...Detecting Media Bias Joshua Davenport HUM/114 June 21, 2012 Dr. Geneace Williams/University of Phoenix Detecting Media Bias Part A The importance of making critical evaluations of news stories comes to play in the recent stories about the Trayvon Martin & George Zimmerman case. This is a story about a young black teenager and a neighborhood watchman that shot and killed the boy. Many news stations reported the story showing pictures of both of them that had been taken years prior to the actual event. Trayvon’s pictures showed him as an innocent boy and Zimmerman as upset and angry in a much earlier mug shot. The media shows bias to both these individuals and seemed to be concerned with sensationalism, rather than finding out the true facts in the case. The concern they showed at the time the story broke, appeared to be geared towards selling the story and building the story into a racially motivated incident. The news was not completely clear or accurate and the investigative methods were not sufficient in either depth or breadth. The stories promoted the idea that Trayvon was an innocent young black kid who just happened to be out late at night and that Zimmerman was just looking to act as judge, jury and executioner. The pictures of George Zimmerman seemed to promote prejudice and negative emotions from the audience. They used bias in the news by deliberately ignoring more current pictures of both these individuals. Many of the news...
Words: 843 - Pages: 4
...Media Bias Denisthewriter Term Paper Warehouse Introduction Bias is the inclination on a particular side without considering the possibility of other alternatives. It results when one has already formed a judgement in his or her mind. People can be biased towards an individual, religion, and race or some actions done by people. These actions may be considered immoral by the society and hence the unfair judgement of one's character even without listening to the view of all sides. Media is a very important tool in the society. It informs people on what is going on. Many people take media especially major media companies to give the absolute truth. The media are also expected to be impartial. However, many cases of media biases have been noted. Media bias can be in some forms. Journalists and news producers may choose to present a particular story leaving out other stories that are more important. Bias may also result when a reporter takes sides and does not consider what the other sides has to say. This paper aims at comparing two articles and show any form of media...
Words: 1209 - Pages: 5
...Detecting Media Bias Use your favorite Internet search engine to find a recent headline news story in one of the following areas: local or national politics, economics, or business news. Write a 350- to 700-word paper clarifying the importance of making critical evaluations of news stories. Use the following questions to help develop your paper: · Was the reporting of the news story clear and accurate, with sufficient depth and breadth? · Were some facts reported while others were ignored? · Did the story consider alternative perspectives and worldviews? · Were there any questionable assumptions implicit in the story? · Were any implications ignored while others were emphasized? · Why is it important to make distinctions when undertaking a critical evaluation? · How would you evaluate this story if it were on the television news versus reading it online? What about on the radio? I have located an article that discusses a CNN/Thumbtack survey that discusses how small business owners have been impacted by the government shutdown. The news story was very accurate and in depth, since the information given comes from a survey that was conducted to 100 businesses. This news story considered different alternatives. They covered how many different business such as contractors such and janitors that worked in federal buildings are not allowed in the federal and government facilities...
Words: 618 - Pages: 3
...Media Bias and how it affects our country negatively English 112 Spring The biases the media has are bigger than conservative or liberal. They are all about getting ratings, making money and about doing stories that are easy to cover. This may seem like a trite statement but it hold enormous amount of truth. As Americans, we trust what reporters write in the newspaper, and say on television and radio stations. We expect them to report the truth. However, current media outlets distort stories and certain new reports are getting too much attention. The most important stories are never seen on television or read in the newspaper, or heard on the radio stations, while minor and trivial stories get the most coverage. Hence celebrity engagements, divorce, entrance to rehab centers and DUI cases that are sold to the media. Americans are then left without valuable information contrary to what story is getting 24- hour news coverage. Media bias is a term used to describe prejudice in news and media reports, in which is perceived as an imbalance or unfair presentation of facts or selective reporting of which events or facts reported. The main point here is when biases in media distorts certain stories, and other stories are spoken about entirely too much it hurts the democracy in America. The media, in that case, fails to focus on real issues that underlie the American culture, it has one-sided opinions, favoring a liberal’s point of view, and it caters to the majority...
