Racial Bias In Sports

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Bias, as defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, is prejudice in favor of or against one thing, person, or group compared with another, usually in a way considered to be unfair. According to the Nation Bureau of Economic Research, “There are two different types of media bias. One bias, which we refer to as ideology, reflects a news outlet's desire to affect reader opinions in a particular direction. The second bias, which we refer to as spin, reflects the outlet's attempt to simply create a memorable story.” (Mullainathan & Shleifer) The article also concluded that due to competitiveness in media, news companies were more likely to spin stories that have “significant right-left ideological dimensions, such as presidential elections” in order …show more content…

A cursory examination of television coverage of professional sports would lead one to believe that equality and objectivity have been achieved in this arena. African American announcers and reporters cover the games, and praise seems to be awarded on the basis of performance. However, numbers on the field and in the booth may not mean equal representation in the way players are portrayed. This research seeks to determine if there is racial bias in television's coverage of America's most popular sport—football. The results were not far from what I had imagined. A Biased Coverage Index (BCD) was developed to test for announcer bias in television coverage of professional football during the 1992 season. The study found that announcers emphasized the athleticism of African American players and the cognitive abilities of White players. This results in the portrayal of African American players as merely athletic, while more positive intellectual and character traits were attributed to White players. …show more content…

The basic concept of media bias itself is reasonably simple, but proving it is a bit more complex. Bias relates to different people's perceptions - it would be fair to say, "media bias is in the eye of the beholder”. The fact that viewpoint (and the possible biased views) of the reader or viewer might lead them to suspect bias exists where there is none should also be taken into account. All the articles that I found all said that yes, in fact the media was bias and there was no lack of evidence to support it. We also have to remember that this could be because the people who wrote the articles were trying to prove that a certain media bias existed and that if someone were to look for articles that proved the media was not bias then the same thing would happen. Defining media bias will truly depend on the story itself and the people reporting it. However, it is rarely argued that racism does not exist in our society. Access to the media is prevalent and almost unavoidable. For this reason media outlets most certainly have a significant impact on people’s thoughts, feelings and

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