Talk:Media bias

Leftists do this

It's funny how I read how leftists do this. They start several accounts in their moms basements and then attack anyone who wants Wikipedia to be fair. But there are several articles from respected news sources discussing he Essjay affair and other Wiki scandals. The editors think they're protecting the gates of a new leftist revolution but they're just making themselves look like hacks by suppressing the creation of a leftist/"liberal" bias. Why not make a conservative bias page and a leftist/"liberal" bias page? Because the other people are exactly right, if you keep it as one page you can hide one of your main advantages as leftists: the leftist dominated media. I mean come on guys you make yourselves look so utterly foolish and contemptible when you act like you're children and we're dumb children who will believe you if you just lie and obfuscate enough. But sorry we're going to tell you what incompetent hacks you are as long as you leave up these monuments to your childish attempts at sabotaging the truth. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.119.35.93 (talk) 12:16, 31 March 2012 (UTC)

General rather than specific bias

I believe this article focuses too strongly on whether there is political or other type of bias in the media rather than the way it is biased. For example in the British Newspapers, particularly the tabloids bias and outright lies are introducable as fact and opinion are mixed without any notice. For example a paper might proclaim 'Child molester on trial' and if he were shown to be innocent might proclaim: 'child molester freed' rather than sperating the facts about a man on trial and their opinion of whether he did it in a later editorial.

Regardless of politics I think it is clear (from the below) that the media is biased, following the definition that their own journalistic standards are not followed (eg fact checking). This is shown to be the case (UK) in that most libel trials go against (British) newspapers (If this were added I would find the source but for a period in the 80's the paper 'The Sun' was infamous for never having won a libel trial in its history). In my own sphere of work also which is very specialised the papers usually get their facts wrong when reporting it which results on various 'calls' being made by them to fix issues which dont exist. - omricon posted 2 January 2007.

Consequences of Media Bias

There are the obvious consequences, like misleading the public, and many examples of this, but that has already been touched upon in the article. But the consequences within a news organization have not really been discussed.

All news organizations have their own stance on Media bias. Whether or not they are honest about it is irrelevant, but some are much more strict than others. Fox news for example seems to have a loose standard for enforcing neutrality. It is generally accepted that they are a right leaning organization. If the fox anchors appear to be biased, no consequences are really brought against them. That is the case with many American news organizations because there are no restrictions set regarding bias. A news organization can be as bias as they want, without any consequences from the organization itself.

News organizations in Canada however have more restrictions, so it is up to that company to enforce neutrality. CBC for example is very careful about what they say, and whether or not it comes across as neutral. If an anchor says something that's biased, they could be suspended, depending of course on the severity. But there is a long editing process before anything is stated on air, so usually a biased statement doesn't make it very far.

Consequences are hard to enforce because bias is fairly subjective. In most cases it is debatable as to whether or not something is biased or not. That is why bias is such a recognizable problem, but remains difficult to fix. 216.46.14.58 (talk) 13:53, 11 May 2011 (UTC)

Revamping and cleaning up the article

I would like to help improve this article. There are several items in this article that need work, starting with how media bias is defined in the first sentence, to the addition of scholarly research.

The introductory sentence sees problematic to me. Here is what it says now: Media bias refers to the bias of journalists and news producers within the mass media in the selection of which events and stories are reported and how they are covered. The term "media bias" implies a pervasive or widespread bias contravening the standards of journalism, rather than the perspective of an individual journalist or article. The direction and degree of media bias in various countries is widely disputed.

Example problem: "the bias of journalists and news producers within the mass media" is ok-ish, but "in the selection of which events and stories are reported and how they are covered" is actually not a bias, it is gatekeeping. Gatekeeping can be a factor in media bias, but is a completely separate topic.

A better start (with scholarly sources): The term "media bias" can have varied interpretations, but is often seen by news consumers as the opposite of accuracy, fairness, and balance in reporting, or the perception of favoritism towards one side of an issue over another. (Lee, 2005; Rouner, Slater, & Buddenbaum, 1999).

Another problem I'm seeing is the insistence that because many journalists are left-leaning (true), their reporting is therefore inherently left-leaning (not true). This statement is not supported by any sources, it is just an assumption.

There is a lot of POV in this article, which is expected, as this topic can (in the words of Grandpa Simpson) "angry up the blood". I will post potential changes on the talk page first. ScamperCat ^(meow) 02:27, 23 May 2011 (UTC)

Your suggestions sound good to me, though I think "varied Interpretations" gets off on the wrong foot. How about: Media bias exists when media show favoritism toward one side of an issue and ignore or attack all other views. It is the opposite of objectivity, fairness, and accuracy, the widely accepted standards of factual journalism. Rick Norwood (talk) 12:24, 23 May 2011 (UTC)

This gets closer to a definition of bias, but does not precisely reflect what the academic sources say. I do agree that "varied interpretations" is not ideal phrasing, but is a huge factor in the study of news media bias. In general, news media bias is not a concrete concept. It is fluid and tends to change with the times.

