Why bias in the News is Wrong?

In the Spring semester of 2012, in my Introduction to the Mass Media course, I asked students to tackle various crucial themes relevant to the contemporary understanding of the news media. For example, I asked students to use examples from the Fox News documentary, “Outfoxed” they watched in class, their own watching of the news, as well as their reading on agenda-setting, and framing in the news, to discuss the importance of objectivity and why bias in the news is wrong. The following is the discussion presented by student, Ellen Burke.

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Why Bias in The News is Wrong

by Ellen Burke

Copyright: modernsurvivalonline.com

The function of the news is to report current events and information that does not intentionally misdirect its audience. When news is delivered in a biased way, it interferes with the consumers’ abilities to formulate their own opinions and make their own decisions. In the documentary “Outfoxed,” the Fox news station’s biases are investigated and brought to attention. From running uncut news stories that weren’t fully developed, to the memos that are sent out before a broadcast determining what point of view newscasters should take on issues, Fox News proved to be deliberately creating a source of biased news for its consumers. Their idea that “opinion cannot be proven false” just goes to show how much emphasis they put on cementing their own opinions and leave out the objectivity that is so important in the delivery of the news. 

As of 2004, Republicans were said to have appeared on 83 percent of the one-on-one interview formats, showing that the Fox Corporation was intentionally reaching out to Republicans with similar conservative views, so as to make their opinions look more reputable. When the ability of media consumers to form their own opinions is threatened, the value of the news should be questioned. Objectivity is so extremely important in the society we live in today because there are simply so many opinions that can be held. People should expect to be presented with news that treats each opinion equally and presents the issue in an unbiased manner, allowing people the opportunity to formulate their own opinions on issues.

Copyright, CNN.com

The agenda-setting theory states that, “the media’s focus and framing of stories, issues and events will determine what audiences talk about- thereby setting the public agenda.” (Sterin, 2012) This theory is played out in the media very often, having an effect on how consumers perceive issues and stories in the media and this framing is often seen as a form of bias in the news. After Trayvon Martin was killed by community watch coordinator, George Zimmerman, on February 26, 2012, the media was filled with articles, broadcasts, and updates on the state of the trial and what kind of action was to come. Because racism is such an issue in the U.S. today, the media saw a case such as this, as a way of starting a global discussion about the underlying issues Martin’s murder brought to the surface. The media set the agenda of media consumers in this case by constantly presenting the story, either on the front page of newspapers or as the first article you see on a media outlet’s website. Because of this massive amount of coverage of one story, consumers understand the story to be of utmost importance and it thus becomes of importance to them. 

The framing theory "suggests that how something is presented (the “frame”) influences the choices people make.” In an article titled “The Provocateur,” published in the New York Times on April 13, 2012, journalist David Carr reports on the death of Andrew Breitbart, a conservative blogger and author. The article began by giving a background into what Mr. Breitbart had been doing hours prior to his death, but took a bias spin about halfway through. Carr negatively framed the reading from then on by stating, “For good or ill (and most would say ill), no one did it like Mr. Breitbart.” For readers who did not know about Mr. Breitbart prior to reading this article, they most likely took on the opinion of Carr for the remainder of the piece because of negative framing in the article. According to anyone else, Mr. Breitbart could be a very honest, likeable person. But because David Carr is a professional journalist for the prestigious New York Times, the negative framing could be overlooked in this case, causing people to assume the opinion in the article to be the truth. This negative framing is detrimental to readers’ abilities to formulate their own opinions, ultimately diminishing individualism. 

As supported by my examples, you can see that it doesn’t matter if it’s a liberal or conservative viewpoint; bias is prevalent in our media. Irrelevant of the viewpoint, bias can falsely inform the public and unfairly direct discourse in an agenda-driven manner. This is problematic for the news agenda which is supposed to give citizens unbiased information from which to form decisions that affect their lives.

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Ellen Burke is a student at Roger Williams University, studying Media and Communications.