Media Bias And Its Implications

A liberal is a person that believes that the government should provide equality for all, while a conservative is a person that believes in limited government and that the government should provide the necessary freedom for people to pursue their own goals. Over time, it has been argued, mostly by conservatives, that there is a liberal bias in the media. Liberals have combated this idea with the belief that conservative media is devoted to making efforts to invoke fear and division in the general public. Though liberals make a fine counter-argument, it is easier to observe that the media is liberal-biased. The liberal versus conservative debate can be compared to facts versus values. Another reason for bias within the media is that a significant percentage of minorities, or smaller groups within the population that are often thought to be poorer, politically identify themselves as liberals. To make these minorities feel like the government is on their side as well as everyone else’s, the media must accommodate the needs of these minorities. Because of this, the media becomes liberal-biased.

In his article, “The Political Impact of Media Bias,” Ethan Kaplan states that, “In a representative system of government, policy outcomes are affected by the political preferences and the beliefs of the voters. The media plays a key role in shaping these preferences and beliefs. It collects, summarizes, and frames the information that voters use in their voting decisions”(Kaplan 1). As previously stated, the media provides us with our information, and they control what it is we receive. This information is what leads us to our ideas and our beliefs. Therefore, the media is able to shape our very mind to fit their agenda. An example of this is

It has recently come to my attention that not enough people understand how great bias in media has been to our lives. Each day we wake up and see near one or more biases in the media, lying at the foot of our beds. It is wonderful to be able to wake up and smile each morning because of this. Decisions are made based on what people hold to be true. History has shown instances where severly biased media. The most recognizable evidence being WWII and Stalin. "Because of the status quo bias, the media ignore any position that advocates radical change"

Media outlets report in a bias fashion because it causes people to either strongly agree or disagree with what they have to say. If they can get a group of people to rally for or against what they say, they are more likely to share it with others who think the same, who in turn will share it with more people, thus giving them more readers and more money. It does not matter to said media outlets if people agree with what they say as long as enough people read it for them to make a profit.

Media bias is defined as “the perception that the media is reporting the news in a partial or prejudiced manner” (Dugger). This kind of bias can be observed everywhere and in every kind of situation. American people get almost all of their information from popular news outlets or some other form of media. The media is often guilty for taking advantage of their power and covering stories with a certain political bias. This is obviously an enormous problem. It was not hard to find an example of such bias and the influence it has on public opinion.

The different types of bias that exist in different forms of media (i.e. radio, TV, newspapers, the internet) are selection bias, agenda setting, priming, and framing. These forms of bias allow the media to influence public opinion. Selection bias occurs when the media only reports on one aspect of an event or issue without providing coverage on other aspects. The media could report only particular issues and problems they believe should have more public attention through agenda setting. Agenda setting is similar to the other forms of bias, priming and framing. Priming involves calling attention to some issues while ignoring others, and framing allows the media to influence the public’s interpretation of them. Different forms of media have

Johnson, T. N. (2014). "The Media Bias within Outlets of Media: Television, Radio, and Newspapers."

Bias is a particular tendency, trend, inclination, feeling, or opinion (“Bias”). In the media bias takes place when a news network or reporter takes a certain stance on a matter or person. “…The U.S. has an overwhelming leftward tilt, mostly on social issues, but also on economic matters (Carney).” Anyone who disagrees with the liberal perspective is a target for media bias. A recent example of media bias towards a person is Doctor Ben Carson. As a Republican candidate running for presidential office in the upcoming election, he has spoken out against liberal beliefs and opinions.

     The media is often considered to be biased. The reason for this is because they do not act neutral on the things that they report on. They usually give their point of view and tend to warp the information so it’s easily digestible by the average person. This type of “nugget feeding,” can influence the judgment of some one who has no idea what is going on. The media tends to

The cultural bias in reporting is prevalent in major US media outlets. For example, on 1 October US news station, NBC reported that “three US soldiers” and “several Afghans” were killed in a suicide attack in Afghanistan. Viewers were

Media bias is a topic that has been in great focus of many political leaders over the past few presidential elections. However, what many people fail to see is that media bias has been around since the beginning of major news companies. Most Americans do not know what media bias is or how to identify it. That stated many people have noticed that most news stations are biased towards one religion, political party or even gender. This has been like this for decades however has become much more prominent during major wars, the great depression and many social and political reforms such as the industrial era or the civil rights era. However the type of bias has been shifted mostly from a war focus and the focus on exposing corruption to

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

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

A tool used on a day-to-day basis to shape political discourse, most often used in news media. Bias is inclination or prejudice for or against one person or group, especially in a way considered to be unfair (OxfordDictionaryPress, 2015). Three news articles have been chosen for analysis on the topic of the MH-17, all with different opinions. The selected newspaper propaganda comes from ABC, Tribune and RT. One possible reason as to why these newspapers have varying opinions is due to them having different owners.

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