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Autumn Black

Mrs. Granville

Period 5

11 November 2016

Media Bias is Based on Peoples Values and Money

In history, people have found verification of the news being prejudice. For instance, in

1939 Germany, Adolf Hitler controlled a great deal of the media, in hopes of gaining supporters.

The late 1800s American yellow journalism would portray a slum to achieve profit from

common man. Today it is said that Vladimir Putin starts off the day writing the news. The media

has consistently had bigotry and not many are curious enough to entirely understand what goes

into being biased. There are two essential components in being bent, one is capital and two is

people's values and outlooks.

Newscasters have a business outlook, making advertising shadow over what can be

presented as information (Streissguth, 37). Anchors want to continue their career, so they will

accept advertising money. On the same hand, newscasters will only welcome ads that fit the

viewpoint of their audience. As advertising grows, a monopoly newspaper will end up under

reporting on all topics sensitive to advertisers (Ellman, 682). A case of this would be if there

was an ad for organic farming, the news would not address how organic farming is releasing

greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. If the broadcast did the advertisement could easily

withdrawal, making the news company lose accurate stories and payment (Ellman,683).

Together with the business outlook, competing papers will write inaccurate, opposite

opinions in order to agree with people's values and to avoid head on competition (Ellman, 682).

The absurd part is that competition removes favoritism created by advertisements. With the same
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example, if one company wrote about how marvelous organic farming is, in order to keep their

audience's viewpoints in check, another company will compose the opposing idea. Which then

leads to the advertisement losing power. Rival news may take an easy way out and use others

information to meet a deadline, whether or not their facts are right (Streissguth, 41). If viewers

spent an equal amount of time watching Fox's Special Report as ABCs World News and

NBCs Nightly News, then they would receive a nearly perfectly balanced version of the news

(Sullivan).

Additionally politicians have an affect on the media, especially during election year.

Politicians are equal with the ads, along with how the media portrays and edits them. If one is

portrayed in light, more Americans will accept them (Niven, 7). To fully get the right facts,

people must watch or read more than one or two news casters. When receiving the news, people

need balance, especially when election years comes about, to get a good representation of who

will be the best pick. Some candidates allowed to get away with absurd overstatements when

others are called to task for minor misstatements another commentator wondered with regard to

the media as a whole (Niven, 6). Politicians will spend millions in order to have themselves

painted in a positive light. By office holders willing to spend large sums of money, they connect

well with ads, even the refusal of them because of their views and the outlooks of the audiences.

Opinion writers brand themselves by following a reliably liberal or conservative viewpoint,

always slanting the information their way and giving a positive spin to their own causes and the

politicians they support (Streissguth, 37). It primarily depends on the viewpoint of the one

writing the news whether or not the government worker is shown in light or darkness.

In the real world bias is present in many forms: in language used, in the precision of the

story, in the quotes used from interviews, and in background information. Each aspect means a
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choice on the part of the reporter (Streissguth, 35). After an interview , the inquirer has to

decide what is important and what they need to edit or write out. Even if the reporter has

everything that was said they may word it differently to have an offbeat effect on the audience.

The editor does this for two reasons, to only show what they feel is important and to get a

reaction from the audience. Editors don't want to anger their audience by surprising them with

stories outside the predictable mainstream (Streissguth, 37). Most people do not want to leave

their comfort zone in any case, let alone the news stories they hear. The media may not be

successful much of the time in telling people what to think, but is stunningly successful in telling

its readers what to think about (Entman, 165). How the reader interprets the story is

determined by preferences and what the reader is taught throughout their life. The region a

person lives in affects the news they receive. For instance, Pittsburgh news is more business

whereas DuBois is more small town news.

Another factor of viewpoints is people want to show others that they care or are thinking

about a story. This fact is evident on social media. Some will share a story because it is sweet and

caring to show they are also sweet and caring. Then others will share an article because it is

negative and thought provoking to show they are intelligent and to get a reaction (Nazaryn).

