Our society is in the age of relying on social media and other means of news broadcasting for opinions, information, and scandals. Today, there seems to be a competition of sorts between news sources and other social media sources, including which one can report the most biased news, as well as, who can gain the most viewers and popularity through that bias. As a college student, this makes me ask myself a few questions: what is actually going on in our country? What are the true, unbiased facts? What made biases become such a prevalent part of our society’s everyday life? It is important to uncover where biases began in our history, how the rise of social media has shaped the biases America faces, and which news platforms bias specific political …show more content…
Early means of bias originated from yellow journalism and muckraking. In the past, these forms of journalism expressed a story beyond its limits, and somewhat “fluffed” the story to make it more appealing to citizens, news companies, and reporters by encouraging more people to believe the details being reported. This dirty, scandalous way of reporting the “facts” has definitely not strayed away from our society (Careccia 2012). However, the ways this bias occurs has changed due to the fact that the true concept of “yellow journalism” has been developed as technology, society, and news has changed throughout the years. The concept of yellow journalism presents extremely twisted, false facts which cause the public to miss important details of major stories or events that may be occurring in the country. Advanced technology has allowed reporters to tweak everything the public eye can access, from edited photos and videos to fake statistics in reports and stories (Mott …show more content…
The stances taken on different issues typically depend on the type of platform one may be influenced by and the people who are projecting the media, i.e. the newscasters, script writers, or even celebrities. Biases can be seen in newspapers, blogs, websites, and televised news stations. In my everyday life, I see CNN (Cable News Network) and Fox News compared to constantly, for the stations both exhibit completely polar opposite views on politics, religion, and social issues. The competition between both stations is not a secret to the American public, and I have seen it heat up around times of elections and crises. I have watched both news stations growing up and now as a young adult, and I believe that CNN typically has a bias towards more liberal political views, while Fox News takes a more conservative approach to news and news stories. I believe it is completely fine, and almost necessary in our society to take a specific political stance, however, I feel as if there may be some issues when news stations begin to take those stances. News stations report national and international news to millions of people each day, and some viewers that may be listening may or may not have a prior knowledge of what is actually being presented in the news. Taking a political stance and biasing every piece
Bias is everywhere in the mainstream media whether it is political, celebrity, or worldwide news. Bias can misinform the public and most of the time leaves the whole story to suit their belief. Bias is when someone is presenting information or talking about a topic but being unfair and not showing the whole side of the story. Media keeps certain information to themselves to not make their belief seem bad but as a good thing. In everyday media there is some form of bias that can be small or big depending on the topic. Of course in today's society it seems that bias is okay and acceptable in the media. However people doing their job are bias and present the information to their beliefs. The public thinks they are getting the truth but media is
Media concentration allows news reporters to fall victim to source bias, commercial impulse, and pack journalism. Together, all three of the aforementioned factors become known as horse race journalism, a cause for great concern in campaign media. In complying with horse race journalism, media outlets exclude third party candidates, reinforce the idea that politics is merely a game, and dismiss issues that directly affect voters and their day to day lives. Through horse race journalism, the media is mobilized in impeding an active form of the democratic debate in American politics. Even across the wide range of human values and beliefs, it is easy to see that campaign media coverage must be changed, if not for us, then for our children. It is imperative that we discern the flaws of the media and follow our civic duty to demand better media
Fox News is constantly being bombarded with accusations of media bias, furthermore, a number of different instances of have occurred which question the validity of Fox News (Groeling). These instances occur throughout normal news broadcasts. Some of the more recent, and grossly biased broadcasts, were from the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections. Historically the Fox News Channel is known to lean heavily to the right, or on the republican spectrum. President Barrack Obama’s political party is widely known to the public as being democratic. Statistically, to this day according to studies over 17 million households receive some form of the Fox News Channel (Auletta). The Fox News Channel is published through a number of different channels to its viewers. These channels include: Television, radio, newspaper, internet and more increasingly electro...
Objectivity has nearly become nonexistent, and "For years, Americans' political press has been stuck in a fact-free model of neutrality, often covering even the most obvious lies as 'one side' of a dispute," (Introduction). The publishment of these lies and giving them the title of an argument is feigning neutrality, which fools the public into believing all the media is producing. Equal coverage has also been a major issue in media bias. For example, in this past presidential election, “the mainstream media labels a Republican candidate with a slew of phobics to paint him as an awful person, while they seem to put the Democratic candidate on a pedestal or report less harshly” (Ostmann). Determining equal coverage between the two political parties is a touchy subject, but it is apparent that Trump received the brunt of the attacks on his past then his opponent did. Even if it had been the other way around, the media should be held responsible for their devious actions. For the media, it is all about the story, which they will spend hours and hours fine tuning until they are able to fill their likes, views, and subscriptions
News is all around us and is readily available to everyone. There are many flaws in the system that hurts the authenticity of the news when you see it. The media is indirectly part of the political system. Most news is either considered liberal or conservative by many.
Ever since the beginning of news, there have been minor alterations to the reports. Doing anything to get their ratings to increase, changes would have to be made, whether it’s simply bending the truth a little or labeling someone or something. In Michael Parenti’s “Methods of Misrepresentation”, Parenti uses his methods of political bias in the news. The news main goal is to grab our attention, no matter what effects it has on the viewers. This is how some mainstream reporters are politically and media biased. “Media plays an extensive role in an individual’s daily life. Right from the second you wake up till you go to bed after saying goodnight to your wife, kid, parents, siblings or friends, you are surrounded in a world built just for you by the media.” (Shafi). The News isn’t the only one influencing the world; no one really notices this but Advertisements play an important role in Media Brainwashing.
