The media are biased
Cartoon via The Media Literacy Clearinghouse
I’ll admit it: I’m biased.
I’m pro-news. I believe the news can and do play a valuable role in society.
I do not believe that all reporters are objective — they bring their own background and biases to the stories they cover. But journalism is not about having or being completely objective reporters, it is about an objective process that allows subjective human beings to make objective evaluations just like researchers and scientists.
I believe that leaning to the left politically is okay, and leaning to the right politically is okay. I do both based on the issue at hand.
I could go on, but I’m going to end with one other bias: I believe people don’t understand the term “bias” nor do they admit that their own biases affect the way they watch or interpret the news. (I know my biases affect the way I interpret a news story.)
When I searched for definitions of bias online, I found that the Princeton WordNet defined bias as “a partiality that prevents objective consideration of an issue or situation.” That’s similar to the definition used by Dictionary.com and the Center for News Literacy at Stony Brook University, the latter of which argues that bias is a consistent pattern of slanted coverage in a particular news outlet. The Cambridge Dictionary online defined bias as “often supporting or opposing a particular person or thing in an unfair way by allowing personal opinions to influence your judgment.” Webster’s online combines both definitions.
Teaching tip: Have students write down a bias on a piece of paper and place it into a box. Students then randomly select a bias from the box and watch, read or listen to the news through that lens. The next day, have a discussion with your students about whether they found the news reports biased/slanted/framed in a certain way based on the bias they brought to the table. (Thanks to the Center for News Literacy for this teaching idea.)
Despite these definitions, Entman (2007) argued that media bias has not yet been clearly defined. Based on the context in which it is used, bias could mean one of three things, Entman wrote:
- Bias applies to news that distorts or falsifies reality, which Entman called “distortion bias.”
- Bias is news that favours one side instead of equal treatment to all parties involved in a political conflict, which Entman called “content bias.”
- Bias is a motivation or mindset in the journalist that affects the way an issue is covered, including what is and isn’t said in a report, which Entman called “decision-making bias.”
Once we go through the three above definitions of bias, we come to a wider understanding of what bias looks like and move away from blanket statements like, “the media is biased against (insert topic here).” We can get to a closer interpretation of what media bias may look like: are the facts of the news story incorrect? Is the information presented unfairly? Does the journalist or journalism organization involved favour certain stories or interpretations of stories what may not be fair or accurate? The conclusion of some form of bias stems from the way a story is presented to the consumer, and the way a story is presented to the consumer is done through a frame. Much like bias, framing, for years, was often casually defined, leaving much to an assumed tacit understanding between readers and researchers (Entman, 1993, p. 52).
Framing calls attention to some aspects of reality while obscuring other elements, which might lead audiences to have different reactions (Entman, 1993, p. 55).
Framing, Entman (1993) argued, was a process of culling a few elements of a perceived reality and assembling a narrative that highlights connections among them to promote a particular interpretation. (Doesn’t that sound like distortion bias?) That definition, by extension, includes evaluating what pieces of information are omitted from a news piece to suit the particular frame. Frames, Entman wrote, define problems or diagnose causes of conflict in a news item, make moral judgments on the facts in the case and ultimately suggest a remedy to the original problem. A frame can be one or all three of those functions. Above all, though, framing a story is, according to Entman, a function of power, which he defined as an ability to get others to do what you want (Nagel, 1975, in Entman, 2007), and telling them what to think about in a way that allows you to exert political influence in a non-coercive political system.
If the media really are stunningly successful in telling people what to think about, they must also exert significant influence over what they think (Entman, 2007, p. 165)
Entman (1993) explained that the process of framing starts with the content creator — in this case a news outlet or individual reporter — making conscious and unconscious decisions about what to say in a news story. The process moves on to the text itself where the frame manifests itself through the presence and absence of words, phrases, stereotypical images and sources of information. The receiver, or news consumer, has their own frames — audience bias — that guides them through the news piece. The consumer’s frames may or may not be equal to the communicator’s frames, which can lead to a difference of opinion on the facts presented in the story and lead to a charge of bias although they may not be able to say which one of the three definitions of bias is at work.
Cartoon via The Media Literacy Clearinghouse
Framing a piece doesn’t mean that everyone will come to the same conclusions, nor does it mean that everyone will see bias in a news piece. Follow the frames of a news piece to see what slant a story may hold. Test your assumptions and see which of the three definitions of bias best suits the situation.
I may be biased when I say this — or framing this post in a certain light — but saying that a story, a reporter, or an outlet is biased is not so simple a declaration.
***For more on detecting bias in the news, visit the University of Michigan’s faculty of education page on teaching students about news bias, or peruse links and teaching ideas from the The Media Literacy Clearinghouse. As always, feel free to post ideas here as well.***
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