Mass Media Bias Analysis

In today’s politics, gun control is a big argument. The anti-gun advocates wants more gun control laws. The gun advocates side wants less gun control sides. They believe guns symbolize freedom and will help kept themselves safe. Anti-gun advocates believe stricter gun control laws will insure public safety and reduce the number of guns in irresponsible hands. As a way to help persuade people to become pro or anti-gun advocates, people write articles on gun control. Think Concealed Carry Makes You Safe? Think Again is an article about concealed carriers not being able to protect themselves. Texas Concealed Handgun Carries: Law-abiding Public Benefactors is an article about the change in arrest rates since Texas allowed citizens to carry concealed firearms.

After the school shooting in Newtown, CT, had made a deep impact because of the victims were children in elementary school. The proof that no one was truly safe had caused an uproar on a complete ban on guns and stricter laws. In Seitz-Wald’s article, “The Answer Is Not More Guns,” at the beginning the statements of Larry Pratt, executive director of Gun Owners of America, in response to the Sandy Hook incident. He writes, “Pratt said this weekend that ‘gun control supporters have the blood of little children on their hands’ for preventing law-abiding citizens from bringing guns into schools” (Seitz-Wald). The blaming of a group of people who are seeking more control of guns are the reason that the shooting was as bad as it turned out is far-fetched. To make a hasty generalization of a group of people because they made it more difficult to protect the children is completely unfounded. According to the book, “Everything’s an Argument,” defines hasty generalization as “an interference drawn from insufficient evidence. It also forms the basis for most stereotypes about people or institutions” (p.80). In the article, “The Case for More Guns (and More Gun Control),” written by Goldberg provides the one point of view that not many people can truly understand the victim. He interviews Stephen Barton, survivor of the movie theater shooting in Aurora, CO,

Gun control is a debate that has escalated dramatically in recent years. The Second Amendment states “to the United States Constitution protects the right of individuals to keep and bear arms.” , but at what point is that line crossed where it is questioned whether we are allowed to bear arms or not? Mark Follman, a writer for the LA times, wrote an article “America 's mass-shootings epidemic” that talks about how mass murders have been escalating over the past decades. This article is geared towards readers between the ages of twenty to fifty because of the use of statistics that appeals to this age group who are mainly set out to redeem fact. Heidi Yewman, a writer for USA Today, wrote an article “Don 't 'like ' Facebook 's gun solution: Column” about how Facebook does not take caution when online weapon exchanges occur. This article is geared more towards an eighteen to thirty year old audience because of the editor’s use of trying to relate to her reader. Mark Follman’s article is logos-driven because he uses facts that he has collected in order to show his reader how mass murders have escalated. Heidi Yewman’s article is more ethos-driven because her use of herself as examples to support her writing.

The overwhelming amount of evidence for both arguments indicates that the target audience for this article would be individuals who feel it is time to be well informed to make a assessment about whether gun laws should or should not continue going the way they are. The Kairos in this article further backs that statement in the first sentence about, “when Gov. Jerry Brown of California signed legislation this month banning concealed weapons on school campuses, the nation was in the midst of one of the worst spasms of gun violence at colleges in recent years” (Nagourney and Turkewitz, 1). Nagourney and Turkewitz are showing the broad-spectrum audience what is being done in reaction to these travesties that keep transpiring.

It is important that news broadcasting networks do not let personal bias effect the story that’s being told to its audience. People who watch the news, opinions are heavily influenced by the information given to them. Viewers think their opinion is original but are unaware that the information they receive is biased and is meant to influence and form their opinions about a certain topic or argument. Many believe that the news is unbiased and factual because journalist or experts are providing them with evidence.When, in fact, these news outlets are filled with producers, reporters, and writers, who share the same viewpoints. This is groupthink and groupthink is very prominent in news broadcasting networks. Groupthink is when a group of people who share the same ideologies make decisions as a group. In an interview with Fox Business’s John Stossel, Bernie Goldberg explains that groupthink effects the viewer because like-minded people at news networks only show the audience one-side of an argument or story because of their personal opinions on a the topic. This means that news

