How the Media Can Affect their Audience

 Ben Firrell

bf652218@ohio.edu

(Tweet by @pavelastak)

It is the media's job to inform the public as much as we can and as honestly as we can. In politics however, there seems to be the biggest discrepancy between honest reporting from the media and the media trying to push its own agenda onto the public. 

Due to politics having such a big influence on our daily lives, the ability to have your favorite candidate in their respected positions makes some people do stupid things, like pushing their own views onto other people.

This makes honest reporting in politics so important to make sure that everyone has the right to the same information about the candidates in positions of power, and that that information is correct and has evidence and/or sourcing to back it up.

While there are still a few completely unbiased media outlets, most have at least a little sway either way. The best way to find out if your specific outlet for political news is biased or not is by checking media bias charts. For this blog post I will be referencing Ad Fontes Media Bias Chart. 

Examples of far right media would be Fox News and he Tucker Carlson Show, whereas a few far left examples would be CNN, MSNBC, and Washington Monthly.

Now of course people still watch and listen to these programs and people have the right to obviously choose what TV channel they want to watch, but ethically our jobs as journalists revolve around trying to present all the information to the public as honestly as possible so that they can make those types of decisions on their own behalves. The more pressure the media puts on people to decide certain ways on bigger political decisions, the more someone's decision becomes a public spectacle, with everyone chiming in trying to sway them to a side.

Some of the most reliable and unbiased news sources are AP News, BBC, and Forbes. These are sources that present the most correct information that doesn't do any indirect help or harm to a political story, to the best of their ability.

With all this in mind, watching out where we get our news on any subject is something that people should start doing more. Knowledge is power, but people need to know the correct facts, and not just something that blew up on Facebook. The public needs to continue to fact check their outlets so that bias is harder and harder to present.