How News and Media Bias Impacts its Readers

Caitlin Collins

Mr. Ambrosio

College Research Writing

11 December 2019

These days, the glorified blog that we call the news, is impacting our thoughts in order to please the customer and those in power. The news is supposed to be a vital mechanism to spread important information about the country and the world to its people. The news is straying further and further from the truth with every passing year, keeping people reading from the same few news channels, which produce a slight variation of the same story with the same opinion. The result is the news channels forcing the citizens to think that they have their own opinions on the matter, but they just have the opinion that the news channels force fed to them.

The news is becoming more opinionated and it’s getting harder to differentiate the facts from the opinion. This gets even worse when you bring in politics because it causes some people to only read specific news channels to avoid the other side of the argument. The most popular news channels are very biased, such as this CNN quote, “there is no question that what we saw on display over the past three days was a nightmare scenario for Republicans that further complicates their already difficult task of continuing to defend this President and his actions”, which offers a very bias opinion on this subject (Cillizza). By using words like “nightmare scenario” and “already difficult task” it expresses the writer’s animosity toward the President, which is absorbed by the reader and can influence their opinion. This makes people tend to rely on the same news sources, which all contain the same basis of opinion, resulting in a reader that thinks they have formed their own opinion, but have merely consumed the bias pressed onto them by the media. Fox News, for example, is a known Republican party affiliate, and according to the Pew Research Center News Consumption Survey, its audience consists of 40% Republican, 33% Independent, and 22% Democratic (“Section 4…”). This is shown further by a show aired on Fox News, The O’Reilly Factor, which has an audience consisting of 52% Republican, 30% Independent, and 15% Democratic (“Section 4…”). Furthermore, this data shows that the viewers of the Republican-affiliated news channel are a majority Republican, leading to these viewers absorbing more opinionated facts that support their opinions fed to them by the news channel.

The news used to be completely factual, with little to no opinion, and it was used to spread information to the citizens. When the Press was first instated in America, it was the only way people would receive information. The information was factual, with no subjectivity, but it “had parallel growth with growth of the country and government. Initially the media presented a broad spectrum of viewpoints, but economic pressures and consolidation have served to narrow this spectrum. There is growing concern that objectivity has been a casualty in this process.” (“An Examination…”). Therefore, as America grew, and people grew into power, they were able to control what goes into the media in order to sway the public opinion of a subject. News and media bias can also pressure a person into thinking and feeling a certain way, such as in 1984 and the two minute hate. As stated in the novel, “The horrible thing about the Two Minutes Hate was not that one was obliged to act a part, but that it was impossible to avoid joining in.” implicating that due to the manipulation by the media, the citizens of 1984 were so heavily pressured to join, it was impossible not to (Orwell, 5). What used to be news can be very difficult to find, with most news nowadays, it’s politically opinionated one way or another.

The news today is very opinionated and has a great impact on the reader. For instance, Melania Trump posted a video to exhibit the decoration of the White House for Christmas, and the Washington Post, while commenting on the video in a fashion editorial, stated, “But more than a silly fashion folly, the coat is a distraction. It’s a discomforting affectation taken to a ludicrous extreme. In a video that is intended to celebrate the warmth and welcoming spirit of the holiday season, that simple flourish exudes cold, dismissive aloofness” (Givhan). This slanted commentary is not only unnecessary, but it is also excessive. The author of this article did not have to use words like “fashion folly”, “distraction”, and “cold, dismissive aloofness”, but they put them in in order to rip at the first lady, and say that her choice in fashion was distracting to those who just wanted to see the decorations. This commentary impacts the reader greatly because they may read this and think that the writer is correct, and then switch their opinion based off of it. If a popular news channel were to write an article shaming someone in power, even if it wasn’t true, people would still believe it was a credible source because “endorsements are influential in the sense that voters are more likely to support the recommended candidate after publication of the endorsement.” (Chun-Fang Chiang). Since news channels gain credibility and popularity as time goes on, the more popular they get, the more they tend to write more subjectively.

