Friday, January 11, 2008
Is the Media Biased?
During our last class, we discussed the article "What Biased Media?" by George Case. This topic has always been of interest to me, seeing as how I am planning for a career in broadcast journalism. Back when I was in high school, I used to tell people that I intended to be an effective reporter, however, I was going to be different from the others in that I would present the facts of breaking news in a completely unbiased way. Since then, I have come to realize that this was probably an unrealistic idea. As much as any reporter may sincerely intend to present news stories in an unbiased way, his or her strong personal beliefs regarding certain issues are likely to slant their presentation of the story at least slightly. This is not to say that reporters intentionally use their positions in order to sway the public into becoming aligned with their personal beliefs and values. It is simply a part of human nature to think more favorably of causes that you support and less favorably of opposing ones. I'm certainly not suggesting that this makes the media any less credible, however, I do believe that the public needs to take this into consideration when consuming news from the various media outlets. In order to be well informed citizens, we should attempt to get our news from several different sources. As I have been taught in several of my SMAD classes, "the media doesn't tell us what to think, but rather, what to think about." Major media outlets decide which stories are of interest to the public and then present them to us. Once we learn the basic facts of these stories, it is up to us to use other available resources, along with our intellect, in order to decipher these media messages. If we choose to get our news from only one source, then we have no right to complain about the "biased media." By getting the story from several sources, it should be easy to distinguish the facts from the biased views. Although it actually requires a little bit of effort on our part, each of us is consequently able to determine our own view of newsworthy events.
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4 comments:
If the onus for gaining an unbiased view of a political issue lies in us as the public doesn't that seem to advantage certain segments of the population? As a college professor, I certainly have more time to explore a variety of political opinions (and since I am teaching this class I could even say it is part of my job). However, what happens to the segments of the population who don't have the same time to invest in searching a variety of media sources? Does the biased media mean they are at the whims of whichever source is easiest for them to access?
You present a good point, Mike. I honestly do not know the solution to this problem, however, I think it would probably benefit those people with less free time to watch shows such as Hannity & Colmes or Hardball with Chris Matthews. This would allow such people to hear differing viewpoints of the issues at hand in one telecast without having to spend too much time or effort looking for other sources.
A professional reporter or anchor should do what they are paid for and that is "report the news". I personally have no interest in hearing what they "think". There are hundreds of people out there doing that these days and it gets very old. Every news station has numerous "political advisers" so let us leave that up to them. Also, as we can see now it is very detrimental to the news station/reporter as they take sides and will sure enough upset half the population. The public will go to the most reliable source. Stick to reporting what is happening and stay away from the egotistical personal opinions!
The news media should report the news and not try to create it. With the vast number of cable and regular broadcast networks and print media now existing, they spend far too much time rehashing the same issues many of which are unimportant; such the mental condition and addictions of Lohan, Spears, etc. instead of covering issues of more importance. Our press is very quick to report and re-report every bad event that happens but spends little or no time covering the good things people are doing to help their fellow man. I believe by giving more emphasis to good news we will encourage more good deeds. We should not give young people the impression that the only to get in the news is to get DUIs,take drugs or shoot someone. We need heroes and good roll models!
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