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CHAPTER
What Biases Shape the News That We See and Hear?
Rliush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Lou Dobbs, Bill O'Reilly, Ann Coulter. Theirs are the voices of the radical right. Arianna Huffington, Jon Stewart, Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O'Donnell.
It's no wonder that tempers flare and blood pressure rises over claims of media bias. There's a fine line between news and commentary. There's also a fine line between news and entertainment. Glenn Beck, for example, has called himself a commentator, an entertainer, and a rodeo clown. He has also identified himself with the late Peter Finch's character Howard Beale from the 1976 film Network, who came to be known as the Mad Prophet of the Airwaves and whose catchphrase was "I'm as mad as Hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!" Bill Press, on the left, named his most recent book Toxic Talk: How the Radical Right Has Poisoned America's Airwaves (2010). Bernard Goldberg, on the right, named his A Slobbering Love Affair: The True (And Pathetic) Story of the Torrid Romance Between Barack Obama and the Mainstream Media (2009). The one thing that all sides agree on is that the days of objective news reporting are over — a serious concern no matter what one's political persuasion.
Formal Writing Assignment III: Policy Argument Formal Writing Assignment III English 5 – Critical Thinking in Reading and Writing Policy Argument Date Assigned: March 30, 2014 Prepare and include an Annotated Bibliography Readings: (in Elements of Argument 10/e) 1. What Biases Shape the News That We See and Hear (p. 644) 2. Media/Political Bias (p. 645) 3. America’s Town Meeting p. 651) 4. Most Americans Just Don’t Trust Them (p. 654) 5. The Age of Limbaugh: When Politics and Popular Entertainment Collide (p. 656) 6. Secrets of Talk Radio (p. 660) 7. Polarized News? The Media’s Moderate Bias Writing Assignment: We are conditioned to some extent to believe that public approaches to subject of truth are sincere. Encompassing any electoral process is Rhetorical in every aspect. We hear claims of fact, value, and policy coming from all candidates. The overarching question “What biases shape the news that we see and hear?” guides the group of reading. This is an opportunity to explore that very appropriate question. Aside from the readings, you must listen alternately to KSFO Radio at 560 AM, and KGO Radio 810 AM each for not less than 30 minutes to gain a sense of what is covered and how – attitude, tonal quality, etc. A written report of this listening assignment is part of this process, and must be employed as an additional source. This assignment enables students to use texts as models for argument, to practice analyzing and evaluating rhetorical strategies in print, visual, and auditoria media. Writing Prompt: How does one evaluate truth and fiction within the confines of a political climate? What biases do indeed shape the news that we see and hear (television, print media, and radio)? Are changes needed, and if so, where should and how should those changes be made? Does the general public deserve the truth? In preparation for writing: 1. Make “Thinking and Writing about Media Bias” (pp. 669-670) your first reading to help shape your thesis. This writing assignment must set forth a claim of policy 2. Prepare an Annotated Bibliography 3. Review American Psychological Association Style (APA) 4. Prepare References page with all 7 sources (plus 4 external sources) 5. Write an introduction and claim 6. Use APA formatting 7. Include the appropriate running head, References page. (Not counted in the 5-7 body pages.) 8. Policy Argument weighted 20% of Total Grade After completing the reading and annotating of the texts, and completing the writing process your paper should take shape as follows: 1. Introduction 2. Body (5-7 pages) 3. References page 4. Annotated Bibliography Criteria to be met: Essays will be judged based on successful demonstration of these five criteria: 1) focus on a specific assertive thesis/ primary claim in response to reading (and research); 2) clarity of organization; 3) support of claims with evidence; 4) awareness of multiple, conflicting perspectives on complex issues; and, 5) correctness. Grading Criteria: An “A” paper will exceed expectations in all five areas - demonstration well beyond the requirements of the assignment; a “B” paper will demonstrate well in all areas with exceptional performance in one or two; a “C” essays will fair well in all five areas; but both “D” and “F” papers will be lacking significantly in two or more of areas. Expectations for individual assignments will be included in written assignment handouts, and questions regarding expectations are always welcome.
Bias of the Media
Name:
Institution:
Introduction
Media is one of the most powerful institutions that a country has next to the government and its agencies. Much like the common saying that information is power; media houses collect information from the various sources and relay it to audience on global platform. One of the times that media houses reach close to their full potential, is during political campaigns where politicians need to reach out to the electorate with their manifesto. Media houses have a lot riding on their influence for political decisions (Holcomb, 2014). For this reason, there is the aspect of the media being used by various organizations and politicians to influence the electorate masses and decisions that they make on the day of casting their votes.
Skewed Media Representation
There is a lot of bias that influences the news that are delivered from the newsrooms to the audience. This means that, there is a twist behind the news that is cast to the audience. Every other agency from the business arena, academics, medicine, entertainment and the many others understand the power that is within the media. This leads to the media being used as a puppet for the highest bidder.
