We’re in an election year, which means that someone, undoubtedly, will throw around the term ‘political media bias’ as either an attack or a defense. But few know what it is…
Political media bias is where a media outlet’s politics influences its reporting. For example, a liberal newspaper covering a conservative may have a more negative tone than would otherwise be used.
The keyword there, is “may”.
As a general rule, it does affect the reporting, even if only by a little bit.
Where can I see examples of media bias?
Every single media outlet, no matter how big or small, no matter whether they claim to be unbiased, liberal or conservative, has some sort of bias.
Conservative
As a general rule, less and less media outlets, whether they are blogs, newspapers, magazines etc. are becoming conservative.
Even many well known conservative media outlets, such as the Wall Street Journal, famous for it’s free-market, capitalist, conservative views, are becoming more liberal in their views!
Liberal
Most mainstream media outlets are liberal. And this is increasing day in, day out. The increase in liberal media was spurred by the invention of the internet and blogs.
This increase also coincided with the increase in people leaning liberal, as people are becoming more and more frustrated with the entrenched elites, and mega corporations.
There have been several books written on the topic, with many claiming to have discovered the entire truth behind it!
What causes media bias?
There are several reasons why political media bias is a thing, here are the most common reasons:
- Corporate ownership. It’s well known that the media industry is one of the most consolidated industries in the world. This means that corporate interests can press their views onto their writers, and thus their articles!
- Views of the author. Everyone has an opinion on everything, and so do journalists and political bloggers. Through media outlets, these authors can express their views, which can ultimately be read by hundreds of thousands of people!
- Views of the audience. If you’re a working man’s newspaper in a small rural mining town, chances are many of your readers will have left-leaning views. As such you accommodate it. This is the same for readers with right-leaning views!
- Patriotism (or lack there of). Patriotism can often influence the leanings of the article. If the media outlet and writer are very patriotic, the article may have right-leaning views. The opposite is also true!
- Religious affiliations. Many religions say things against certain types of acts, such as abortion. This may mean that in a story surrounding one of those acts, a pro or anti bias may be seen throughout the article(s).
- The people’s belief of the media. Whilst many major news networks try to be unbiased, many people are aware of political media bias. This means that even subconsciously, people may be searching for the hidden bias, even if none actually exists!
How does this affect you?
This affects everyone, even if they don’t realize it!
Many people only get their news from one or two media outlets. Many times, these media outlets are both on the same side of the political spectrum, and perhaps owned by the same person/conglomerate!
Often, these people get their media from social media too, which is heavily occupied by the left-leaning side of the spectrum.
This means that you only ever see one side of things. This then causes you to only see a one-sided world view which is not always as beneficial as people may claim.
We can argue that the reason socialism and communism is picking up in many western countries, is down to this.
It affects you because it caps your world view from the keyboard of some author, potentially on the other side of the world! You will view everything you see, and read thereafter from the viewpoint that you initially read it in.
This means that you do not form a clear view of the world, merely one distorted by one side or the other…
How can we prevent it?
Naturally, not everyone is willing to change what they read. For many, they simply couldn’t imagine reading the other side. For many others, they simply can’t change, whether that’s down to personal or professional reasons.
We can prevent being susceptible to political media bias by reading several different media outlets. Not just traditional news media, but also websites.
Many of the latter often explain their bias in their About section (you can find ours in our About Us section!)
There are also several other ways to check a website’s bias if it is not present on their About section. Simply type in “[Name of outlet] media bias” and an answer will soon arrive!
Once you’ve found the biases, you can choose your media outlets.
Read each story on a given topic from each media outlet, making sure there is a balance. As such, you will gain a full, and clear understanding of each story, as it develops!
Is it necessarily bad?
Perhaps some are sat back thinking that they do not need to do this. Or that political media bias is good, or not as bad as people make it out to be.
And here’s where I contradict everything I’ve said in this article!*
I would actually agree that political media bias is not as bad as I am perhaps making it out to be. Indeed, people may find it more beneficial to digest a well-rounded media intake.
However, few, if any will ever truly master that.
The problem is not with the media bias itself, but the lack of openness about it.
Indeed, whilst many websites created in the 21st century are happy to explain their political media bias. Those created in the 19th or 20th centuries are not.
They often put this down to a variety of reasons, such as:
- Having a large array of staff with differing political and socio-economic views!
- Because they’re “neutral”
- They don’t want to upset their reader base by branding them with a political ideology
- They simply don’t want to!
Let me just say it, I haven’t got an issue with political media bias per se. I only have an issue with the secrecy surrounding it.
If tomorrow, all of the world’s major newspapers announced that they were officially left-leaning. I’d be fine with that. Even if the whole world was going into meltdown over it!
As long as it’s honest, rather than making the world guess, I haven’t got an issue with political media bias in the slightest!
How else does media bias affect us? Tell us in the comments!