Spotting Political Bias in Journalism

Makenna Goad

makennagoad14@gmail.com

It is the job of a journalist to inform the public without bias; to simply state the facts of a story and let the public devise their own opinions. 

However, it is very clear that in today's divisive political climate, news organizations tend to "choose sides" and ignore the idea of objectivity.

Now more than ever, the public must perform their own research, constantly fact-checking any piece of information, especially when the information has to do with politics.

In order to properly develop an informed political opinion, it is important to identify which news organizations present facts with little-to-no bias, and which organizations present facts in an extremely biased matter. By differentiating between the two types, it becomes easier to form a political opinion that is based on facts. 

According to a survey conducted by the Knight Foundation and Gallup, Americans believe that 62% of the news they consume -- whether on TV, radio, or in newspapers -- is biased.

However, when political views were brought into the conversation, the statistics changed. Democrats surveyed said that they believe that 44% of news on TV, in newspapers, and on the radio is biased, while Republicans believe 77% of the media listed is biased. 

Obviously, the majority of Americans, no matter their political leaning, are aware that most news is biased nowadays. Because of these biases, it is important to understand how one should go about finding factual political information, rather than information that only supports their own political views.

One must first look at the various news organizations and figure out where they tend to stand on the political scale. According to ratings conducted by AllSides, organizations like MSNBC and CNN tend to be very liberal in their coverage, while organizations like Breitbart News and Fox News tend to be very conservative.

Picture source: AllSides

By carefully viewing ratings and charts, Americans can use these tools to their advantage and be better equipped to form a more factual opinion when it comes to politics. 

Comparing as many news sources as possible is another tactic one could use besides just simply viewing charts and ratings. By viewing both liberal and conservative media, as well as moderate media, it may become easier to weed out what is fact and what is fiction. 

It never does anyone any good to see things from one perspective. No matter how much trust one might put into the media organizations they consume, one should always do the extra work of fact-checking to get the whole story.