The Effect of Partisan Media on the Nation
The Merriam Webster dictionary defines news as “a report of recent events”. However, due to the ever growing presence of social media in people’s lives and the partisan divide in America, news has gone from a report of recent events to a way to gain support for political ideals that occasionally recounts the day’s events. Of course, everything has bias, but how do the blatantly biased news sources affect the American public? Why is it that a news station in Alabama and a news source from Minnesota can report 2 completely different stories of the same event? When did news stop becoming a report of events and start becoming a report of people’s political views? The increase of partisan news sources misinforms peoples opinions and leads to mistrust in the media.
Social media and an increased access to media has allowed people to get access to news in a moment’s notice through a variety of different sources. Because of the increased access to news there is a source online supporting every opinion. No matter what you believe, someone will be reporting from your point of view. You can learn about what is happening in the world through a political lens you agree with. However, while this may seem helpful, having a journalist report directly to your opinions, and in turn report through a biased partisan lens, is a bad idea and compromises the integrity of news sources. While researchers are unsure if viewers tune into sources because they agree with the reporter, or if the reporter creates biased arguments based on viewership, it is in the best interest of the nation for news sources to return to reporting facts rather than opinions. While there is value to an op-ed, a nightly news broadcasts or daily report was created to inform people of what is happening in the world. The national news is supposed to be factual, not based on someone’s opinion.
In the age of mobile devices and evolving technology people have more media access than ever. This increase has led many news sources to take sides and report an opinion rather than facts because if one news outlet reports one side of an argument another source will cover the other side of the story. However, most viewers do not take the time to get news from more than one source and their intake of information becomes one sided. The results of a study by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science showed that after changing the default browser on a group of people’s computers to a known biased source, the individuals increased their intake of news from that source more than 50%, but almost all viewers failed to visit the news source report the opposing partisan view.
Coming in contact with sources that lean towards one specific political ideal shapes people’s perceptions of recent events to reflect the opinions of the reporter, rather than what they think for themselves. ESPN Sports Center Anchor John Anderson says that “News used to be about informing people’s opinions, whereas now people go to news sources to enforce their opinions”. If people had exposure to both sides of a story they would be able to form an opinion without being influenced by the writer. Increased access to partisan news sources means that the facts of a story get buried under a reporter’s opinion which creates another issue, mistrust of the media.
When news reporters began coating news in their personal opinions, viewers’ trust in the news decreased. Reports from a study by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) showed that “The long-term decline in trust and confidence in the mainstream press has been linked to numerous potential causes, most plausibly an increase in attacks from political elites and elected officials.” According to this, as people have used news reports as a platform to spread their opinions people have lost trust in the media to report facts. Results from the same study by the PNAS showed that of the subjects whose exposure to Fox News, a known partisan news outlet, was boosted, the subject’s trust in mainstream media decreased. Knowing this, it is crucial that news sources find ways to report facts without giving their opinions. News sources should uphold their obligations to strictly report facts of a story without giving their opinions and regain their integrity. If people are unable to get access to reliable news sources people will be unable to trust what is happening in the world. For example, the COVID-19 pandemic, something that would normally be based on scientific evidence, has become one of the most controversial topics in American Politics. Many people do not believe that the pandemic is real because of their mistrust in the government, the news, and the way the government is portrayed by the news. The way the pandemic is being reported leads to another issue. How mistrust in the media and partisan news sources affect the partisan divide in the country.
What effect does partisan news have on the growing partisan divide in the nation? When people turn in to watch a news report that only depicts one side of a story, or presents an event in a specific light, they are unable to form their own opinions and instead adopt those of the reporter. The Atlantic published an article in December 2021 titled The CDC’s Flawed Case for Wearing Masks in School.
The New York Times, in August of the same year, published an article titled Arkansas’ Governor says ‘it was an error’ to Ban Mask Mandates.
The two sources report opposite sides of a story. People who only read the Atlantic will be more inclined to believe that the mask mandates are unnecessary, while people who read the Time’s article will be persuaded to think that wearing a mask is in everyone’s best interest. If viewers read stories from a variety of sources they would be more informed to make a decision on their stance on masks, however because the majority of people don’t read multiple articles on the same topic they create an opinion based on the only thing they year. Viewer’s opinions and biases are shaped by what they hear, and by only being exposed to one side of an argument contributes to the divide of the American people. A report from Penn State University explained that “Teenagers and young adults don’t exactly know how to form their own opinions. It’s always ‘who does mom and dad hate’ or ‘what does mom and dad watch.’” News report’s work the same way. If individuals pay attention to multiple sources they will be able to form their own opinions rather than piggy-backing onto someone else’s.
The study from the National Academy of Sciences reported that “controlled experiments have often found that exposure to partisan media content causes polarization,”. This begs the question, would America be more united if news was less biased? How would this change the political divide in the country? While it’s difficult to say how much partisan news sources affect the overall partisan divide in the country there is no doubt that the increase in biased news has an effect on people’s opinions and in turn creates polarization in the country. While the solution seems simple, report news with only facts, this is unrealistic. Sources are then faced with the decision everyday of being reliable sources that report events or appealing to their viewers. In a perfect world, news sources would all be non-partisan, however it is unrealistic to expect all news sources to change what gets them views. A more likely scenario is to inform people of this issue in order to draw viewers to multiple sources, to hear both sides of a story, before forming an opinion.
Works Cited
Deggans, Eric, and David Folkenflik. “A Look at How Different U.S. Media Outlets Covered the pro-Trump Riot on Capitol Hill.” NPR, NPR, 7 Jan. 2021, www.npr.org/2021/01/07/954562181/a-look-at-how-different-u-s-media-outlets-covered-the-pro-trump-riot-on-capitol-.
Delkic, Melina. “Arkansas’ Governor Says It ‘Was an Error’ to Ban Mask Mandates.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 8 Aug. 2021, www.nytimes.com/2021/08/08/world/asa-hutchinson-arkansas-mask-mandate.html.
Gorvett, Zaria. “How the News Changes the Way We Think and Behave.” BBC Future, BBC, 12 May 2020, www.bbc.com/future/article/20200512-how-the-news-changes-the-way-we-think-and-behave.
Guess, Andrew M., et al. “The Consequences of Online Partisan Media.” PNAS, National Academy of Sciences, 6 Apr. 2021, www.pnas.org/content/118/14/e2013464118.
John Anderson, Personal interview, 18 February 2022
“Media Bias in Today’s Society.” PSU Seminar Blog, 6 Nov. 2014, sites.psu.edu/amandareznyk/2014/11/06/media-bias-in-todays-society/.
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.
Tsfati, Yariv, and Johnothan Coehn. “‘Perceptions of Media and Media … — Wiley Online Library.” Perceptions of Media and Media Eff Ects , 2013, onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/9781444361506.wbiems995.
Zweig, David. “The CDC’s Flawed Case for Wearing Masks in School.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 16 Dec. 2021, www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2021/12/mask-guidelines-cdc-walensky/621035/.
