Introduction
“The biases the media has are bigger than conservative or liberal. They are about making money, getting ratings, about doing stories that are easy to cover”. This saying holds a vast amount of truth. Americans and other populations of the world trust and believe on what the media reports on the media outlets as the truth (Allen p. 40). However, researchers have found out that media outlets distort the stories and news they report leading to much attention given to some news than others. Some news stories are not heard in the radios, watched on television or read on newspapers. Minor and trivial stories get much coverage than the major stories. Media bias describes the prejudice in the news that the media reports. It is perceived as an unfair or imbalance presentation of facts or selective reporting of which events or facts are reported (Hunnicutt p. 54-76). Most people argue that media outlets have biased presentations since they view the media outlets to take sides in their presentations and work to the advantage of the people they support. However, it should be noted that the conflicting ideas of the several interest groups make this assertion a debatable phenomenon.
Thesis Statement: Past survey researches have indicated that media bias is a debatable phenomenon that depends on the conflicting interests and ideas of influential people in the society.
- Media outlets have always ensured that their presentations are consistent with the values and ethics guiding the practice in the industry.
- For free and fair representation, there are set global media ethics, values and codes of conduct that are aimed at developing comprehensive set of principles and standards for the practice of journalism in an age of global news media (Groseclose & Milyo p. 1195 – 1205).
- The media outlets have always ensured they follow these values and ethics in their presentations but conflicting interests of politicians have always interfered with their freedom.
- Media outlets have three types of bias that stem from their actions. These bias include the following:
- Gate-keeping bias: the media houses sometimes show preference for selecting the stories from some parties over the others. In this type of bias, media outlets have at times prefer selecting stories from other people and avoid those from others. The impartial selection of stories are usually results into a bias on the part of the media outlets
- Coverage bias: in some cases, the media offer coverage to some parties while neglecting others. This bias is common in the political fields, where some politicians receive much coverage than their counterparts in a move to publicize their agenda.
- Statement bias: statement bias occurs due to favoritism of the media in presenting certain kinds of statements on one party in order to influence the public opinion on these parties.
- Past research studies have found out that media bias has great impacts both on the political and economic arena.
- Media bias changes peoples view on the political parties and personalities they support consistently with those that the media outlets are inclined to them.
- Media bias could result into political instability thereby affecting investment and consequently affecting the economic growth of a nation or the global economic arena.
- Media bias is computed by counting the times that a certain media outlet cites various prominent personalities and policy groups compared with the times that the members of the Congress cite these particular groups (Ward p. 1).
- Several methods have been developed to measure media bias. According to Tim Groseclose and Jeffrey Milyo’s article “A Measure of Media Bias”, media bias is measured by estimating ideological scores for major media outlets (Tim & Milyo, p. 1192).
- Once the media bias has been computed, it should be published for the public to realize the media outlets that have been inclined in their presentations. This could shape people’s opinion on the choice of the media outlets they choose. Consequently, the media outlets would adjust once they start losing customers to competitors.
Conclusion
Media bias has several causes and is presence in the industry is undeniably true. The media outlets have their weaknesses and the public induce the media to report bias information. Whether the media outlets favor parties through coverage, statements or gate-keeping bias, the impacts reflect on the public’s political and economic agenda. Voters’ opinion are shaped through the media since the public trusts and believes on the information that the media provides as the truth. Convincing the public otherwise would only come after they have witnessed the devastating economic effects of the political choices they made.
In controlling media bias, the national governments should intervene and ensure that the media outlets follow the codes of conduct as stipulated by the global values and ethics regulating media presentations. Interest groups also need to ensure that the government does not exploit their potential through misleading media outlets to favor them. Through these incentives, the media bias could be reduced, or even eliminated.
Works Cited:
Ward Stephen. “Global Media Ethics”. Centre for journalism Ethics: School of Journalism and Mass Communication: University of Wisconsin-Madison. (2002).
M. Allen. “Media bias in presidential elections: a meta-analysis”. Journal of Communication: Volume 50, Issue 4. Pages 3–227. December 2000.Web 10 Jan 2006.
Groseclose Tim & Milyo Jeffrey. “A Measure of Media Bias”. The Quartely Journal of Economics: Volume 120, Issue 4. Pp. 1191 – 1237.
Susan Hunnicutt. Media Bias: At Issue Series. San Diego: Greenhaven Press(CA), 2011. Print. Pp. 54 -76.
Joseph Harper & Thom Yantek. Media, Profit, and Politics: Competing Priorities in an Open Society: Other Books in the Symposium on Democracy Series. Kent, Ohio, USA: Kent State University Press, 2003. Print.