One of the major problems in the American media today is non-objective reporting which is also known as bias. This has been a trend since the early 1980?s and is very alarming for American citizens who watch the news for truth and honest reporting. Not only has bias been a problem in the broadcast media of ABC, NBC, and CBS, but it has also been a problem in mainstream newspapers such as The New York Times, The Sun, and The Boston Globe. For years, these media outlets have built their reputations on truth and now the trend is to lean left and not tell the whole story. Evidence of this has become very prominent in war coverage and election bias. Bias in the media is a big issue and causes lots of problems throughout the public such as losing trust in a once great source for news, people going elsewhere for information, being ill-informed, and leading to a low voter turnout.
Coverage of events by the mainstream media is politically biased, due to the numerous instances when news networks support one party (either Liberal Democratic or Conservative Republican) and slant the issue in that party’s favor. For example, NBC News reported that the Affordable Care Act was “cheerleading” and viewed the law in a positive manner (Lawrence). As NBC is a major supporter of the Democratic Party, its views are obviously slanted towards liberal and supportive opinions of Obama and his policies. Moreover, this positive perspective of the law only attracts Democrats, and it masks the other perspective involving the detriments of that law, showing presence of propaganda, instilling liberal viewpoints in its unsuspecting audience. In contrast t...
”All newspapers had small circulations and most were financed by political groups as a means to express particular opinions and criticize their opponents”(Braunwarth Chp10.2.1). While modern day the availability of news is limitless, having un biased and accurate information is limited. “In the early twentieth century many newspapers….The so-called “muckrakers” dug up stories about government corruption, which was at an all-time high in the United States. In their zeal to expose, newspapers often published stories based on faulty information”(Braunwarth Chp10.2.5). False news accompanied by slander is still a problem in modern times and the control is in the hands of political parties. The control over the media and current utilization causes harm to a democratic country, the citizens are shown false information not to educate them but rather, persuade them to vote in favor of the medias benefactor by only showing points they want observed. “the media do not so much influence what people think as what they think about.” By gatekeeping and framing, the media help determine which policies the public thinks are important” (Braunwarth Chp10.7.3). The public has an option on where they become educated to vote but many of those resources are all owned by four
“The old argument that the networks and other ‘media elites’ have a liberal bias is so blatantly true that it’s hardly worth discussing anymore…No we don’t sit around in dark corners and plan strategies on how we’re going to slant the news. We don’t have to. It comes naturally to most reporters.” (Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News) This example is tremendously important in the author’s discussion because it proves that news stories do manipulate people through bias. Popular news networks are viewed by thousands of people every single day, thus making it have a huge impact on the public since they believe what they see. When news reporters present their news segments, it is natural for them to give their insights due to human nature being instinctively biased. “The news media is [sic] only objective if they report something you agree with… Then they’re objective. Otherwise they’re biased if you don’t agree, you know.” (CNN’s American Morning) In this quote, the readers are presented to current panelists agreeing that news consumers have a very hard time separating their own view of the news from the perspective of the news reporters because they are presenting their own opinions throughout their segments. This problem exists once again because of the bias that is contained in media
Fox News is an American basic cable and satellite news television channel owned by the Fox Entertainment Group subsidiary of 21st Century Fox. Fox News has been accused of biased reporting and promoting the Republican Party. However employes for Fox News reported that it operates by only opinion and for entertainment. Fox News was the one news
Many people believe that liberal media bias is very relevant in this day in age, but really it is just a myth. Conservatives, also known as republicans, tend to forget that most of the American media is influenced heavily by corporate business owners(Schaller 49). Topics such as issues of war and peace, taxes and spending, and government regulation are heavily favorable to the conservatives. A study done by Media Matter for America shows that over sixty percent of U.S. daily newspapers publish conservative journalists rather than liberal(Schaller 49). On the other hand, it is obvious that some hot topics in the news are liberally skewed. Topics such as abortion, gay rights, religion, and gun control are pretty much the only things that have a liberal bias. Some journalists may have liberal views, but do not exploit them like conservatives and certainly their views are not as radical(Schaller
Although, the two news stations show many differences, in the end it comes down to which news station is the most trusted and reliable source. The political views of both Fox and CNN differ. Fox News is known for being a conservative based network when it comes to reporting about politics. The reason is Fox news is the one of the only news stations that offers conservative-based viewpoints, and it will help them gain viewers that are conservative.
Today it seems almost impossible to get a straightforward answer on any major topic from the media. All sources of media have a specific audience that they are intending to hear or view the information that they have prepared, therefore they will cut bits and pieces out so that only the message they are trying to get across will be received. So indeed there is a media bias, and yes it more often than not slants towards the liberal view point, as many reporters and journalists have liberal views themselves.
In trying to attract new audiences, news media have begun to transition from reporting to becoming a form of entertainment. With the meteoric rise of social media’s role as a news source, the fight for an increase of diversity in the media, and the ever-growing desire of immediate content, the future of responsible journalism is more important than ever. Ask yourself, why do I think the way I do? Where do my political views originate? How do I prove them? Most likely, it is due to the biased portrayal of issues in the media and the politicization that accompanies what we consume. Now, compare your views to your preferred news reporting entity. More than likely, they are the same.