Media bias when it comes to podcasts and social media news outlets.
Where is the favoritism when it comes to the media we receive everyday and why that is so…
Media is the main means of mass communication; this could be in many different mediums and have a variety of different forms. Radio, television, newspapers, podcasts… the list goes on and continues to multiply in which how we get our news. But with these alternative forms of media, it can come with several biases that can cloud our judgement of the taxonomy of skewed news and what is factual news. That is why we, as the audience, need to be more careful of what we listen to and what we view because our own media can deceive us.
Misinformation tends to spread especially on the social media sites we view everyday, and with our own natural bias, it is easy to be influenced by our own background, personal experience, and cultural context. So with this use of one-way communication, like podcasts and any form of posting and sharing, there is no form of a conversation. This being said, the news shared cannot be talked about, resulting in opinions only being accessed in a certain way and a great polarization in what you decide to take in.
Researchers found that social media tends to spread misinformation, alongside a bias when it comes to political beliefs and critical reasoning. Subsequently, it is at an all-time high and continues to grow due to the fact that these resources are effortlessly attainable. Not only do these different form of journalists give their own beliefs, the media site itself is the reason why this skewed news is spread in the first place. The algorithms prioritize what we “want” to see and continue to form from the engagements when selecting which posts users see in their feed and what podcasts show up on the sites we use; it is designed for us, by us.
So where can we find a non-biased news outlet? To be honest, it is going to be quite difficult. A significant amount of people tend to listen to podcasts, in continuity, look at things on their timeline aligning to their mown preferences and their own entertainment. It may be easier to find publications that aren’t left or right partisan rather than a podcast and/or your own media sites viewed in our day to day scroll. I sugesst you take a look at this video because it further explains why it is more difficult to be unbiased in today’s age.