Bias in the News

Bias in the News

There are many different forms of bias in the news whether we realize it or not. Some types of bias are easily noticed, and other types are somewhat hidden.

The first type of news bias I want to discuss is Word Choice. With word choice, a journalist manipulates keywords of a sentence to elicit an editorial comment without the reader being explicitly aware that an opinion is being stated ( Lee, 1991 ). The difference of a single word changes the meaning to reflect opposing viewpoints. An example would be when one journalist writes “War in Iraq”, and another writes “War on Iraq”. The changing of that one little word gives the sentence an entirely different meaning.

Another type of news bias is Omission. Omission occurs when important information is not reported completely, or isn’t reported at all. When this happens, we get a biased perspective of what is actually going on. A good example of omission has to do with the coverage of the space shuttle The Challenger. Journalists covered the story extensively, but chose not to report on all the things that had gone wrong with the shuttle leading up to it’s take off. Therefore, when the shuttle exploded nobody knew what to think of it because we didn’t know that there had been any problems. We hadn’t gotten the complete story.

Biased selection and use of sources is also a type of bias. Biased selection and use of sources occurs when a journalist picks a so called expert on a topic because of the expert’s point of view and not because of being neutral and knowing a lot on the subject. If a reporter tells you that they are bringing on an expert on an issue to give the facts, be careful because the expert is probably favorably biased towards one side (Lee, 1991). An example of this would be a reporter bringing on a former democratic politician, who is considered an expert in politics, to discuss a political issue. Even though he is a “former” democrat he is probably still favorably biased to his old party, and the information he gives probably won’t be neutral.

Story Framing is another type of news bias. Story framing is what journalists use to quickly and efficiently process large amounts of information and make sense of complex stories. Frames guide journalists in deciding which details of a story to select and emphasize, and which to leave out or de-emphasize (Entman & Soloman, 2004). The different types of frames journalists may use are the conflict frame, consensus frame, reaction frame, wrong doing exposed frame, and the straight news account frame (Entman & Soloman, 2004). The most common frame is the conflict frame in which reporters structure their stories around a conflict that is often portrayed as being inherent in the issue being discussed. The consensus frame emphasizes general agreement. The reaction frame features the reactions of one or more important people involved in the story. The wrongdoing exposed frame reveals corruption or injustice. Finally, the straight news account frame is where the reporter just asks the standard who, what, when, where, and how questions.

The reason story framing is considered bias is because depending on which frame the reporter uses, you end up getting totally different stories. For example, if the politicians in Washington all support going to war but a significant percentage of the general population are opposed to the action, a reporter could frame the article with a consensus frame, focusing on the agreement between the Republicans and Democrats. Alternatively, the reporter could give the story a conflict frame, focusing on the difference of opinion between politicians and the citizens opposed to the war (Entman & Soloman,