MEDIA BIAS

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MEDIA BIAS OBJECTIVITY

• By
• Shareef Monica

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Objectivity

• It is, expressing or dealing with facts or
  conditions as perceived without distortion by
  personal feelings, prejudices, or
  interpretations.
• Journalistic objectivity has two components.
• The first is 'depersonalization' which means that
  journalists should not overtly express their own
  views, evaluations, or beliefs.

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• The second is 'balance' which involves presenting
  the views of representatives of both sides of a
  controversy without favouring one side.
• There are some conventions in order to attain the
  objectivity
• authoritative sources, such as politicians must
  be quoted

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• 'fact' must be separated from 'opinion
• and 'hard news' from 'editorial comment'
• and the presentation of information must be
  structured pyramidically
• The ideal of objectivity gives journalists
  legitimacy as independent and credible sources of
  information.

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• It also ensures a certain degree of autonomy to
  journalists and freedom from regulation to media
  corporations. 
• However, news reporting involves 
• judgements about what is a good story,
• who will be interviewed for it,
• what questions will be asked,

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• which parts of those interviews will be printed
  or broadcast,
• what facts are relevant and how the story is
  written.

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• According to David Brook, a famous American
  journalist there are five steps to achieve
  objectivity
• 1. The first stage is what somebody called
  negative capacity the ability to suspend
• 2. The second stage is modesty.
• 3. The third stage of objectivity is the
  ability to process data

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• 4. The fourth stage of objectivity is the ability
  to betray friends.
• 5. The fifth stage of objectivity is the ability
  to ignore stereotypes.

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• What does objectivity mean to a reporter?
• To be an objective reporter is to report an
  event or series of events in a way that does not
  reflect the reporters attitudes about the events
  and people involved.

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• How much objectivity is possible?
• Of three people watching the same event,
  one might see a demonstration, one might see a
  protest, and one might see a riot- and each will
  report the incident differently.
• Because psychologists have taught us that we
  enter every situation with a set- that is, a
  number of beliefs, expectations, and attitudes
  that determine what we notice and how we
  interpret what we observe.

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• Does lack of objectivity lead to loss of
  confidence among the public?
• Complaint about the lack of objectivity in
  media are frequent, both in print and visual
  media. It results in the loss of confidence on
  the part of the news-consuming public in what is
  reported to them.

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• The Objectivity is myth in Journalism?
• On closer examination, objectivity is easier to
  define than it is to attain in practice
• Because the world is a subjective construct
  unique to each person . For example
• several witnesses see a traffic accident no
  one could survive. Nonetheless, nobody is hurt.

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• All the witnesses see, objectively, the same
  event. Yet, what they "see" differs according to
  how they filter the information a devoutly
  religious person will see the hand of God in
  sparing the victims a politician may see a
  necessity for government action to make that
  intersection safer an attorney may see a
  potential lawsuit a sexist may blame a driver of
  the opposite sex.

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• For the people to describe the world they have
  created on the basis of what they have perceived.
  
• Even words are notoriously slippery things no
  word means the same thing to everybody or even
  anybody.
• for example

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• The lead in a news story might be, "There was a
  demonstration in downtown Mumbai today." What
  does "demonstration" mean a protest march, a
  sales show, an example during a lecture? Where
  exactly is "downtown Mumbai"? When is "today"?

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• Objectivity is very hard to attain in the present
  scenario where every media are inclined towards
  certain policies.

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What is Media Bias?

• Media bias is a term used to describe a real or
  perceived bias of journalists and news producers
  within the mass media, in the selection of which
  events will be reported and how they are covered.
• The direction and degree of media bias in
  various countries is widely disputed.

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History of Bias in Media

• Political bias has been a feature of the mass
  media since its birth with the invention of the
  printing press. The expense of early printing
  equipment restricted media production to a
  limited number of people. Historians have found
  that publishers often served the interests of
  powerful social groups.
• In the nineteenth century, journalists began
  to recognize the concept of unbiased reporting
  as an integral part of journalistic ethics.

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Role of Language in Media Bias

• Mass media, despite its ability to project
  worldwide, is limited in its cross-ethnic
  compatibility by one simple attribute --
  language. Language, in the absence of
  translation, comprises a barrier to a worldwide
  community of debate and opinion.
• The choice of language of mass media may
  represent a bias towards the group most likely to
  speak that language, and can limit the public
  participation by those who do not speak the
  language.

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Types of Bias

• Bias by omission Bias by leaving one side out
  of an issue, or a series of articles over a
  period of time ignoring facts that tend to
  disapprove their claims and beliefs.
• Bias by selection of sources - Including more
  sources that support one view over another.  This
  bias can also be seen when a reporter uses such
  phrases as "experts believe", "observers say," or
  "most people believe". 
• The stories which include experts, make sure
  that an equal number of experts from both sides
  of the issue are quoted.  If a story quotes
  non-experts, check that an equal number come from
  both sides of the issue in question.

