Journalism: Foundation of Democracy or Biased Agenda?

The notion that journalists are either bias or seen in a negative light, is  a common one worldwide but particularly in the United States. Painted in red with “bias” practically stamped upon their foreheads, is often how the everyday American views the average journalist. As Andrew Rosenthal mentions (“How Biased Is Your Media?”, 2012.) in the Freakonomics podcast, “Well the purpose of it quite simply is to keep the expressed opinions of people who are journalists… journalists who express their opinions out of the news columns. It is to avoid the contamination of news with opinion, not the other way around, obviously, because there is lots of news in opinion writing. And that is to maintain the independence of the news report”; thus elaborating and differentiating editorials from news reports, terminology this generation is usually unfamiliar with. While older generations read the newspapers, the younger generations of today are often only familiar with technological news, commonly through facebook or the “news app” on their cellular devices. Thus, although society tends to push the title of journalists under dismissive microscopes, claiming bias is the prominent problem with media today, that is in fact a neglective view and far less reflective of society and its role in the whole situation than it wants to admit.

In spite of the fact that media coverage is frequently considered to have bias, the greatest factor within the bias is actually due to the source trying to sell to it’s audience. According to Moses (2008), “While journalistic ethics call for the reporting of truth in an objective manner, there are certain media publications, programs, and websites that have a decisive slant to their coverage.” (p. 128); thus there have been generalizations made that bias is prevalent in order for media sources to continually maintain their audience. Similarly noted by Moses (2008), “Newspapers were heavily impacted by the introduction of television, which offered news in an interesting and highly visual format.” (p. 133). Hence, claims of bias are predominantly geared towards news journalist; for example, Fox News is often labeled to have conservative, right views while CNN is referred to as liberal media. The comparison could be drawn that just as other products are sold to reach particular demographics, news is not any less than another product that consumers are reaching for. Similarly, since print sources have been going under such a drastic decline, there is a stress among journalists, scholars and activists about how the United States will be without newspapers; in fact, according to Laura Finley, “they argue that newspapers are central to a republican form of government and that citizens who are unable to obtain adequate information cannot self-govern effectively.” (“The Decline of Newspapers is Bad For the U.S.”, n.d.), thus the writing of journalists is in fact geared to ensure the audience will continue reading, but that it is not necessarily the journalist’s bias more so than the consumer’s bias.

The Freakonomics podcast seeks to answer questions regarding media bias; particularly since the public is determined that all media in today’s time is overly bias, rather it be conservatively or liberally. Steve Levitt, guest on the podcast, points out that “Measuring media bias is a really difficult endeavor because unlike what economists usually study, which are numbers and quantities, media bias is all expressed in words”; thus how would one even begin to prove or disprove media bias? Using sources from Tim Groseclose who published a paper on media bias based on research and creating a “bias scale” to Andrew Rosenthal, editor of editorial section of the New York Times speaking about how good journalists and editors avoid bias; Stephen Dubner, host of the show, also includes statistics from a study completed by the University of Chicago (2010). Thereby, the Freakonomics podcast provides a well-rounded conclusion that while media may be bias on purpose within sections such as editorials, most media coverage is in fact central or merely appealing to the audience they attract.  

Therefore, the accuracy and authenticity of journalists within the media’s eyes is ironically negative; although they are consistently the foundation of democracy and one could argue that without journalists, the public would be utterly in the dark about what is going on within the nation and all over the globe.  In the Freakonomics podcast, a concurrent theme was questioning media bias; with the study completed by the University of Chicago, proving most media is in fact centrist in nature, the emphasis again is brought back to the audience of the media coverage. Thus, the media message within the podcast itself demonstrates a proper and positive authenticity towards journalists; particularly with the help of guest speaker, Andrew Rosenthal. Consequently, the view of negativity directed toward journalists whom provide the public with its’ news, whether it be seen as bias from the audience’s viewpoint, is actually within the hands of the audience themselves.

References

Finley, L. (n.d.). The Decline of Newspapers is Bad For the US [PDF].

How Biased Is Your Media? Full Transcript - Freakonomics. (2012, February 16). Retrieved March 14, 2016, from http://freakonomics.com/2012/02/16/how-biased-is-your-media-full-transcript/

Moses, L. (2008). An introduction to media literacy. Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt Pub.