Media Bias In The Media

“At MSNBC … 85 percent of airtime is dedicated to commentary — rather than straight news” (as cited in Kiener). The fact that over three fourths of the airtime for a news media source is commentary shows the degradation of trustworthy news reporting. Mainstream news sources are losing their credibility through their slanted reporting and lack of objectivity.
There are several factors that influence bias: geography, institutional affiliations, and the medium. Regionalism and Afghanistanism are two specific types of geographical news bias. Regionalism is defined as the loyalty to one’s country and in this context, the country where one lives receives news favorable to their country. For example, an article published in Iraq about the U.S involvement has a more critical tone than the article published in the U.S. about its own involvement. Afghanistanism is when a writer believes that something happening far away was less important, so they are likely to be more biased towards it. Institutional affiliations that provide the most financial backing to a mainstream news corporation is likely to receive information slanted to the favor of them. Also, the political ideologies of the people in the mainstream news corporations greatly influence the reporters and which side of the political spectrum is painted in a better light. The medium of a media outlet directly affects how much information can be put out and what kind of information is published. A 30 minute news segment will not have as much information as the New York Times. On the internet, there is not much control over what is published, so there will be biased articles along with credible sources. News objectivity should be something that is always a part of news reporting. It s...

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The opposing view believes that political bias is not as prevalent as it seems. “These groups [those that complain] have ‘created the perception that the media is more biased than it really is,’ says Si Sheppard, an assistant professor of political science at Long Island University and author of The Partisan Press: A History of Media Bias in the United States” (Kiener).
The opposing view is incorrect because political bias is more prevalent than ever. After the Newtown shooting, “Stories advocating more gun control outnumbered stories opposing gun control by 99 to 12, or a ratio of 8 to 1. Anti-gun sound bites were aired almost twice as frequently as pro-gun ones (228 to 134). Gun-control advocates appeared as guests on 26 occasions, compared to seven for gun-rights advocates” (Kiener/Graham). Liberal ideologies have more support in mainstream media than ever.