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• Bias by story selection - Highlighting news
  stories that coincide with the agenda of one
  political party while ignoring stories that
  coincide with the agenda of the other.
• Bias by placement - Story placement is a measure
  of how important the editor considers the story
  and where does he place it.
• To locate examples of bias by placement,
  observe where a newspaper places political
  stories.
• Bias by spin - Bias by spin occurs when the story
  has only one interpretation of an event or
  policy, to the exclusion of the other spin
  involves tone - it's a reporter's subjective
  comments about objective facts makes one side's
  ideological perspective look better than
  another. 

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Examples of Media Bias

• Ethnic or racial bias which including racism,
  nationalism.
• Corporate bias, the reporting of issues to favor
  the interests of the owners of the news media and
  the corporate. (Eg. IPL coverage,Rupert Murdoch
  case)
• Class bias, Including bias favoring one social
  class and ignoring the other. (Eg. Aarushi murder
  case, Scarlett murder case)

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• Political bias, including bias in favor of or
  against a particular political party, candidate,
  or policy. (Eg. Sakshi supports Congress
  Eenadu supports TDP, Jaya TV etc.)
• Religious bias, including bias in which one
  religious or non religious viewpoint is given
  preference over others. (Matha Prasanna case)
• Sensationalism, which is bias in favor of the
  exceptional over the ordinary. This includes the
  practice whereby exceptional news may be
  overemphasized, distorted or fabricated to boost
  commercial ratings. (Eg Rakhi Sawant and Mika
  case, Abhishek Aishwarya wedding)

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• Ideological bias based on personal philosophy
  which may include liberalism, conservativism,
  progressivism, communism, etc.
• Peer culture bias Bias based on popular
  opinions of one's peer group which may include
  environmentalism, anti-globalization, etc.
• Bias based on sex, age, background, education,
  language, among others.
• Bias toward ease or expediency This can be a
  tendency to present information which is already
  widely reported in other news media. This type of
  bias is largely attributed to the relatively low
  cost of presenting these stories compared to
  investigative journalism.(Eg. Michelle Obama
  pregnancy, US elections news)

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How to Detect Bias in News Media?

• Who are the sources?
• Be aware of the political perspective of
  the sources used in a story. Media over-rely on
  official(government, corporate etc.) sources.
• Count the number of corporate and government
  sources versus the number of minority voices.
  Demand mass media to expand their spectrum.
• Is there a lack of diversity?
• What is the race and gender diversity at
  the news outlet compared to the communities it
  serves? In order to fairly represent different
  communities, news outlets should have members of
  those communities in decision-making positions.
• Demand that the media you consume reflect the
  diversity of the public they serve.

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• 3. From whose point of view is the news reported?
  
• Political coverage often focuses on how issues
  affect politicians or corporate executives rather
  than those directly affected by the issue.
• Demand that those affected by the issue have a
  voice in coverage.
• 4. Are there double standards?
• Do media hold some people to one standard
  while using a different standard for other
  groups?
• Expose the double standard by coming up with a
  parallel example or citing similar stories that
  were covered differently.

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• 5. Are stories on important issues featured
  prominently?
• Look at where stories appear. Newspaper
  articles on the most widely read pages and lead
  stories on television and radio will have the
  greatest influence on public opinion.
• When you see a story on government officials
  engaged in activities that violate the law on the
  back pages, call the newspaper and object. Let
  the paper know how important you feel an issue is
  and demand that important stories get prominent
  coverage.

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For the Consumers

• The real purpose is to identify some of the
  systemic causes for what appears to be a bias in
  the news media. Most journalists sincerely
  believe they are doing the right thing -- and
  they probably are. But some of the macro-scale
  factors at work around them make it impossible
  for their work to seem neutral or fair or
  balanced, no matter how hard they might try. The
  better we understand those larger factors, the
  better we're able to change our expectations as
  consumers and address those larger factors in a
  way that could make reporting better for
  everyone.

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Points to Ponder

• Government and advertisers are the greatest
  sources of revenue for the media. So is the media
  justified to be biased towards them?
• The demand for sensational news is more, so
  should media cater to their consumers demands and
  be biased towards sensational issues over the
  important ones?
• Are the journalists justified to be biased
  towards the side they feel is more truthful?
• What could be done to check bias in the media?

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• Mass media not only report the newsthey also
  literally make the news. Do you agree with this
  statement ?
• Does lack of objectivity lead to loss of
  confidence among the public?
• How much objectivity is possible?

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• THANK YOU