BLOG #3- A biased world we live in

 Blog #3 

Slanted reporting, in other words, is biased reporting. The Cambridge Dictionary defines slanted as "showing information about one person, one side of an argument, etc." Slanted reporting can be sneaky, you may not catch it. 

There are many types of bias in the media. First, there is bias by omission- when the reporter leaves out one side of the story. The bias of selection of sources- sources only support one side.  Bias by story selection- only choosing stories that support what they think. Bias by placement- when some stories seem important to the reporter and others are placed poorly so they are not seen as important. Lastly, there is bias by labeling- call out politicians with extreme labels on one side and won’t say anything about the other. They will also falsely label people as “experts” (Media Bias)

Slanted reporting is a huge issue in America. Almost every media outlet supports one side of politics. It is sad when you think about it because it can be easy to manipulate people into supporting a side. It is important to be able to hear the news from a factual and unbiased point of view. Then, people can make their own decisions on what they think is good or bad, right or wrong. There are big news outlets, like CNN and Fox News, where it is commonly known what side they support, but some outlets you may not know. According to the National Library of Medicine, a survey of journalists showed that 78% of journalists identified as Democrats and 21% as Republicans. This percentage is only of the journalists who picked a side, there was also 23% who chose independence and were not included in the graph. Looking at these numbers, a much larger percentage of the news is liberal. The article also states “Unbiased political media coverage is vital for a healthy democracy.” If mainstream media is people’s only news source, there is a greater percentage of them read or listen to liberal-favored news. It is good to do research on your own to find out the real facts because both liberal and conservative news are biased and may not be the complete truth.

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Let’s look at the article Republicans Fear Jordan Speaker Bid Could Cost Them House Majority from The New York Times. The New York Times is known as a liberal news outlet, and this article seems to be too. The article is why Republicans should be scared of the upcoming election, because of supporting the republican representative, Jim Jordan. There are facts in this article, but also many opinions to go along with. The purpose of this article is to create disgust for Jim Jordan and the republican party. I would say the audience is liberals because it bashes on the other side and says nothing bad about the democratic party. The context of the article is coming from a liberal reporter and informs what is currently happening in the House of Representatives. Here is one example from the article 

“Still, the political climate isn’t substantially different from last year, when Republicans failed to achieve the expected sweeping victories and won the House majority by just four seats. One of the only things that have shifted since then is the demonstrable failure of House Republicans to govern”

The journalist shares her opinion using the words failed, expected, and just. It is clearly dissing the republican party, because not everyone may think the House Republicans failed to govern. The article also talks about a survey with a higher percentage of Republicans who wanted to work with Democrats to form a bipartisan governing coalition to choose a new speaker. I don't know how credible this survey is, because the data was collected by Democrats. I think the more biased the source, the less credible it is. Take a look at the article to find many more examples of slanted reporting.  

In conclusion, mainstream media is full of slanted reporting. It seems like everything is political these days so it is good to do your own research to find the truth. Though, that may still be hard to find. It’s always good to be conscious of biased reporting, so you can make your own opinion. 

Thanks for reading!