Zelizer. Zelizer explains the recent tragic Parkland school shooting and leans off into liberal persuasion to Congress for stricter gun laws. Sometimes Congress debates the gun control laws in different countries and how effective they have been, and the outlook on homicides and mass shootings. “Occasionally, Congress debates legislative proposals to address the national gun problem. Some legislators point out how effective regulations have been in other countries as well as in some states” (Zelizer 1). Clinton was one of the first presidents to successfully place through regulations on guns. However, with one-third of the United States population owning guns, problems occurred. “Clinton sent a letter to hunters urging them to support the measure. As someone who had been hunting since he was twelve, Clinton wrote, ‘I know the difference between a firearm used for hunting and target shooting and a weapon designed to kill people’” (Zelizer 4). Nevertheless, the gun control movement finally passed through. “Signed into law in September 1994, the legislation made it illegal to manufacture, transfer or possess numerous categories of assault weapons and established a ceiling on high-capacity magazines” (Zelizer 5). Even today in 2018, the gun control movement continues to grow with rising violence in the United States. “The positive news in 2018 is that there has been growing pressure from the public for Congress to do something about guns. Polls show that a majority of the country supports renewed restrictions on certain kinds of assault weapons. There are also more states, such as Connecticut, with a proven track record showing that regulations can work” (Zelizer

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.

"You can 't move past it. You can 't sweep it under the rug," expresses a surviving Sandy Hook School teacher. "We have to honor the horror by paying tribute to what happened, what people went through and what it was like for everyone" (Blickley, 2016). The brutal murder of twenty beautiful children and seven brave adults at Sandy Hook elementary school was a tragic event that shook, not only, Newtown, Connecticut, but the whole nation to its very core. However, this grievous crisis was not the first of its kind; since 1999, there have been over 130 shootings at schools. Moreover, the last thirty years, there have been an additional sixty-two mass shootings (each leaving at least four dead). This leaves no room to question the necessity for gun rights reform (as cited in Stinebrickner, pg. 67 CITE). Therefore, America published an editorial titled "Repeal the Second Amendment." The primary purpose of this article is to call for an examination of the implications, advantages, and (potential) consequences associated with the second amendment. Based off of increased mass shootings, extensive research, and keen observation of how other countries have managed the gun crisis, "Repeal the Second Amendement" determines there ought to be increased gun restrictions.

The author makes several main claims throughout his articles such as, “national news stories are virtually never done on permit holders stopping mass public shootings,” and “the proposals put forward by gun control advocates wouldn’t have stopped this attack.” The columnist firmly believes in the power of the second amendment and as such, he wants to limit the amount of new laws that control how much the people can hold and use weapons. The claims listed are claims of fact and policy respectively. He gives several examples of how these different prevented mass shootings were not widely advertised and how the ones that were not stopped were all over news stations to convince people that guns are not helping the common people. The author then proposes that the changes that gun control advocates propose will not make a difference and begins to give reasons why which makes this a claim of policy. He says that making a change will not make any change so the laws should be left the same as they are now, or they should be more inclusive to allow more people to carry a concealed weapon.

Charles W. Collier’s article, “Gun Control in America: An Autopsy Report”, dives into the controversial topic of gun ownership and gun control in the United States. He uses recent shootings, including the George Zimmerman case and the Connecticut elementary

Will gun control really put a stop on school shootings or is that just a fluke? A school shooting for anyone who does not know is a form of mass shooting involving a gun attack on an educational institution, such as a school or university. The U.S. Secret service defines them as shootings where schools are "deliberately selected as the location for the attack". The question is, are guns the problem or is it immoral people? Gun control is define as one of the most controversial and emotional issues in many countries, with the debate often centring on whether regulations on an individual's right to arms are an undue restriction on liberty and whether there is a correlation

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

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

If one were to wonder about the most critical fact about bias in the media is, Tim Groseclose answers: in the average presidential election, only seven percent of news correspondents to Washington vote for the Republican candidate, with the rest overwhelmingly voting for the Democratic candidate. A famous study that supports this was done in 1995 by Elaine Povich, who works at the Media Research Center’s Freedom Forum. Povich was also a reporter for the Chicago Tribune and Newsday. In her study, she surveyed one hundred and thirty-nine chiefs of the Washington Bureau, as well as congressional correspondents. Only seven percent of them said they had voted for George H.W. Bush over Bill Clinton. In 2004, columnist from the New York Times John

Argument toward certain topics began because the bias found in the mass media. According to University Wire, “[the media is the main reason why we’re]politically divided because the fundamental flaw in our mass media system is that we have two sides.” What two sides are we talking about? We’re talking about the democrats and republicans or in other words, liberal and conservative sides. Liberals are those who believe in changes and conservative are those who believe in traditional values. What is responsible for causing the nation to fall apart? Mass media. The three powerhouse in media are Fox News, MSNBC and CNN, they tend to be bias in their news reports. When the media give biased news, certain viewers tend to go along with what the