Media Bias

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.