Words: 1320 - Pages: 6
...RUNNING HEAD: DETECTING MEDIA BIAS Detecting Media Bias University Of Phoenix HUM/114 June 16, 2013 Detecting Media Bias On April 15, 2013 at exactly 2:49pm, Boston time, two handmade pressure cooker bombs exploded, killing 3 and injuring over 200 innocent spectators. According to National News reporters across the globe, the bombs exploded 3 seconds apart and about 210 yards near the finish line. The city of Boston was in complete devastation. Many victims lost limbs from different parts of their bodies. There was nothing but cries of pain, confusion and unawareness as to what was really happening in America. At this point, the media begin to play the blame game and assume the unknown. Even though, President Obama spoke out to the US, acknowledging what happen but at the time he was oblivious of who could have possible did such horrible act of idiocy. Based on research, there was a 12 preposterous cases of media bias after the bombing streamed through the different types of media forums. For example, Wolf Blitzer from CNN News, stated, “It is a state holiday in Massachusetts today called Patriots’ Day and, uh, who knows if that had anything at all to do with these explosions.” Other well-known reporters, tied the Boston bombing to an Al Qaeda terrorist attack. Inclusive to the faulty reports and assumption without the actual facts, many American citizens were in a frantic. There is an ole saying that says, you can’t believe everything that you hear, and this story...
Words: 501 - Pages: 3
...II. Literature Review Robert Entman posits two types of media biases: content bias, where media content shows regular patterns of slant towards specific candidates or ideology, and decision-based bias, where reporters and editors contribute to slant through their personal beliefs and opinions. He also emphasizes how journalists, though nominally barred from allowing personal ideology to permeate into print, often express other non-partisan notions of decision-making bias, such as through candidate competence or momentum. Time as a necessary independent variable allows for shifts in bias to occur, where Entman points to positive coverage of John McCain’s announcement of Sarah Palin as his vice presidential nominee through the delayed response...
Words: 906 - Pages: 4
...Being biased is showing a dislike towards someone or something. Bias can be a personal or public opinion that supports one point of view. Everyone is biased in some way. Basically someone that is biased is having an unfair opinion. Bias is not necessary a bad thing, however it can be useful when someone is finding out what others thought about or believed in a particular subject.The problem today is media tends to be biased towards certain things or someone. People wonder why bias within the media is hard to avoid and why it even exist. Each reporter has a job to do and tell the story to different audience and make it appealing to them. It is also way to show the news organization to show the opinions that they have. As can be seen the media is very biased in a variety of ways. Some networks are fair but the majority of them are unfair when news is reported....
Words: 495 - Pages: 2
...Yes the media does have a social responsibility. You need to look at the media as a teacher. They take the news and should be presenting it in a way that informs the listener. News anchors today need to keep in mind their responsibilities in the development of news stories. They must do one of two things; first keep all biases and personal opinions out of the news cast. If they intend to interject their own biases then they need to allow information to be presented from the other side as well. The media needs to ensure that every detail to a story is accurate and that it is relevant to the topic. With the speed and accessibility that the Internet has, news is brought to you at any time of the day or night. So the media outlet that is presenting the information for a news story needs to ensure that the information is truly correct and not flawed. Because once you submit the story on the Internet it is gone and available for all to read. This is done instantly, so you only have one chance to get it right. If the media gets a story wrong, especially if it has a race overtone to it, this can create hate and discontent amongst groups of different races. If you look into the Trevon Martin case, one major cable news anchor played a doctored 911 tape recording. This particular tape when played led the listener to a conclusion that was incorrect. So the media has an obligation to present truthful, accurate information at all...
Words: 267 - Pages: 2
...In today’s society, individuals are constantly surrounded by the media, regardless of what it is in relation to. Despite the fact that there are a variety of various media sources, it is commonly agreed upon that the media is biased; however, the opinion of how it is biased is often based on the leanings and beliefs of individuals rather than everyone as a whole. The most common bias discussed seems to be that of ideological bias, more specifically whether the media is more conservative or liberal in its coverage. While there are undoubtedly sources, such as Fox News, that tend to be conservatively biased, it seems that the vast majority of the media today is liberally biased. The media is ideologically biased in favor of liberal coverage in...
