Bias in the news is the concept
that news stories are selected to appeal to the largest audience as well as to
keep us tuned in. Examples of this are clips of Tina Fey playing Sarah Palin on
CNN, which has tremendous bias against the vice-presidential candidate. News
agencies also play to gender biases, as men report the news more than women,
and to cultural biases, such as age and fear. One current example of bias in
the news is the exemption of presidential candidate Ron Paul from any of the
news reports. Even though he has been one of the top contenders for the
republican nomination since the beginning, news stories systematically over
look him and pass him off as a fringe candidate in favor of candidates who have
less popularity in the poles. This is an example of how powerful the news
agencies can be in controlling what is news and what isn’t. Often bias in the
news is for the purpose of ratings and making money, not for finding the most
credible or worthy news items.
I did not know that presidential candidate Ron Paul was exempted from the news. I do not think its fair that the media gets too choose what and who are in the news. I believe that the news should be about things that could affect anybody in any way. I also think the way the media covers stories should be regulated or at least looked over before given to the public. The news is not something that should be manipulated or used only as a way to make money. By regulating what is covered, and not allowing one side of a story to be presented I think everybody will be more knowledgeable about what is going on in the world.
ReplyDeleteI see what you are trying to say, how the media controls what we are informed about. I find this completely unfair and misleading. Media used to be a source of information for the public to turn to get honest and truthful stories that the government or corporations were hiding from us. It makes it much more difficult for us to get the real facts unless we actually go to the issue ourselves. Every time a new story is presented by the media, I never know what facts are real and what just opinion is. From a million different sources I would get many different stories and fact about the issue.
ReplyDeleteI think it's interesting that news media organizations pick and chose what stories they will air based on their appeal to the larger audiences. This week's reading notes that sensational news gets more attention from viewers so those story take priority over other more newsworthy stories. We learned this week that these organizations depend on advertisements to support them. This causes them to "cater" to certain stories. Bias on the part of news organizations is concerning. We have to be media literate in order to be able to analyze news casts. It's important not to take everything at face value. Instead we should be aware of bias.
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