People will also share negative story to make themselves feel better about their own choices.

Arianna Huffington announced that... by relentlessly telling the stories of people and

communities doing amazing things...she pronounced today an era of if it bleeds it leads

(Nazaryn). Another news company did the same experiment, they only wrote happy stories

for a short time, they simply lost most of their readers (Nazaryn).

There are two essential components in being biased. One, capital. Two, people's values

and outlooks. However it is nearly impossible to not be bias. This paper is even bias. The capital
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that affected this argument is the grade this essay will get. Because students want a positive

grade, they will follow the teacher's outlines and rubric. Teachers had to approve the topics to

write about, which is a lot like the ads and how they control what and how it is written. This

paper has many different viewpoint affects. One would be the research used and ignored to prove

an argument. By only put in information that helped this argument and what is thought to

persuade the reader. The quotes picked, background information, and thoughts needed to share.

Until now there has not been anything positive about being bias. Another viewpoint, would be

what people know and what people have been taught to know or believe. Media bias plays an

important role in the information that is being published on the subject, and that coverage favors

such research (Niven). The teacher will add her outlook when she grades this and decides if a

sentence or two needs to be changed to make it better in her opinion. Now, the reader will have

their own opinion and values. They will either agree or disagree with what is written here.

Readers may go and read a counterargument to better their own opinion. Some dishonesty is in

play but there is another mechanism at work, a kind of optical illusion. Call it a trick of

perspective (Dawes).

Even a childrens book has some form of tilt. Whether it be to teach a child a lesson or to

make the child think. David is a children's book with strong leaning. This story is about a kid,

David, who gets into trouble and it is forcing the child to think: I don't want to be like David.

making them more likely to behave. School books are also bent, even though they should be

strictly facts. History books especially, mainly because they are written by Americans making

them in favor of America. It is nearly impossible to not have a set-mind when writing.

Before this project, many thought the news was purposely being bias to control what

people think and believe. Which may be the case but more times not. When the news is being
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bias on purpose that is the problem. Everyone writes for a purpose, whether it be capital or to

make people think a certain way or for a grade. Overall, people must stick to their values and

morals and not believe everything that is said but not be naive to what is happening around

themselves.
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Works Cited

Dawes, Theodore. Objectivity in Journalism is a Myth. Journalism, Edited by Roman Espajo,

Greenhaven Press, 2014, Opposing Viewpoints in Context. GALE|ej301914206. Accessed

18 Oct. 2016.

Ellman, Matthew and Fabrizio Germano. What Do the Papers Sell? A Model of Advertising and

Media Bias. The Economic Journal. vol. 119, no.537, John Wiley & sons, Inc. 16 Mar.

2009, pp. 680-684, iae.csic.es/investigatorsMaterial/a8287092114archivoPdf1062.pdf.

Accessed 26 Oct. 2016.

Entman, Robert M. Framing Bias: Media in the Distribution of Power. Journal of

Communication. Vol. 57, no. 1, John Wiley & sons, Inc. Mar. 2007, pp. 163-166.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2006.00336.x/abstract. Accessed 25

Oct. 2016.

Nazaryn, Alexander. The Bad News About the Good News: The Happy Fication of Digital

Journalism is So Cute. And So Dangerous. Newsweek, 27 Mar. 2015. Opposing

Viewpoints in Context. GALE|a406015344. Accessed 16 Oct. 2016.

Niven, David. Tilt?: The Search for Media Bias. Praeger, 2002, pp. 6-10, Accessed 1 Nov. 2016.

Streissguth, Tom. Media Bias. Edited by Michelle Bisson, Marshall Cavendish Corporation, 2007,

pp.35-37.

Sullivan, Meg. Media Bias is Real, Finds UCLA Political Scientist. UCLA Newsroom. 2016,

newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/Media-Bias-is-Real-Finds-UCLA-6664. Accessed 20 Oct.

2016.