Words: 734 - Pages: 3
...of the masses.”(Malcolm X) In history, media bias has existed since the nineteenth century , most newspapers were actually linked with their particular political party and the economic interests of their publisher. It is a relatively recent development that reporters should be absolutely, unwaveringly objective in stories involving some possibility of bias. In this analysis, news/media outlets, are taken to mean any news organization, TV news networks, magazines, newspaper, etc. and media bias is the term for these aforementioned news outlets to misrepresent an argument, show...
Words: 1867 - Pages: 8
...Bias in the Media Bias in the media still exists today and many sources have them. You might not catch the fake news but it is still out there. Many sources take each article differently whether it is bias or true. The information is key to these articles to spot the bias in them. We must be careful on what sources you choose to hear from because you might just be completely lied to. I brought up one topic that took many bias turns. Trump declaring Jerusalem as Israel's article is very bias in many different sources. ABC News was straight into the facts however CNN took some turns and had bias views. CNN showed me less of the topic at hand and kept arguing that one side is mores superior than another. I see why CNN is at the bottom because...
Words: 400 - Pages: 2
...Media Biases There are approximately 318 million people living in the U.S. today. America is often referred to as the melting pot of numerous cultures. What this means is that there are all kinds of people living in the U.S. all bringing with them something unique of their own persona that adds on to our society. How can we expect that these 318 million different people all share same opinions? Surely we share similar views with some, but there will always be at least one person opposing. With the advances of technology, we’ve had the opportunity to bring these people closer than ever. Receiving information has become a part of our daily life and we it’s present even when we’re not aware. It is known that the US has a market-based media, which...
Words: 1584 - Pages: 7
...Media bias is studied at schools of journalism, university departments (including Media studies, Cultural studies and Peace studies) and by independent watchdog groups from various parts of the political spectrum. In the United States, many of these studies focus on issues of a conservative/liberal balance in the media. Other focuses include international differences in reporting, as well as bias in reporting of particular issues such as economic class or environmental interests. One high profile academic survey of American journalists is The Media Elite. The survey found that most journalists were liberal Democratic voters.[citation needed] Martin Harrison's TV News: Whose Bias? (1985) criticized the methodology of the Glasgow Media Group, arguing that the GMG identified bias selectively, via their own preconceptions about what phrases qualify as biased descriptions. For example, the GMG sees the word "idle" to describe striking workers as pejorative, despite the word being used by strikers themselves.[4] Herman and Chomsky (1988) proposed a propaganda model hypothesizing systematic biases of U.S. media from structural economic causes. They hypothesize media ownership by corporations, funding from advertising, the use of official sources, efforts to discredit independent media ("flak"), and "anti-communist" ideology as the filters that bias news in favor of U.S. corporate interests. Many of the positions in the preceding study are supported by a 2002 study by Jim A. Kuypers:...
Words: 1474 - Pages: 6
...Detecting Media Bias Hum/111 University of Phoenix August 2, 2013 Media bias is the bias of journalists and other people working within the media industry. These reporters are supposed to report facts and remain bias so the public is receiving factual information and not information formed by opinions. While reporters do report facts and information they are given, they also report interviews of witnesses, who will give their personal opinion, which is hearsay. The case of Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman, in Florida, has been taking over the media. From the time of the crime, all through the jury selection and the trial, every aspect of our media has been taken over by this case. Zimmerman was accused of murdering Trayvon Martin, a teenager, during a patrol of a neighborhood watch. While the media outlets were providing the facts they were given, they were not reporting all of the facts. Not all were accurate, and a lot of the information that was being reported was based on what other people thought, or the opinions of others. During the trial, new information was given while some information that had been reported at an earlier date was left out. The media reporters are reporting what they are given, but at the same time on shows such as CNN, there are several people, normally other journalists, that are giving their own personal opinions on the case. These shows are aired live, on national television; this gives the public factual information but also the...
Words: 468 - Pages: 2
...private interest has on a bias media message. Inherently, drawing the connection with a biased media and what effect it has on presidential candidates running for office in the United States of America. Being done so by looking at examples of media playing a factor on past presidential candidates. Through examination of past and current events of media effecting presidential candidates, the goal is to draw a connection making it clear that private interest creates a biased media effecting presidential candidates. Through showing what effect media has on presidential candidates, the research that will be conducted in this paper will emphasize and make aware the public that the media has its own...
Words: 1167 - Pages: 5
