My Project to Prove the Media is Biased

[Methos]

In my American Nation Government class our professor has assigned us some extra credit. We were discussing the role of the media when he asked how many of us felt the media was biased. Everyone’s hand went up. His reaction was for us to prove it.

Our instructions are to find some form of media bias and prove our point. I’m hoping you all can help me out. If anyone knows about an article or report that is biased by the media please send it to me. I need the source link please. Thanks!

Edit: Let me clarify, I do not have to prove a network is biased, but the news report itself is. I have to pick one single article and prove that article is biased. It can be anything from local on up.

 

[Erik Mesoy]

This is pointless. Both sides will overwhelm you with biased articles and claim that the other side's articles aren't representative of their real position.

A better idea would be to collect, say, two Democratic news articles, two Liberal news article, two Republican news article, two Conservative news articles, two non-US news articles, two self-proclaimedly independent articles, two Libertarian news articles, then strip out names and adjectives, have a (double) blind study to determine which ones look biased, then restore the names.

Do some work.

 

[Truronian]

A has been said before, the media is not a conglomerate organisation, and as such cannot be biased. Your best bet is to find two different media sources that have different political leanings (left/right being the obvious one) and point out the passages indicating any left/right bias.

EDIT: Or what Erik said

 

[Methos]

Edited OP to add this:

Let me clarify, I do not have to prove a network is biased, but the news report itself is. I have to pick one single article and prove that article is biased. It can be anything from local on up.

 

[skadistic]

CNN ABC NBC CBS MSNBC are all left leaning in thier editorial. Quess who is the right leaning one. In hard news its harder the writers while trying to be balenced lean towards personal views. Things like weather they are called terrorist or freedom fighter. There are also news groups that flat out refuse to call them terrorist. If you want to prove it you will need to watch the same incident on diffrent channles, compare and contrast them. If you do that with 5 diffrent sources from each media type then average it out You'll have your proff. And it will be slanted to the left over all.

 

[Erik Mesoy]

Quoted passages can only be said to have left/right bias from a middle ground, though, and nobody who is biased relative to the middle ground will ever admit that the middle ground is in any way neutral.

Also, while this isn't quite on the level of media bias, you could try to get a copy of media person Ann Coulter's Godless, then check on talk.origins for refutations of everything she says about evolution, thus proving that at least one person in mainstream media is either a big fat liar or clueless. Either way, it's because of bias towards the Religious Right.

 

[Truronian]

I feel your gonna have difficulty with that, bias is after all a difference in opinion. The only thing I can think of is maybe an article on something that would threaten the media... maybe a BBC article on public funding? (Sorry, I don't have much knowledge of the media in the US)

 

[Methos]

I'll give this forum another shot.

 

[classical_hero]

Just go through one of the Mid East threads and you will find yourself a biased article somewhere, whether it be for the Israelis or against them. Now search these threads for your example.

 

[Birdjaguar]

In my American Nation Government class our professor has assigned us some extra credit. We were discussing the role of the media when he asked how many of us felt the media was biased. Everyone’s hand went up. His reaction was for us to prove it.

Our instructions are to find some form of media bias and prove our point. I’m hoping you all can help me out. If anyone knows about an article or report that is biased by the media please send it to me. I need the source link please. Thanks!

Edit: Let me clarify, I do not have to prove a network is biased, but the news report itself is. I have to pick one single article and prove that article is biased. It can be anything from local on up.

Do you have newspapers where you live? Read any article. They are all biased in some way. War stuff should be easy to find as would be local stories about your city's government. Why do you need help in finding such an article?

 

[Dreadnought]

Msh, read the New York Times or Philadelphia Inquirer!

 

[sanabas]

If you want bias in a subjective piece, pick up any newspaper and read the editorial. If you want a supposedly objective piece that is biased, or flat out incorrect due to the bias of the author, I can heartily recommend Creation magazine, published by the fine folk at www.answersingenesis.org

 

[JtheJackal]

Msh, read the New York Times or Philadelphia Inquirer!

But which bias should you look for in The Philadelphia Inquirer? Conservatives say The Inquirer is liberal biased, liberals say The Inquirer is conservative biased. This kind of situation should say alot about "media bias"

If you want media bias, read the sports page, all biased for the local teams

 

[bhsup]

You can pretty much pick any article. If they even hint at any sort of an opinion, then it's biased, even if in a good way.

For example, take an article on poverty. If you catch the reporter saying something like "federal aid was better 10 years ago" that's a biased opinion because some people (cough cough) feel the feds shouldn't give ANY aid since it should be a state issue, and some feel the feds should give more.

 

[Dreadnought]

But which bias should you look for in The Philadelphia Inquirer? Conservatives say The Inquirer is liberal biased, liberals say The Inquirer is conservative biased. This kind of situation should say alot about "media bias"

If you want media bias, read the sports page, all biased for the local teams

The Inquirer is definitly favoring liberals. They ALWAYS support democrats in the elections!

 

[carlosMM]

If you want bias in a subjective piece, pick up any newspaper and read the editorial. If you want a supposedly objective piece that is biased, or flat out incorrect due to the bias of the author, I can heartily recommend Creation magazine, published by the fine folk at www.answersingenesis.org

well, bias is one thing, outright lies another, so maybe creation is not suitable though.

 

[col]

If you want to research this, try reading

Bad news by the Glasgow Media Unit.

http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/sociology/units/media.htm