If you are a student who makes a point of reading the news, you might find something familiar in the idea that bias pervades much of the articles which meet your eyes on news websites. You may be accustomed to opening a certain website, skimming through headlines, and coming away with the impression that bias has contributed significantly to an article. In this case, you are not alone.
In her experience, Senior Leslie DeCuesta affirmed that news and bias seem to be nearly indivisible entities when she looks at news articles. DeCuesta described that in her experience in viewing the news, “People being biased is what makes the news more interesting.”
Certainly, bias in news adds an additional dimension of human expression, societal reaction to current events, and sense of perspective in any story. However, the presence of prejudice in a news story based around factual information also makes it the duty of the reader to be watchful and aware of the way in which opinion affects issues covered in the news.
DeCuesta also said that when she looks for articles to view, finding something without bias can be difficult. Many students who seek to follow events in an unbiased manner may confront the same issue. To this point, DeCuesta explained, “I think the best thing to do is to go to two different news sites and read them from both perspectives even if you don't agree with it.”
The goal of this particular article is to do just that—observe the contrasts between headlines from two different sources. A journalist writing about journalism is undoubtedly self-centered, but the topic—like any other covered in the news—should not be immune to discussion, exposure, criticism and praise. Accordingly, this article will attempt to point out partiality in headlines, give a few tips about how to spot deceptive information in the media and explore the intriguing issue of news bias that partisan journalism presents on the divisive and ever-changing stage of—specifically, though not solely—American culture and politics.
Two articles released on separate news websites possess headlines with which we can expand the idea of sources displaying starkly dissimilar pictures of the nation. One of the articles was published through CNN, and the other was published through Fox News. The article obtained from CNN was last updated Aug. 17, 2020. The Fox News article was also released Aug. 17, 2020.
The CNN headline reads:
“At least 18 arrested in Seattle after a protest is declared a riot”
The Fox News headline reads:
“Seattle anti-police protests descend into riots as officers injured; 18 arrested”
A Seattle demonstration carried out Aug. 16, 2020 in the SoDo (South of Downtown) community was at the forefront of each of the articles. While the headlines present a blatant contrast between the two news sites, the articles themselves are relatively similar in their relation of the bare facts. Both articles address the fact that at least three police officers were injured, and both also mention the 18 arrests made after an explosive was detonated and other acts of violence were displayed, according to a report from the Seattle Police Department.
The real divergence between the two articles happens in subtle phrases and within the issues each article emphasizes.
Fox News, for example, chose to incorporate a quote from Seattle’s police chief, Carmen Best, who resigned just several days before the protest. The quote highlights the police perspective on the issue and fuels the argument that the blame for unrest lies with protestors. The article itself mentions the phrase “anti-police” near the beginning of the story. The same phrase is featured in the CNN article, though the subject is not as heavily emphasized.
Alternately, CNN ends its article by mentioning that Seattle has served as a stage for “protests over police brutality and systematic racism.” Additionally, the final sentence includes a commentary on President Trump, highlighting his criticism of the mayors in cities which have seen significant numbers of protests.
The distinct language used by each source to describe what the protests were—“anti-police” and “over police brutality and systematic racism”—shows that there is clear delineation between the presentation of the facts that Fox News and CNN communicate, giving them subtle power in shaping the views of a reader and building opinion.
Just by looking at article headlines you can get a sense of underlying messages that correspond to stereotypical arguments along party lines.
In regards to the two headlines presented above, sophomore Anna Dishman explained, “I feel like bias is a part of both headlines, to be honest. The first one doesn't say what the protest is about or why it was declared a riot, which makes it seem less dangerous, and while the second one does this, it's obviously worded to make the protesters/rioters look aggressive and dangerous.”
Dishman also said, “A biased headline can lead the reader to make assumptions, and that is very dangerous. A lot of people don't even read the whole article, they may even only look at the title! When people make assumptions, you have a bunch of people running around thinking they know things that they really don't.”
Other readers may observe that beyond the interjection of personal viewpoints, opinionated writing may enter the news with the explicit intention of catching a reader’s eye.
When asked if she sees news bias frequently, senior Rachel Amburose added, “Another factor [that affects bias in news] is the fact that news organizations are companies first. Like all other businesses, their first and most important goal is money. So they more or less bend the truth and exaggerate a bit to bring in views and readers, thus making their publications biased. I'd definitely say that it's hard to find stories without bias.”
Besides headlines, another aspect of news articles which can be extremely deceptive—most often when they are produced with an intentional and forced message—are statistics. When data is represented in graphs and pie charts, there are a few common pitfalls which one must be wary of in order to receive the most accurate information possible.
AP Statistics teacher Ms. Amber Smith summarizes her tips for avoiding deceptive graphs in the list below, which describes that you should look out for graphs which have any of the following characteristics:
Graphs with poorly scaled y-axis or even no scales at all! The most common deception is a y-axis that does not start at 0 to make differences seem larger than they appear.
Pie charts with percentages that don't total to 100%.
In general, be wary of pictographs. They may be prettier than bar graphs, but they tend to inaccurately display what's really happening by using pictures that are larger in area than they really need to be.
Remember that your eyes react rapidly to the way in which information is presented. When bars on a graph look to have a very low area or a very high one, you could be forming conclusions which may be entirely misguided because, for example, the y-axis scaling on the graph is designed to make the differences in a data set look more significant than they really are. Keep these tips in mind the next time you are looking at graphs in the media to make sure that the conclusions you draw are as accurate as possible.
On that point, Smith also said, “Making sure you receive accurate information is really difficult now thanks to misinformation that floats around on social media! Always check the source and make sure it's reliable! Don't read that random article on your social media feed and assume it's true, pay attention to the source!”
If you are interested in studying the CNN and Fox News articles used for comparison purposes in this story, the following links are provided.
For the CNN story, go to https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/17/us/seattle-riot-protesters-arrested/index.html.
For the Fox News story, visit https://www.foxnews.com/us/police-officers-injure-during-seattle-riots-18-people-arrested.
The Chicago affiliate associated with Fox News displayed this pie chart on a television program in Nov. 2009. The graph appeared to support the claim that Sarah Palin led in public opinion regarding who from the Republican Party would be nominated in the 2012 election. However, the pie chart percentages add up to more than 100 percent, and therefore the observations taken in the initial study were not parts out of a single and common total. (Image was obtained from the Peltier Tech Blog.)
This is a graph that was originally published Mar. 14, 2020 through The Dallas Morning News. It displays the daily average amount of confirmed COVID-19 cases (in Texas) by averaging the daily counts every seven days. The x-axis displays the number of days since each county’s daily average passed five cases. This graph is misleading because the y-axis scaling is sporadic; the space between five and 100 cases looks to be much larger than the space between 100 and 200 cases. Therefore, near the top of the graph increases in daily average cases look much less significant than they should given the scaling at the lower end of the y-axis.
Written By: Bethany Hicks
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