Choose Your News: An Analysis on How News Coverage Differs Between News Outlets.
“ The news media are those elements of the mass media that focus on delivering news to the general public or a target public¹”
We have far moved on from the days when receiving news was a complicated process that was timely and, it’s safe to say, impractical. There is no longer use for couriers like in the old days; with the internet at our fingertips, we have the advantage of accessing to-the-minute news with simply a few clicks.
In the past, fact-reporting stories dominated the front pages of all sorts of news outlets, such as newspapers, and news programs. Nowadays, it is believed that news reports are influenced by the beliefs and opinions of their creator. In other words, the people believe that news reports are based on opinion and bias rather than facts.
Now of course every one has their “favourites” list of news outlets; CNN, The New York times, BBC, etc. are most often to appear on the list as they are considered the most reliable, among other outlets. However, according to Gallup, an analytics and advice firm, survey data, people are growing more distrustful about potentially biased news². Among the many that have resorted to social media platforms to express their concerns on this matter, Donald Trump has taken on twitter several times to express his resentment towards several news sources, referring to them as “the enemy of the people!”³.
Personally, I’m not big on politics, nor will I claim I know all about it for the sake of this blog, I do however check the news from time to time. After swapping what I would consider my go-to news sources such as CNN, The Economist, and a few others that have more of a neutral bias with news sources that are either left leaning or right leaning, I came up with some interesting finds; Donald Trump dominates every mainstream news source, as well as several less popular media sources, such as, the Washington Post and InfoWars. Shocker right..?
Considering the sequence of events that are a result of either wars, natural disasters, global warming or political feuds, it shocks me that media outlets choose to focus on one single person; Donald Trump. I wish I saw a more broader array of topics and concerns across mainstream media sources. It drives you to think, are our sources viable?
Another news outlet that I stumbled upon is Al Jazeera. Now, to some people, Al Jazeera might seem too extreme or have a strong bias towards certain topics. Al Jazeera showcases troublesome footages and Live- broadcasts from war zones in countries like Syria, Iraq and Palestine that are often harsh and aggressive. Some may not agree with this hardline approach, but war isn’t pretty, and I think there is no better eye-opener to the tragic events that are occurring around the world than showcasing a true behind-the-scenes experience.
Huffington Post on the other hand, seems to have very negative reviews. I scavenged the website for the latest news, which featured a bunch of categories: Politics, Business, Living, Blogs, etc. I cant say I have enough experience with the kind of news they broadcast or how factual it is, but from the research I have done, viewers seem to be skeptical of the validity of the news. Some claim that the Huffington Post releases completely made up stories. From what i gathered, it seems the Huffington Post isn’t a very reliable source.
We live in an era where social media is the number 1 platform to receive news, and share news as well. Sometimes the stories could be misleading, and sometimes it is totally made up. We live in an era of “ fake news” and it is important to know how reliable your sources are. Using this simple step, you can check the validity of those sources and where they lie on the bias spectrum. With the data-driven approach, readers can get a sense of where their favourite news outlets measure up on the spectrum and how valid their stories are. There’s no shame in following en extremely conservative news source, or an extremely liberal news source, but it is important to keep yourself exposed to a wide range of perspectives to receive a comprehensive representation of our shared reality⁴.
Works Cited
- “News Media.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 4 Feb. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_media.
- Rothwell, Jonathan. “Biased News Media or Biased Readers? An Experiment on Trust.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 26 Sept. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/09/26/upshot/biased-news-media-or-biased-readers-an-experiment-on-trust.html.
- Ralph, Pat. “These Are the Most and Least Biased News Outlets in the US, According to Americans.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 2 Sept. 2018, www.businessinsider.com/most-biased-news-outlets-in-america-cnn-fox-nytimes-2018-8.
- Tauberg, Michael. “How Does News Coverage Differ Between Media Outlets?” Towards Data Science, Towards Data Science, 4 Sept. 2018, www.towardsdatascience.com/how-does-news-coverage-differ-between-media-outlets-20aa7be1c96a.
