Media Bias: A Theoretical Analysis

The author is the David S. and Ann M. Barlow Professor of Political Economy and

The discourse community of broadcast journalists is a broad community, but can be narrowed down to smaller groups. As a discourse community journalist come in as novices, but carry the opportunity to ascend in their profession, to become an anchor for a national news network. The fundamental goal of journalists is to educate the public with events that take place daily, both domestically and internationally. With this fundamental goal at hand, news networks run astray, to where they begin to host biased opinions, with means to draw in a certain audience. These biases are presented by the networks reflect a political bias, religious bias, and social bias that can impact the facts of the story

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 is a long-standing debate in the media biz over whether the news outlets should give the public what it wants, or what it needs. This debate presupposes that the media execs actually know what it wants or needs. And that there is actually a unitary ‘public.’

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

Now a days people run to media for answers on current events and expect information to be accurate, but yet do the people know that almost all media news reports are bias. Often times people run to news channels that give out information they want to hear based off the media’s beliefs. The media has always been bias, but it wasn’t until certain events occurred that opened society’s eyes. There are six powerhouse news sources that all have their own type of bias which points out their own perspective on current events. When it comes to current events, different media platforms represent the story from different perspectives. Viewers want their views to be validated rather than challenged and don’t give ideas of what people should do. Although

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.

He believes that the capitalist colonization of the digital world has led to this collapse of professional-quality journalism as a result of the further commercialization of journalism. In recent years, investigative journalism has been declining and media companies have shifted away from it and settled for repeating prepackaged messages. It is difficult for real journalism to exist when its revenue is based on advertisement. McChesney argues that journalism should be considers as public goods and that we should create non-commercial forms of journalism and non-profit media. One of the “darkest episodes of American journalism history” was the invasion of Iraq based on the U.S. administration’s claims that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. These claims went unchallenged by the media because of the lack of investigative journalism, McChesney believes. Furthermore, he ends with bold proposals to reform journalism and the entire media. He proposes a strict regulation of advertising and limitations on ownership of broadcast media and expansion of nonprofit and publicly supported journalism. I agree with McChesney about the decline of quality journalism and I believe reforms to media must happen. However, I am uncertain how this would be possible with all the control these wealthy corporations, and their partners, have over the media. It will need a huge

“Not as bad as Fox News. I wouldn’t be surprised if people accused Fox News of being a fake news organization someday.”

In a letter that Ta-Nehisi Coates once wrote to his son he said “It is so easy to look away, to live with the fruits of our history and to ignore the great evil done in all of our names. But you and I have never truly had that luxury” (Coates). In his letter, Mr. Coates warns his son to never loose the internal battle between indifference and what is right. This is a constant struggle society faces around the world, and often loses. The battle against indifference has been a losing battle in the past and even more recently throughout the world and as society loses to indifference it gains guilt as if guilt were war debt. The guilt of society is growing at an exponential rate, where countries around the world would rather stick their heads

In his article “A Farewell to Journalism?: Time for a rethinking,” media critic Robert McChesney focuses on the idea that professional journalism in America has been in a major decline—and if a solution is not agreed upon to save it, our democracy itself will be in peril. More specifically, McChesney attempts to convey the idea that government intervention is imperative in order to salvage professional journalism as a whole and save democracy in America. He argues that government intervention in the form of subsidization and nationalization of the media is required; he writes, “The future of journalism left to the market will likely approach what education would be like if all public subsidies were removed…. It would be a nightmare for any credible democratic or humane society…” (McChesney 619-620). It is apparent that McChesney believes that in order to have a functional democracy, a robust Fourth Estate must also be present. Throughout the article, McChesney defends his claim and warrant through credible research and analysis—yet he falls short at critical points, especially when he assumes transferability between European and American policies, attempts to quantify freedom, and fails to realize the true relationship between the free-press and the government. These discrepancies within the flawed research that he presents render his argument for a national media system unsuccessful.

Iraqi crisis has always been under the consideration of media and politicians to the Middle East in particular and to the whole world in general in recent years. The media are concerned with how they tend not to present reality in a neutral manner. Therefore, they resort to manipulation, deception, and lying in order to manipulate the truth for no other purpose than to mislead and persuade readers (hearers) and satisfy the interests of their politicians. Even news which is governed by values of truthfulness, accuracy, and integrity, has always been the object of criticism by politicians who represent different conflicted countries.

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.

Media bias has a tendency of expressing and showing what they want the viewer to focus on. Many online sources show what they want to be covered and how it should be covered. Every channel station cover the same topic but in their own point of view. Fox, Abc and CNN all state the same story but covered differently. In Fox News, Abby Wambach, retired soccer star, arrested for a DUI in Oregon. Abby Wambach was under the influence of alcohol. In Fox news it covers that Abby missed a red light and failed sobriety test and even the breath test.It also states when she retired and how long she has played and how she stated a statement on Facebook stating an apology. Abby was arrested by Sgt. Peter Simpson in Oregon. In Abc news, Abby was arrested

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