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Media Bias
Introduction
Media refers to channels through which information is conveyed to people. We have
broadcast media which includes Television stations and radio stations. Print media includes
newspapers and other articles that that are presented to consumers in print form. We also
have web media where information is conveyed via the internet. Media reporting refers to the
information that is conveyed to the consumers of information. According to Society of
Professional Ethics (Page 1) journalists should be fair and honest in their news reporting.
However, because various media types would want to win readers of their articles they have
often given distorted information to capture the attention of many people. In this paper I will
discuss the idea that although many people rely on media for accurate information, media gives
deceptive information in order to publicize their articles, get more income, and break relations
between countries.
Media Bias
Media in most cases give information that is factually correct, but, different media
houses may deliver different messages to viewers or readers about the same event. This is
achieved by varying emphasis and omission of some information. This is what brings about
media bias (Gentzkow & Shapiro 2006: Page 281).
The media acts as a key infrastructure for advertising commodities and politicians. It is
also essential in passing information in the society. Several businesses inform their customers
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about their goods and services through the media. The society also gets political and other
information through the media. As it can be seen media is essential in any society. Then what
leads media to slant its information?
Sources of Media Bias
Media bias may come about because of the preferences or views of the owner of the
media company. Example is when the owner of a certain media house supports a certain
presidential candidate, all the information that might be given in his media will paint the
candidate he supports in good light while painting the opponent in bad light. However, most
media houses are owned by corporations and are less likely to follow personal interests but
they are likely to pursue profit maximization.
Media bias may also be due to demand of consumers of information. The people may
want information because of entertainment or may want information that favors social or
political viewpoints. The media may give biased news but gain favor among the society because
it gives news that is consistent with their political and social viewpoints.
The third source of media bias is that media organizations that rely on advertising
income may give news in favor of their high income customers. Organizations that normally
sponsor or advertise their products and services in a certain media company are likely to be
favored in these media.
The last source of media bias comes from incomplete information and career interests
of the journalists. If the state or any organization does not disseminate information to the
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public, then there is likelihood of speculations in the media leading to giving of distorted
information. The journalist may also want to be popular in the country so he might give
information that may make him popular.
I will elaborate further the demand for information by consumers as source of media
bias because it is the most common one.
Consumer Behavior that lead to Media Bias
Much news that is aired on the media normally provides news that is not relevant to
consumers daily decision making. The news is mainly meant for public entertainment. The
consumers also normally take less time to synthesize the information that is given in the news.
This makes it easy for news providers to provide news that is slanted towards the preferences
of certain consumers even if it is not accurate. The news is presented in form of a story and
even interpreted for the readers or viewers. The consumers are always looking for
entertainment not accuracy and truth. Therefore the media will always present what will please
their readers (Gentzkow & Shapiro, 2010: Page 56). The consumer preferences vary in the
society and this leads to media differentiation. Some consumers may prefer a certain media
which may not be popular with another section of the society. One such example is a study
carried out by Polling point in 2004, about the popular media in America based on party
affiliations, 90% of the republicans said that Fox News offered the best news coverage while the
democrats said it was CBS and CNN that offered the best news (Xiang and Sarvary, page 612).
This shows that the news in different media houses leaned towards certain political directions.
Forms of Media Bias
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Bias can be in form of lack of balance where one side receives more attention in
coverage than the other side. This may be a political party, product brand, general competing
issues, or competing organizations. The second form of bias is ideological bias where
journalists, owners, or editors report news in favor a certain world view. Partisan is also a form
of media bias where editors, journalists, or owners present information that favors certain
political parties or politicians. This is the most common type of bias and I will discuss this form
in this paper. The next form of bias is information fabrication. This occurs more often in the
society when an event has occurred and the information is not readily available. There would
be a great urge for information and the media will likely try to make up stories so as to attract
readers or viewers. Bias can also result from the preferences of journalists. Journalists are
members of the society and they are likely to have a preference over certain issues. They will
try to twist their story in favor of their preferences (Baron, Page 3 - 4). This several form of
media bias will not be discussed here, but I will look at the media bias and politics.
Media Bias and Politics
In politics, especially during elections, the voters would like to have knowledge about
political candidates. This knowledge is normally sourced from the media. It is important to
understand media bias so that the voters are not influenced unnecessarily by bias information.
There are two forms of bias in the media that is; individual bias and gate keeping bias.
