I am currently doing a Media Bias
project for my English composition class. Many of us simply read an article and
absorb whatever it says and base our opinions on the topic accordingly. Very
few really think about what they read and even fewer challenge what we read.
Journalists form their opinions based on how they interoperate the situation,
then we form our opinions based on their opinions, because of this we must look
at what forms news bias takes.
The first form that news Bias takes
would be word choice, word choice is important because you can say the same
thing in two different ways two give off different moods toward a topic. The
second form of bias in news would be omissions, omissions are important because
it is a form of censorship, it stops the reader from learning detail that may
be vital to the story. Next would be Limiting Debate, this is also important
because you are only getting one side of the story. The fourth and final form
would be Story Framing, Story Framing is important because if emphasizes or de-emphasizes
parts of the story.
People
can guess what may influence bias in writing, but the truth is anything could
cause one to be bias. One of the largest by far would have to be geography,
where on is born causes them to form opinions about topics that are controversial,
one of the best examples would be the conflict between the Union and the
Confederacy. You may consider a lose as a outnumbered onslaught rather than a strategic
defeat.
The
best thing you can do is to read articles and watch the news with some
objectivity. Hopefully not everything can be looked at with skepticism but you
may read something and feel that they have omitted something. In this case you
can ask yourself is it really worth looking into, if it is, you may check other
sources of information. It is also important to look at many different sources
before forming your opinion, by doing this you can get two different views on
the same story and perhaps change your view on the topic or strengthen your
first opinion.
