, but it is not easy to say so. In this report and others, the correspondents insisted on the division of Catalans, which “The Guardian” ignored in the background. The report reminded the viewers that although the Catalan authorities declared that 90% of voters supported the independence, only 40% voted in that referendum. This statement of an interesting fact can communicate the story clearly to the audience. The focus of reports was on protests and police violence; however, the Correspondent’s report from Barcelona in “Sky News at 11” (3rd October) included a sound-bite of the Spanish king speech. Although
Now I realise it seems a bit hypocritical of me to attack the media’s representation of a news event when I myself am a part of the hype-generating circus we call mass media. However, the voice of my wise, high-school English teacher echoes in my subconscious that we should always be critical of the texts we consume and conscious of the
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)
There were some complaints that some reporters and journalists covering the campaign were favoring some candidates, which stemmed from the media’s more focus on a particular candidate while not reporting about the other candidate. This report also reflected on other cities and media’s coverage of the campaign. Complaints against inappropriate or biased reporting by the media during elections are not uncommon. Reporters and journalists are voters and are human – they will side with whoever they think should win in the election. Nevertheless, most reporters and journalists are not like that as they take aside vested interests in the name of journalism values they have vowed to
This article considers the concepts in arguing that mainstream media bias exists. Exists and presents, in message and content, an essentially biased product, in direct opposition of their industry standards declaration of impartiality and neutrality. In an effort to establish meaning and prepare the reader this article applies the definition of bias as applied by Grosclose and Milyo, whose paper “A Measure of Media Bias” which was published in the Quarterly Journal of Economics in November of 2005 and is still relevant today;
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.
The article highlights the increased polarization many countries (especially Spain) are seeing between political ideologies and parties. Without any sort of agreement, compromise, or coming together, Spain will have to let chance take control again and go through another election process. To someone studying the politics of Spain, it will be interesting to see if a person or party will act as a unifying force, one that can get a government established that will start focusing on some of the problems its people are facing.
When discussing whether or not a news source is biased, what “unbiased” news looks like needs to be established. In order to evaluate whether or not bias exists, there needs to be an objective news source that would serve as a comparison; however, finding this objective news source proves to be a problem and that problem lies within the subjective nature of bias (Alessio). This means that there is no clear consensus as to what constitutes bias or not. For example, some studies have shown that there is a liberal media bias due to a greater proportion of liberal journalists and anchors while others have shown a conservative bias due to the fact that news corporations are businesses and that business aspect predispositions the news towards conservatism (Alession). Also, consumers of media are also more likely to perceive bias when introduced to media that ran in opposition to their own position (Eveland). This stems from the fact that people’s notions and personal biases often make-up their own reality and any deviation from it is automatically is rejected as “biased.” However, according to D’Alessio and Allen, there are certain tangible properties of bias that can be applied to help determine if a source is biased. Firstly, the bias must be intentional, influential, threatening to common
News are more than just facts and information, it is knowledge that affects a human’s life by helping them stay up-to-date. News have the influence to communicate and aid an individual's outcome on how to make decisions. With that being, in today’s society there are thousands of media outlets around the world. Despite that media plays a major role in one’s life, often times publishers revise the truth and intertwine the event which ultimately has a major impact on the perspective and opinions that people possess as they get manipulated by these news outlets.By examining the event of the September 11 attacks (9/11) from the perspective of “The Guardian” and “The Los Angeles Times”, one can determine the similarities, differences, and the “truth”
The focus of the workshop was newspapers and their content such as reports and editorials. We identified the editorial line of a newspaper and looked at how the editorial is a letter written by the editor and how it can demonstrate different opinions. We looked at letters to the editor and how they were used as primary sources. We discovered as they are written by readers discussing issues, they help provide a useful insight on people’s concerns. We debated the benefits of newspapers such as that they give us a snapshot of peoples perceptions at the time. Limitation of using newspapers are that they are biased and generally contain propaganda.
Using material from Item C and elsewhere, assess the view that the selection and presentation of the news ‘is inevitably partial and biased’ (Item C, lines 13–14). (18 marks) (June 2011)
Today's media has displayed countless ways they show media bias. Many channels have depicted a different side to one story and base information on a political party in which the channel supports. Each news source has one goal, and that is to state what will make the chosen party to have a good platform for the public to see. In the series of events that have occurred recently one can see how different news sources have pushed for what each channel believes is the main point needed to be crossed and have shared beliefs in either a liberal or conservative way.
To understand what state the modern media system is in, one must firmly understand what bias is. Media bias is present “when a political belief or commercial interest distorts the level of reporting” (“Media Bias” 1). If a political station provides positive or accurate information to only one side, then the station can be considered biased. Another form of bias is known as sensationalism. Sensationalism is the creation of panic or fear by over-reporting or over-inflating individual news stories, often blurring facts or reporting speculation as facts. A modern and familiar example of media
According to Mark Weisbrot’s article, Denis MacShane, a British former Labour Party politician, attacked the British left in 2009 for defending Hugo Chavez and his new potential media policies. Denis Macshane quotes that the new media policies would, “impose prison sentences of up to four years for journalists whose writings might divulge information against “the stability of the institutions of the state(The Guardian).” The author agrees with the fact that the new policy is detrimental to Venezuela, however, he clearly states that this is nothing new, as there are already a number of bad laws on the books in the country. Weisbrot also goes on to say that Macshane's comments are deceptive because it does not truly represent the nature and state of press freedom in Venezuela(The Guardian). The author states there is both more diversified range of debate in media and oppositional media in Venezuela than the U.S(The Guardian). According to the article, the everyday commentary and reporting in media broadcasts would not be allowed under FCC rules in the
This source is a printed collection of works discussing the pros and cons of a biased media. It evaluated both areas equally however I found that the objective parts of the article were the most compelling. The article overall was unbiased and well balanced since it never took a side. I found many credible sources from the article that helped me pose a persuasive argument to demonstrate that every journalist should be objective. However further research was needed for I realized the article didn’t focus on the major disadvantages our current media layout has brought us.
The newspapers in the United Kingdom tend to take a partisan line in their reporting. According to Michael Schudson (2001,165) the concept that a journalist should be objective is relatively new and cannot be applied identically to all countries and contexts. 24, mass media politics ) He argues that the need to be objective as a journalist is felt more strongly in the UK than in countries such as Germany or China. There is an obvious distinction between what each citizen would choose to read about. The middle class and business sector have a preference for the ‘free market’ policies such as privitisation, disposal of the welfare state, trade