The Ways in which Media Bias Can Affect your Personal Echo Chamber

The idea of news organizations and various media outlets having a political bias has led readers to the idea that journalists are untrustworthy and only there to influence you to think a certain way rather than to inform you on what is happening in the world. It is usually apparent if a news organization holds a specific bias, and it inevitably affects the ways in which people then choose to receive their news and political discussion as oftentimes people rather hear from they agree with rather than disagree with. 

This chart is known as the AllSides Media Bias Chart. It is used to visually display where various media outlets lie on the political spectrum, depicting how they share information with their audience when it comes to controversial political conversations. As I said before, it is often found that those who fall towards the left or right wing on the political spectrum usually trust those biased news outlets more than their opposing side. In a study done by the Pew Research Center, it was found that 47% of conservatives cite Fox News as their main source of news, while liberals utilize a wider range of outlets, from the New York Times to NPR. 

The AllSides Media Bias Chart

Because people spend more time interacting with media and news outlets that share their same views or biases, it causes the social media platforms to personalize your content based on those things you have previously viewed or liked, that is how their algorithms are designed to work. This is referred to as an echo chamber or filter bubble. These universes of information that are catered to you specifically can drastically affect the ways in which you view things politically, as it is obvious that certain outlets provide news with certain biases intertwined. 

It is important to realize that media bias is real, and it is something that all readers should be aware of when seeking out information in regards to political conversations and news. The easiest way to prevent yourself from creating a very biased and one sided echo chamber is by consistently seeking out information from media outlets of all sides; right leaning, moderate, and left leaning. This will not only ensure that your echo chamber stays filled with opinions and viewpoints from varying political perspectives, but also provides you with an array of information in regards to the topic you may be searching for. This will allow you to form your own opinion based off of the beliefs you already possess rather than falling into bias.