Bias in Journalism

Bias means to take a side and make it seem like it's the better one. Bias is sometimes a good thing and sometimes it could be a bad thing.

Bias is needed in journalism because if you don't include bias, you won't be able to list all the available facts. Some can be very important too. There are four types of bias in journalism/media. Advertising bias, Corporate bias, Mainstream bias, and Sensationalism. To make sure the readers won't think you're lying, include as many sources you can whenever possible. Also, check that your sources are correct to avoid error so the reader doesn't have the wrong idea.

Here is an example of journalism bias. Some say that Johnny Depp robbed a bank last night. I think that's true because it seems that he has been a trouble maker his whole life. To make this UNbiased, don't write "I think" because then the reader would know that you are writing in your own opinion not the witnesses'. Instead, write what other people say so that even if it's wrong, you probably won't be punished because you backed up your facts with sources. Then magic happens and you have your article.

Bias is important to this class because it can give readers the wrong idea and I don't think we want that to happen. It can really offend someone and give the everyone who read the article a completely different perspective than they had before. Though sometimes we will need bias to get all of the facts that are needed in the article. I will try to make use of this by sometimes using bias, but only for including every single detail in the story and to still tell the true details.

wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_bias, September 4th, 2012

OWL, http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/735/03/, September 4th, 2012

Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel, The Elements of Journalism, Pg. 231-243