{"id":819,"date":"2020-02-14T12:13:13","date_gmt":"2020-02-14T09:13:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/trage\/?p=819"},"modified":"2022-10-13T16:10:48","modified_gmt":"2022-10-13T13:10:48","slug":"journalisms-role-in-politics-the-issue-of-biased-and-unfair-reporting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/trage\/2020\/02\/14\/journalisms-role-in-politics-the-issue-of-biased-and-unfair-reporting\/","title":{"rendered":"Journalism\u2019s Role in Politics – The Issue of Biased and Unfair Reporting"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Milja Sorvari <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This blog post was produced as part of the course \u201cSocial Media, Ideologies, and Ethics in the United States\u201d at the University of Turku.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

All media play a significant role in today\u2019s political playing field in\nthe U.S. The news, broadcasters, and everyone on social media are part of the\nsystem that keeps the political discussion ongoing. While social media has\nenabled more direct communication amongst people and politicians, it is\nimportant to remember the role of journalism. The American Press Institute\n(2019b) describes the purpose of journalism as informing people of events and\nissues in the world. Compared to individuals creating content on social media,\njournalists are more bound by the general rules and ethical guidelines of the\nprofessional field. Whether someone believes that these are effective is\nanother question. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way, following guidelines and ethical journalism does not guarantee\nunbiased, non-ideological content. Being able to critically examine the\ninformation received from any source is important in understanding whether and how\nthe writer meant to affect you. As the American Press Institute (2019a) also\npoints out, the primary value of journalism is, in fact, the utility to\nempower. The assumption of that empowerment withholds the thought that the\ninformation will eventually affect a reader\u2019s decision. This is a particularly\nimportant aspect when considering the news coverage on politics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While journalism provides information, choosing what kind of information\nto publish and in what way to present it has an impact. For example, drawing\nattention to things that cause a strong reaction (perhaps even in one\u2019s own\nfavor) may draw attention away from other topics that might have been more\nimportant in supporting a reader\u2019s political decision-making process (such as the\npersonal life of a politician versus the political opinions of a politician). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biased content is also a part of the issue. 78% of Americans believe\nthat it is never acceptable for a news organization to favor a political party,\nwhereas 14% find it sometimes acceptable (Mitchell, Simmons, Matsa & Silver\n2018). I am sure no reader of this blog is unfamiliar with the political\ndivision of American news organizations. Research results confirm the situation;\n52% of Americans thought that news organizations are not reporting all sides\nfairly on political issues (Mitchell et al. 2018). The opinions were rather\nmixed – 47% found news media reporting all sides well (Mitchell et al. 2018) –\nbut considering the alarming amount of people who feel reporting is unfair,\nthere sure is an issue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biased content can feed specific opinions to a reader who might have\npoor media literacy or just agrees to the opinion without questioning it\nbecause it supports his or her current views. This can be done by, for example,\nleaving some aspects out, disregarding all criticism, or even directly\nattacking and presenting only negative information on the opposing opinions \u2013 simply\nput, by not describing the whole situation so that the reader would more easily\nbe able to form their own opinions of it. Some level of bias is in my opinion\nacceptable, if it is clear and based on arguments, and information is provided\nfrom all relevant aspects and not just the supporting ones. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I do not want to underestimate people\u2019s ability to be critical, but I\nwant to draw attention to how difficult it can be in today\u2019s news and media.\nThe problem that I see in the political bias of U.S. news organizations, or\nmore specifically in the lack of fair reporting on political issues, is that they\nonly present one side of the story. If the reader does not search for\ninformation on the topic elsewhere, they only see that one side. This, in turn,\ncan be thought to further contribute to the political polarization of the\nnation, which will further complicate the actualization of democracy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sources:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

American Press Institute (2019a) Good stories empower the reader <https:\/\/www.americanpressinstitute.org\/journalism-essentials\/makes-good-story\/good-stories-empower-reader\/>, retrieved 5.12.2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

American Press Institute (2019b) What is the purpose of journalism?\n<https:\/\/www.americanpressinstitute.org\/journalism-essentials\/what-is-journalism\/purpose-journalism\/>,\nretrieved 5.12.2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mitchell, Amy – Simmons, Katie – Matsa, Katerina Eva – Silver, Laura\n(2018) Publics Globally Want Unbiased News Coverage, but Are Divided on Whether\nTheir News Media Deliver. Pew Research Center.\n<https:\/\/www.pewresearch.org\/global\/2018\/01\/11\/publics-globally-want-unbiased-news-coverage-but-are-divided-on-whether-their-news-media-deliver\/#maps>,\nretrieved 5.12.2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Milja Sorvari This blog post was produced as part of the course \u201cSocial Media, Ideologies, and Ethics in the United States\u201d at the University of Turku. All media play a significant role in today\u2019s political playing field in the U.S. The news, broadcasters, and everyone on social media are part of the system that keeps […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19734,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-students-blog-posts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/trage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/trage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/trage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/trage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19734"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/trage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=819"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/trage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":822,"href":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/trage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819\/revisions\/822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/trage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/trage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogit.utu.fi\/trage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}