Media Bias

In our modern day, media is a regular part of our everyday lives whether it be social media, news media, or some other form. However, while some media is helpful, a lot of media is just so full of bias that it is simply propaganda and is unhelpful to one looking for real information. In this article, we are going to take a look at media bias and how to identify it.

A bias in an inaccurate or unfair prejudice that causes one to present information in an inaccurate way either purposefully or on accident. One good example of purposeful bias is many news sites, where the information they present on one party is all negative and the information that they present on another party is all positive. Usually, this also involves the bringing in of false facts and statistics to make it look like they are correct. A good example of accidental bias is forgetting to double check your facts for accuracy or forgetting to account for something and it turns out that one or two of the facts were incorrect or something important was missing, which will make whatever you were doing inaccurate and likely favoring the wrong thing. Either way, bias is bad because it distorts the truth; instead, we should look for a fair representation of the facts. Now, bias does not mean that opinions are in and of themselves wrong, but that inaccurate or unfair ones are. Therefore, a good opinion is based in a fair representation of the facts. Now that we know what bias is, let us now look at how to identify it, so that we can avoid it in our selection of media.

First, let us look at purposeful bias. Purposeful bias consists of several types of biases. Confirmation Bias is when someone only looks for information that supports their pre-determined conclusion (which often also includes purposeful research and selection bias). This is backwards because proper reasoning is first looking at various facts and viewpoints, then making your conclusion. Affinity Bias is giving preference to a certain group or party of people just because they share something similar to you. Halo Effect is judging someone based on one positive thing (most often something very public). Social Desirability Bias is when someone says something or answers something in a certain way just to be viewed positively by others (often to gain support, money, or votes).

These biases can often be identified by carefully looking at the context of what was said or written. Ask yourself, does this article or person often only look at the positives of one group and the negatives of another group? If yes, than that is affinity bias. Does this article or person give fair representation to both sides of the issue? If not, then that is affinity and confirmation bias (because they sorted out good info on one group and bad on another). Finally, is this person using "trigger words" merely to make me feel a certain way about the issue (manipulation) or to shift the focus off of something they did or said (deflection, red herring)? Trigger words are hot topic issues such as abortion or immigration and sometimes they are used to make you quickly side with the speaker or forget about something. For example, if a person running for mayor is not doing well in an interview and they know that their city is anti-something, they will change the subject by bringing up a trigger word and say that they are also anti-something to make you forget about the whole interview. This is deflection by throwing what is called a red herring and desirability bias.

Now that we have looked at and can identify purposeful bias, let us take a look at accidental bias. Accidental biases result from mistakes caused by a situation or simple neglect. Anchoring Bias and Availability Heuristic are biases based on making quick judgements on recent information. This most often occurs with breaking news when there is limited information available, yet the news still wants to get on the story while it is happening. The simple way to deal with this bias is to wait to form an opinion on a reported event until 24-48 hours after it happens (though, obviously, if something requires quick action, like a natural disaster or major storm, do what you need to do to be safe and prepared). 24-48 hours is the standard length of time it takes for reliable info channels like police and FBI to react to, interpret, and report on the situation. However, note that major incidents may take longer for reliable information to come out. Therefore, later reporting on an event will always be more accurate than the breaking news.

Aside from that, there is accidental research and measurement biases. This includes things such as selection bias (bad representation of something), reporting bias (only reporting the most significant), recall bias (not remembering something correctly), and general mistakes in recording information. These types of biases can often be identified by cross-referencing what you are reading or hearing with other reliable sources of information or by double checking how the person got their information. Also, remember that these types of biases will happen to everyone from time to time; however, if some media constantly has these biases, then they are either unreliable or are purposefully doing it, and it is best to avoid them.