Bias: Pro or Con
It is impossible to relay any information whether in conversation or through the media without it being tainted by bias. Bias is inevitable so why don't we embrace it. Mediums such as Newspapers and Newscasts whose single most important goal is to spew information about the community and the world that affects and interests the masses, should, in an idealistic world, have no bias as they are only relay a story not picking sides. However, we all know that this does not occur and different newspapers and newscasts are known to be left winged or right winged and therefore taint their news based on their political opinion. This isn't a good thing, however as I've already stated, bias is unavoidable and so we should use it for our benefit instead. These mediums should advertise their biases so that the general masses know how to compensate for the slanted news reports. Also if these mediums allow the people to know what their biases are, people can watch two opposing news reports and then compare the two and try to filter the bias from the factual information. Bias can teach people to -as the cliche goes- "not listen to everything everyone tells you". Maybe, with news reports being upfront about their biases, people will listen or read the news, however also analyse the information and decide for themselves what their opinions are on the subject. News reports would become more of an interactive morning or evening exercise with the readers, instead of getting the news, taking it for what is being presented and then flipping the page or channel.
It is impossible to relay any information whether in conversation or through the media without it being tainted by bias. Bias is inevitable so why don't we embrace it. Mediums such as Newspapers and Newscasts whose single most important goal is to spew information about the community and the world that affects and interests the masses, should, in an idealistic world, have no bias as they are only relay a story not picking sides. However, we all know that this does not occur and different newspapers and newscasts are known to be left winged or right winged and therefore taint their news based on their political opinion. This isn't a good thing, however as I've already stated, bias is unavoidable and so we should use it for our benefit instead. These mediums should advertise their biases so that the general masses know how to compensate for the slanted news reports. Also if these mediums allow the people to know what their biases are, people can watch two opposing news reports and then compare the two and try to filter the bias from the factual information. Bias can teach people to -as the cliche goes- "not listen to everything everyone tells you". Maybe, with news reports being upfront about their biases, people will listen or read the news, however also analyse the information and decide for themselves what their opinions are on the subject. News reports would become more of an interactive morning or evening exercise with the readers, instead of getting the news, taking it for what is being presented and then flipping the page or channel.
This is a very interesting idea, and would probably be very effective if every gatekeeper followed this rule. But what about forms of the media that don't know they are being biased? I feel like a lot of bias isn't intentional and is therefore unnoticed by the gatekeeper. I wish we lived in a world where bias was more noticable, but unfortunately it isn't that black and white.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea that our society could embrace bias as a means to get better with deciding what news is true and what is false. We could embrace the news that we know is biased, and compare it to othe rnews sources to see what has been changed or distorted by the media.
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