You've probably heard the following phrase before:
- "The news media (or "mainstream media") is biased"
First off, generalizations like that are usually unprovable.
A credible assessment of bias must apply to a single news outlet or news report, not the entire “news media”. A generalization like that is untrue on its face. Impossible. What we call a “fallacy”
Another common fallacy is what we call guilt by association. If your brother does something illegal, does that automatically make you a criminal?
People say, for instance, that once an Editorial in a newspaper criticizes a politician, the whole newsroom staff adopts that view and acts on it. Again, an over-generalization that is easily knocked down.
One bias you can easily prove in any newsroom: There IS a bias for stories about conflict and about change.
Here's an example that we use frequently in class:
On May 30, 2005, Natalee Holloway (right) disappears on the final night of her five-day vacation with friends in Aruba. The high school senior’s story gets saturation coverage on cable news channels, with CNN’s Nancy Grace leading the way.
July 18, 2005, Latoiya Figueroa (left) disappears shortly after a doctor’s appointment in West Philadelphia. Her case gets no national coverage until angry activists beg Nancy Grace and other hosts to give a fraction of their attention to the disappearance of LaToiya.
“When black women disappear,” “Essence” magazine wrote in June of that year, “The silence can be deafening.”
The differential coverage over time is quantifiable and demonstrates clear bias…but on whose part? Is the audience…the ratings…partially to blame?