I have to think about what I'm about to write and determine if it's information or my opinion -- whether it's based on facts or feelings. I consider how someone else might construe what I've written. I sometimes run an article past my boss [owner/publisher Lyle Sall] to get his take on whether I've drifted toward being biased. It's not always easy to detect, as we humans are prone to [certain] weaknesses... but I think being aware of those weaknesses is a start toward countering them (Fisk).
If all journalists took this effort, there would be a lot less bias in news sources. Simply by taking the time to think about what they wrote, and by having another individual look over their work, a journalist can truly end media bias. Overall, with a multitude of forms, being aware of media bias is more important than ever before. This issue has even come up in recent discussion due to the presidential …show more content…
Many have blamed media for being biased towards one party or another or even “rigging the election” (“Bias alert”). Even though this is a wild and broad accusation, there still is some truth to this statement. When discussing politics, it's easy to let party affiliation cloud the judgment of journalists and media consumers alike. Many times journalists use sound bites, or thirty to forty second video or sound clips, in their broadcasting. This method of broadcasting is very ineffective in regards to getting unbiased information. By only spending forty seconds on a broadcast, there is not nearly enough time to convey in depth information to the public. This can lead to any information given by these sound bites to be false or biased. Even the amount of times that a sound bite is played can have incredible influence over the public. Statistics from Rich Noyes, a journalist at NewsBusters, show that the amount of times that these sound bites are played is just as important as what they contain. On average, during CNN’s primetime coverage, 62 minutes of Democratic videos were played (Noyes). While Republicans only received 14 minutes of airtime for their campaign videos. However, this isn’t always the case. The same report also showed that on a “12-to-1 margin, journalists spent far more time deriding the Republican convention for its negativity” than the