For the public, one requires more than a keen eye and ears to tell if the news they are receiving are genuine. Most of the time, it is hard to tell the truth from the fabrication in the news, given the amount distorted signs to the public. This is due to the fact that there are a lot of greedy corporate. Much of this control of the press stems from the birth of democracy, when the media houses were owned by a few wealthy individuals that had interest in the communities that they lived in (Peakoilstories, 2014). As such, media houses have the ability of influencing the public opinions and the government policies. At the moment, there are only a few media houses that own the massive media industry, making sure that they control all the news that their audience read and hear over a wide array of media platforms.
While the media wants the public to consider that the news and ideals passed across are neutral, this is far from the truth. Most of the time, the media is going to frame their news and casts in a certain manner that, if one looks on closely, they are going to see an emerging pattern. The public is fed with skewed information, while much of the relevant details that would otherwise alter the believe systems of the viewers are kept under the table (Wisegeek, 2014). Parts of the information are kept away from the public, hence there is a likelihood that public is going to sway in a certain direction for a particular opinion which they have been coached towards without their knowledge.
In most of the political rallies where certain media houses align with a given candidate, there is a likelihood that this candidate is going to get more air play. The other competing candidates are likely to be cast in bad light especially with reference to the mistakes they have had in the past. It is common to find that when a candidate of the opposing side comes to the studio, they are grilled on the various aspects of their political career that paints a bad picture of their competence (Kelly & Pax, 2004). While the favored candidate steps into the studio, much of the information will be on the great interventions that the candidate has had in their career, alongside images of exaggerated scores of their supporters. This is meant to bring out the image of one of the candidates as being a better official to vote for than the rest. In essence, they are not giving the right information for the electorate to make informed decision; instead they are playing with the minds of the audience through filtered and skewed information.
The media is a perfect tool when one wants to spread news of unrest and influence to the masses. During the various wars, especially the war in Iraq, some of the media houses reported some very disturbing news about the military and their cruel means of tormenting the Iraq people. The Newsweek paper run an article on some of the American soldiers that are said to have flushed a Quran down a toilet and held their captives on dog leashes leading them to their torture chambers. Most of the public felt this was unbecoming of the current government and the military. There was a public outcry and the white house responded in kind by pressuring the media house to retract the article. After some time while the pressure built up against the media house for printing such an outrageous article, they admitted that parts of the stories on the article were fabricated.
In most of the cases the media reports on the bad news more than they do on the good news. Much of the international news that relates to the Middle East, Africa and the Asian content relates to the demise of the people in these continents. Famine, war, hunger and death are the best sell points for the newsrooms. In most of the sessions, close to 100% of the news captions that are run through the news from most of the television stations are horrific news. Much of this news is used for political conquests, trying to paint the pictures of certain figures in bad light. Most people will agree that the affair of Bill Clinton and Hillary was immensely exaggerated in a very brutal, unethical and unfair manner and the same was the case with Al Gore during his campaign.
For the public the idea of a free press is founded on the fact that they would want the media to bring out the issue that matter most to them rather than orchestrate certain views to be adopted by the public. As such the public is caught up in a dilemma between grilling their leaders and getting the media houses to report fairly on the crucial issues of the country’s governance. However, in most of the cases the media has come out as having vested interest in the political campaigns which underlines the fact other than being media houses, they are also businesses and the political affairs of the country affect them directly. As such, most the media houses have a stake in the political party that wins the elections. When Reagan ran for presidency, the media chose to influence the public away from his candidature and focused their energies in bringing out the aspect of the Iran-contra issue. Within days the public approval rating of Reagan plummeted to an all time low putting his campaign in jeopardy. This is a clear indication of how the media tricks the public into making political related decisions.
For most of the public, the television is one of the most crucial platforms to watch during the presidential campaigns and those of the senate. It is hard to find that the public will turn to the magazines for the political news during the campaigns. Other than the television the radio is also a close relative to the audio visual platforms, as most of the public will listen to the radio where they cannot access the television such as while driving through the highways to and from work. The newspaper then takes over the stand where the audience wants to read more specific news that are directed towards certain factions of the campaign. In the local elections, this is where the newspapers take up the mantle of influencing the masses, as most of the public turn to the newspaper for more detailed news on the local scenes of politics.
It is interesting to note that it is not just the media that has the ability to turn the tables in the political arena, the government also has the power to influence what the media reports to the masses. One of the key elements of this twist is the fact that most of the information sources for the media are the government officials. This means that the officials can use this chance to lead the media houses in the direction of their choice, by giving them loaded information. In this age it is common to find that the government officials have the right to hold press releases, interviews, briefings and press conferences during which time they lead the media in their desired direction without looking too guilty about it.
Majority of the media houses are guilty of influencing the public in their favored political orientation. Most of the Americans as well have been found to be skeptic about the reliability of the news broadcast from the media houses, due to the fact that most of them have become puppets to certain individuals and organization. Out of the media houses batch there are some that are genuine but one cannot be sure if they have no way of telling the legitimacy of the information.
There are certain cues that the public can use to identify of the news are skewed in any way. One of them is the source of the information aired. Where the number of government and corporate sources that come to the studio or are reported on, go beyond the number of progressive voices and those of the minority, there is a need to look into the news much closer. This point also relates closely to the lack of diversity in opinion aired from the media houses. The point of view from wh...