Media Bias: Its Impact and What We Can do to Overcome It
With the election year approaching, you’ve likely heard discussions around media bias. In fact, according to survey results shared in Business Insider, “Americans believe that 62% of the news they consume on TV, in newspapers, and on the radio — and 80% of the news they see on social media — is biased.”
What is Media Bias?
Media bias is defined as “the bias or perceived bias of journalists and news producers within the mass media in the selection of many events and stories that are reported and how they are covered.”
For example, a publication may be known for being biased towards the right-wing. Their content would likely promote Republican ideals and candidates with stories favoring them. In contrast, left-wing media outlets would lean towards favoring Democrats.
The Impact of Media Bias
Whether perceived or real, media bias has a large impact on what content we’ll read, the value we place on it, and our ability to engage with it.
Content We Read
Media bias impacts the choice of content we read in two key ways. First, it impacts what we’ll read by dictating what news outlets we visit for information. For example, Fox News has a reputation for being a right-wing news outlet, so it naturally attracts a right-wing audience. Those who tend to have left-wing values are likely to seek out information from news outlets that are considered left-wing, such as Huffington Post. This skews the type of information people are accessing by slanting the content they’re digesting.
Secondly, media bias impacts the content we read by influencing the links we’ll click on social media and other networks. When a headline catches your attention, it’s highly likely that before clicking the link you check to see the source of the article. Have you ever found yourself not clicking because of the source? If so, and it’s likely you said yes, have you ever considered why? Oftentimes, we avoid information that we feel will be inaccurate due to bias, even if we don’t realize that’s what we’re doing. So if your views lean right and an article was shared from a news source that supposedly leans left, you likely won’t take the time to read it.
The Value We Place on Content
Even if someone takes the time to read an article from a news source that is known for having a bias, they are likely to place more or less value on the information depending on whether or not their personal views align with those of the publication. While the actual details of a news story may not have much room for interpretation, the way they are written can leave room for misleading information, confusion, and bias.
Due to this, the value that we place on content is highly dictated by the outlet doing the reporting. For example, someone may argue that the details of a news story must be misrepresented because of the political affiliations of the news outlet or reporter, leaving them in disbelief that the full-story is true. Or, the accuracy of a news story may be questioned because the writing may be written in a way that indicates a bias towards a political party.
This is especially dangerous in our political dialogues. As we’ve learned from the past election, biased and fake news reports can cause entire populations to shift their votes to sway an election.
Our Ability to Engage With Content
Even if you get past the source of an article, read the article in full, and develop our own opinions about the content, the ability to engage with that content can come into question based on media bias. The primary place where this is seen is within the comment sections of media outlets.
To begin, there’s an inherent bias based on the people commenting on an article. As previously mentioned, it is likely that the readers of an article have similar views to those of the publication at hand. As a result, the comment sections tend to represent the viewpoints of the media outlet. Even for news sites that have opted to remove their comment section in favor of moving the conversation to social media channels, there is still bias in the comments because the majority of people who join the social discussion will be those who “like” the publication.
In addition, comments on news sources are subject to moderation. This means that a person who is hired by the media outlet — and would subsequently have similar views as the news source — is reviewing your comments to determine whether they need to be removed or given a lower priority. This leaves little motivation to engage with an article that you disagree with or have questions about.
More importantly, if you’re reading a right-wing publication, any comments favoring democratic policies or politicians may be removed or given low priority and vice-versa. This means that anyone who disagrees with the publication may have their voice silenced so that they cannot provide alternate information, discuss other viewpoints, or debate topics with their peers.
As a result, false information is more easily spread, political parties end up even more divided, and media bias ultimately succeeds in alienating citizens.
How We Can Overcome Media Bias
While media bias surrounds us daily and has dire consequences, there are things we can do to help overcome its impact on our daily lives and outlook.
Getting News From Less-Biased Media Outlets
As much as I’d like to title this section, “getting news from unbiased media outlets,” it’s hard to find a news source that completely lacks bias. Although it may seem impossible to get news from an article that doesn’t skew in a particular direction, by reading news from sources that are known for eliminating bias in their reporting you can avoid having your views manipulated through reporting.
While there is no perfect list of unbiased media outlets, this lineup from Forbes is a good place to start.
Reading Content from Multiple Sources
Another way to help overcome media bias is to read stories from multiple sources. For example, after a political debate, read multiple articles about the debate from sources ranging in affiliations. This way, you don’t solely rely on information coming from one end of the political spectrum.
Though it can be hard to read every new story multiple times, for political content, local content, and international news especially, it’s especially important to review a broad range of articles.
Engage in Discussions Without Biased Moderation
Rather than succumbing to the moderation-filled comment sections and social media channels of biased news networks, it’s important to find ways to engage in discussions free from those biases. While moderation is necessary for hate speech, criminal discussions, and other inappropriate content, it does not have a place in supporting the bias of a news organization.
To ensure that your discussions are free from biased moderation, it’s vital to utilize a third-party that has no ties to any media outlets. Zeeker, a new Google Chrome Extension, allows users to engage in online discussions on any webpage. The easy-to-use window opens over any webpage, allowing Zeeker users to begin or contribute to a dialogue on news articles, in addition to other content on the web.
Because Zeeker has no affiliation to the websites themselves, there is no moderation based on the affiliations of these media outlets. Instead, moderation solely exists for the purpose of eliminating hate speech and similarly inappropriate commentary.
By removing the opportunity for media bias in comment sections, dialogues open up that allow for a healthy discussion about politics. This provides a place for people from all political parties to engage in conversations that challenge each other’s opinions and notions, leaving room for finding middle-ground between parties and slowing down or eliminating the spread of false news. This ultimately helps keep inaccurate reporting from swaying voting decisions, helps bridge the political gap between parties, and helps ensure accurate information is shared and discussed.
Understand Media Bias and Your Relationship to it
While it’s hard to completely avoid media bias, the best way to overcome it is by fully understanding what it is and your relationship to it.
Whether it’s beginning by acknowledging that your go-to news outlet has biases and making a conscious effort to identify and understand them as you read your news or by vowing to engage in discussions solely on bias-free platforms, by mitigating these biases you can take steps towards overcoming them.
