Detecting Media Bias
The news is everywhere reporting important, and sometimes not so important, information to people all around the world. Society relies on honest news reporting to inform them of what is happening in their communities and the world around them. This is what makes the critical evaluation of news stories so important. There are many factors one should consider when critically evaluating the authenticity of a news story. Bias can sometimes be hidden and people should be aware of what to look for. Some of these are: was there a clear and accurate reporting of the story, were some facts omitted, and were there any questionable assumptions made.
The headline I chose is “Tennis player penalized for speaking Spanish at state match” (Associated Press, 2013,). After performing some research on the story, I found that this coverage of the story did not provide a clear and accurate reporting of the story. I feel this way because I found another headline, “Tennis player told 'English only'” (Ayres, 2013, NMAA says incident led to change in rule) that held more truth to include what I discovered was omitted from the first headline I read. This lead to what I consider to be some questionable assumptions made by the author of the first headline.
In the first headline, “Tennis player penalized for speaking Spanish at state match” (Associated Press, 2013,) it is stated that after twice being warned of speaking Spanish instead of English, the player decided a third time to use Spanish. This resulted in a penalty. The court official was abiding by the United States Tennis Association’s rule book, which requires players to speak in the language that the officials understand.
The head line also inserts a quote from an unrelated incident of an umpire accused of trying to ban New Mexico high school baseball players from speaking Spanish during a game. The umpire