Individual bias is where an individual journalist or editor cannot guard against his own political
preference. He will always give information that leans towards his personal preference. This is
true in any society because the journalists are the members of the society and they also have
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their own political preferences. In order to give fair and accurate information the media should
be non-partisan but this has never been true in any society. Gate keeping bias is brought about
by the fact that journalists and editors have the control over what information they pass to the
society. They may decide to hold some information about a certain candidate or political party
from reaching the voters. They normally do so in order to guard their own political philosophy.
This information that is withheld may be damaging to the candidate who is preferred by the
editor or journalist or it may be information that could sell the name of the opponent.
Journalists and editors are members of the society and have their own opinions on
political issues and who deserve to be elected in a certain office. These opinions are hard not to
include in their news reporting. They may try much not to include them in their articles but I am
not convinced that reporters cannot be non-partisan. Reporters do not guard against their
political interests; in fact most of them express them more openly. Kelly and Pax (Par, 2)
reports that during the 1988 elections in USA, CBS, and NBC reporters gave attention to the
democrat party 21 times while the same media gave the republicans attention 113 times. This
clearly shows that the media coverage of these news channels was skewed towards the
republicans. This kind of biasness can influence the voters especially those who are not
decided.
During elections journalists normally develop relationships with politicians. This
relationship can lead to bias coverage for or against a candidate. Journalists code of ethics
prohibits associations that my compromise the integrity and credibility of the information that
is passed. But when covering politics it is essential for journalists to develop contacts with
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sources within the inside camp of political parties in order to get information that is not
available to other journalist. The sources that provide information may be favored by the
journalists. This is normally manifested by painting the opponent in bad light in exchange for
intimate information from the party. This at all costs is not fair because the coverage leans
towards one side. During the 2000 general elections in the USA, Gore did not develop good
relationships with the media; he was critical of their role in election coverage and failed to
address questions that the media posed to him. This led the media to give him negative
coverage that could have denied him some percentage of votes. On the other hand, Bush
developed good relations with the media hence their coverage were in favor of him. This is just
but one example of media bias that is happening throughout the world. This relationship is
important for the candidate and the journalist. For the candidate it provides him favorable
coverage while for the journalist it gives him a good article than if he could not have had such a
relationship.
The media can also choose which issues to address during their coverage. How they
chose the issues and how they present them is in most cases done in a biased manner. Take for
example; during the elections, a certain media can post information that portrays negative
traits about certain candidate and withhold the traits of the opponent. This is because the
media operate in the society and is likely to be biased in certain issues. The journalists or
editors may also be bribed in order to give information that favors certain candidates or parties.
Since there is freedom of expression it is very had to regulate this.
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Media bias can also be seen in the political environment by the coverage each party or
candidate gets. It is not coincidence that during any elections not all parties or candidates get
similar coverage. This is because of the preference of a certain media company and the
relations with the candidate. During the 1972 presidential elections in USA the democrats
received 55% of the major party coverage on CBS and NBC. This clearly shows that this media
companies were biased in favor of this party.
Studies such as that of Groseclose and Milyo (Page 1- 29) show that most media exhibit
some form of biasness when passing political or general news in the society. This clearly shows
that the media is not fair in their news reporting.
Conclusion
Media is very important in the passage of information. It does not give false information
but given its different choice of information to emphasize on and omission of certain
information it leads to information that is biased. The viewers and readers of the media should
always endeavor to synthesize the information that is given in the media and compare it with
other media news before making a decision based on this information.




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Works Cited
Baron, David. Persistent Media Bias. Research Paper No. 1845, August 2004, pp. 1-42
Gentzkow, Matthew & Shapiro, Jesse. Media Bias and Reputation. Journal of Political Economy,
2006, vol. 114, Issue. 2, pp. 280-316
Gentzkow, Matthew & Shapiro, Jesse. What Drives Media Slant? Evidence from U.S. Daily
Newspapers. Econometrica Journal, Vol. 78, Issue. 1 (January, 2010), pp. 3571
Groseclose, Tim and Milyo Jeff. A Measure of Media Bias. USA: Stanford University. 2003. Web.
May 10, 2013 < http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/GrosecloseMilyo.pdf>
Kelly and Pax. Media Bias in Elections. Think Summer Institute. 2004. Web. May 10, 2013 <
http://www.jour.unr.edu/think/bias.html>
Society of Professional Journalists. Code of Ethics. 1996. Web. May 10, 2013 <
http://www.spj.org/ethicscode.pdf>
Xiang, Yi & Sarvary, Miklos. News Consumption and Media Bias. Marketing Science Journal, Vol.
26, Issue. 5 (Sep. - Oct., 2007), pp. 611-628