Uncovering Bias in the News

Uncovering Bias in the News — page 3 — Media organizations can reveal their bias through the stories they choose to cover and how they cover them business owners an environmental expert and a city council member Meanwhile a blogger posts a photo online The photo shows a destroyed beaver dam His post says

Uncovering Bias in the News — page 4 — the stadium will harm local beaver populations Within a few hours the post has gone viral The next morning a radio host interviews the team coach who is outraged He cannot believe people oppose the project He says the team needs the MUZZLING THE MEDIA Countries such as China North Korea Russia Iran Turkey and Venezuela practice media censorship These countries limit the powers of the press They block or filter websites They may shut down news outlets that criticize the government They may even sue jail or harm journalists Governments around the world also spread biased information called propaganda new stadium All these news outlets are reporting on the same event But each account has a different bias The varying approaches can affect how audiences understand the news

Uncovering Bias in the News — page 5 — IN THE REAL WORLD BIAS IN THE NEWS News media outlets offer a massive amount of information every day The Internet TV radio newspapers and magazines are all CONFIRMATION BIAS A news story has various sides But people often reject information or evidence that does not support their opinions This is known as confirmation bias David D Alessio is a professor at the University of Connecticut He says that people tend to notice bias that differs from their own point of view We know that when people look at a story they pick out the stuff that disagrees with them and say This is a biased story types of news media Generally people expect the news to be objective Trustworthy news organizations aim to give complete and balanced accounts They offer a range of viewpoints to ensure fairness and accuracy They use multiple diverse sources And they try to be neutral so viewers can draw their own conclusions

Uncovering Bias in the News — page 6 — TONE OF NEWS COVERAGE Media outlets may try to remain unbiased But their coverage shows otherwise In 2012 the Pew Research Center studied how three cable networks covered the presidential candidates Barack Obama was the Democratic candidate Mitt Romney was the Republican candidate How did the networks differ in tone How does this help you understand news bias PERCENT OF STORIES WITH TONE OBAMA CNN 21 46 6 Negative MSNBC 15 39 18 FOX NEWS Positive ROMNEY CNN 36 11 FOX NEWS 12 28 MSNBC 71 3

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