I intentionally did not mention "standards of journalism" as there are actually several theories of journalism, which each have different standards. The one that makes the most sense to me is the "social responsibility theory of the press" which has several pillars, one of which is that good news is "a truthful, comprehensive and intelligent account of the day’s events in a context which gives them meaning." I was concerned that bringing up standards of journalism would open a can of worms. But I am thinking now that leaving it out would do more harm than good for the article.

Also (nitpickingly), I am not sure about claiming that "media bias exists when..." as I'm sure examples can be found where these criteria are present, but bias is not. And I think that using the word "attack" sets a negative tone. The idea of the news media attacking a particular "side" of an issue can be explored further in the article, but I don't think it should be used in the introduction.

Finally, I think that we should explicitly refer to "media bias" as "news media bias" at least in the introduction, as that is what is generally meant. "Media" includes all types of media, from music to fiction to movies to television.

I'll try to work up an introductory paragraph with your suggestions in mind. Thanks for your input. ScamperCat ^(meow) 19:26, 29 May 2011 (UTC)

Many accusations of media bias refer to entertainment media, for example what's-his=name's attack on the tv series about the unwed mother (how soon we forget).

True, however, this is criticism as opposed to bias. ScamperCat ^(meow) 15:16, 30 May 2011 (UTC)

Also, (depending on which "unwed mother" you're talking about) this is criticism by the news media of television. Entertainment news is still part of the news media. Bias in television could possibly include claims that TV shows such as The Simpsons has a liberal bias, however, I don't think this is the context in which media bias is commonly used. Bias in other types of media could make a good subsection, though. ScamperCat ^(meow) 15:26, 30 May 2011 (UTC)

Actually, it was a politician criticising entertainment television for liberal bias. Rick Norwood (talk) 13:38, 31 May 2011 (UTC)

I had a general and a specific comment. The general comment is that I certainly agree that the section entitled "Scholarly treatment of media bias in the United States and United Kingdom" is far too long. The entire section deals almost exclusively with a tiny part of media bias; namely, political bias in contemporary US politics. That should perhaps be the name of an article where most of this section should reside. We could shorten it substantially, in my opinion, by simply listing the various scholarly enquiries that are most often cited along wih their general conclusions and skip the criticisms of those conclusions by others.

My specific comment. In the section "Experimenter's Bias," it states: "Research into studies of media bias in the United States shows that liberal experimenters tend to get results that say the media has a conservative bias, while conservatives experimenters tend to get results that say the media has a liberal bias, and those who do not identify themselves as either liberal or conservative get results indicating little bias, or mixed bias.[29][30][31]" In fact references 29, 30 and 31 do not refer to this ostensible research. I could not find, in those references, any mention of a study finding that liberal expermineters see a conservatvie bias and vice versa. As a matter of fact I could find no evidence of any such study being conducted anywhere. This statement--though it strikes me as intuitively true--should be supported by accurate references or removed.

--Mindfingers (talk) 05:13, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

Premise?

Media bias is an argument that an imaginary collective "media" favors one side in political debates and therefore twists facts to suit an agenda; the concept is as broad and amorphous as "corporate bias," "religious bias" or "human bias."

This article makes no acknowledgment of the fact that "media bias" is a construct of pundits, politicians and ideologues who want to sound scholarly when proclaiming their point of view as the only truth; alleging media bias should be considered a form of prejudice, a pseudo-objective attack on mass communication in the same way "intelligent design" adherents attack science.

The article has no substance unless it documents the rise of "media bias" as an argument promoting a political point of view -- and nearly always alleged by right-wing politicians against journalism itself. 72.148.152.214 (talk) 19:39, 28 August 2011 (UTC)

Media bias does not necessarily refer to bias of the entire media, but often refers to bias in one particular medium or one particular individual. If, for example, the anchorman for World News thinks New Yorkers are better than Californians, and slants stories to show how great New Yorkers are and what fools Californians are, that's an example of media bias.

There is considerable evidence that everybody is biased, and that media bias is impossible to overcome, but at least we should be aware of the problem.

Rick Norwood (talk) 14:17, 29 August 2011 (UTC)

You guys never explain why Obama's "corpse man" didn't make him as dumb as Palin (who you all know by one name because you most certainly do use your websites to coordinate attacks against conservatives--see Journolist which still exists just with new names). No one asked how Obama got into Harvard without even having command of common English pronunciations. This is the essence of bias. When an "anchor" gets tingles over Ibama, that's bias. Everyone has bias sure. So make a general bias page. Then let the 75-85% of people who believe in MSM leftist bias make another page. It can't be any worse than the pathetic attempt at propaganda you have up right now! This party won't go on forever my teen leftist friends. Eventually someone's going to make a better online encyclopedia if you guys keep messing this one up! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.119.35.93 (talk) 12:48, 31 March 2012 (UTC)

While I thank you for the complement of calling me a 'teen' (I'll be 70 this August) I have to point out that this page isn't a blog. Rick Norwood (talk) 14:54, 31 March 2012 (UTC)

Really?

Mentions of CNN and FOX but not a single one for MSNBC, the most biased network on the air?