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Essay On Media Bias

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Detecting Media Bias Do you believe everything you read? While we may like to believe all articles are fairminded and presented in a manner where all viewpoints are relevant, unbiased and unprejudiced, this may not always be the case (Paul & Elder, 2012). Inaccurate articles may also be the result of the elements of irrationality which may find their foundation in human egocentrism and sociocentrism. In cases of human egocentrism, people view everything in relation to themselves. In regards to human sociocentrism (or group egocentricity) situations are viewed with the perspective of one’s group (Paul & Elder, 2012). Both of these elements are huge roadblocks to reasonable thinking. Examples of the impact of these factors can be found …show more content…
One of the articles evaluated is, “Illegal Aliens and Violent Crime: Some Amazing Facts”. This article was written in 2017 by Tom Tancredo of Breitbart, an online media source. It was presented as a national news story. The second article to be evaluated is a peer reviewed article titled, “Immigrants Commit Less Crime than Native-Born Americans”. It was written by Veronika Bondarenko and Skye Gould in 2017. This article was a national news story and appeared in Business Insider Magazine.
Analysis of Article from Breitbart Before reading one word of this article it can be determined from the article’s accompanying photograph that it will play towards social conventions and sets the tone of the content. The picture is one of many poorly dressed individuals who look like immigrants packed into a room, small in size, some with their arms raised high in the air in what encourages the reader to envision thoughts of defiance. This picture serves the purpose of “priming the mind” for what is to come. This is only the first example of sociocentric thinking which is evident throughout the article.
Lack of Supporting Facts It is clear that this story is written to appeal to a group possessing specific

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