These news companies choose to write subjectively in order to please the customer. To give an example, research done in marketing and economics by Yi Xiang and Miklos Sarvary “explains the phenomenon [of media bias] by assuming that consumers want to read (watch) news that is consistent with their tastes or prior beliefs rather than the truth.” (Xiang and Sarvary 1). The news channels tend to assume that the audience they capture likes to continue reading their news with the same slant on it, which is, for the most part, true, but it also repels customers that do not relate to that specific slant. In another study done by James N Druckman and Michael Parkin, they “[found] compelling evidence that editorial slant influences voters’ decisions. [The] results raise serious questions about the media's place in democratic processes”, meaning the news and media portrayal of events has a huge impact on the reader and their opinion on the event (Druckman and Parkin). The major slant that the media and news have causes an extreme polarization of the American people. The media and news “have responsibly attempted to report the news objectively, while too often left-leaning or right-leaning broadcasters dangerously twist the truth, further polarizing U.S. politics” (“Media Power…”). America, when it comes to politics, is a very polarized nation, either Democratic or Republican with very little in between.

Partisan media, to put it simply, is news or media that strongly supports a party or person. This new type of news coverage, one intended to please those in power, has major effects on the reader. Research about partisan media “demonstrate[s] that partisan media polarize[s] the electorate by taking relatively extreme citizens and making them even more extreme. Though only a narrow segment of the public watches partisan media programs, partisan media's effects extend much more broadly throughout the political arena.” (Levendusky). People’s opinions are very flexible and influence from a powerful source can leave an imprint on the person’s attitude toward information.

The news and media is the basis of every way that information about important people and events is spread. The way that it is being portrayed and spread is causing extreme polarization of our country, and the news needs to be fixed. The news and media needs to become less subjective on every aspect, and focus more on spreading information than spreading opinions and false facts. The news and media bias is to blame for the polarization of the people, and if they change to become strictly objective and factual, it would create a much safer and calmer way of spreading information and discussing these topics.

Works Cited

“An Examination of Bias in the News.” Defense Technical Information Center, https://apps.dtic.mil/docs/citations/AD0760922

Chun-Fang Chiang, Brian Knight, Media Bias and Influence: Evidence from Newspaper Endorsements, The Review of Economic Studies, Volume 78, Issue 3, July 2011, Pages 795–820, https://doi.org/10.1093/restud/rdq037

Cillizza, Chris. “The Public Impeachment Hearings Were a Total GOP Disaster.” CNN, Cable News Network, 22 Nov. 2019, https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/21/politics/impeachment-hearings-house-gop-nunes/index.html

Druckman, James N, and Michael Parkmin. “The Impact of Media Bias: How Editorial Slant Affects Voters.” The Journal of Politics, vol. 67, no. 4, Nov. 2005. The University of Chicago Journals, https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1468-2508.2005.00349.x

Givhan, Robin. “Perspective | Melania Trump's Christmas Decorations Are Lovely, but That Coat Looks Ridiculous.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 3 Dec. 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2019/12/02/melania-trumps-christmas-decorations-are-lovely-that-coat-looks-ridiculous/

Levendusky, Matthew. (2013). Why Do Partisan Media Polarize Viewers?. American Journal of Political Science. 57. 10.1111/ajps.12008.

"Media Power and Bias: Should journalists always strive to be objective?" Issues & Controversies, Infobase, 9 Sept. 2013, https://icof.infobaselearning.com/recordurl.aspx?ID=6296. Accessed 22 Dec. 2019.

Orwell, George. 1984. New York, Signet, 1977.

“Section 4: Demographics and Political Views of News Audiences.” Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, 18 Sept. 2018, https://www.people-press.org/2012/09/27/section-4-demographics-and-political-views-of-ne

Xiang, Yi, and Miklos Sarvary. "News Consumption and Media Bias." Marketing Science, vol. 26, no. 5, 2007, p. 611+. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A171540869/ITOF?u=nysl_li_harb&sid=ITOF&xid=cb14e97a. Accessed 22 Dec. 2019

Caitlin CollinsJanuary 10, 2020