Unbiased Media- Does it Exist?

We’ve heard it all before. Fake news, scams, and hoaxes plaguing our news-feed. But there’s another major issue with the news, one that many people tend to neglect. The problem? Media bias. It may sound simple, but bias is a problem at the heart of the journalistic community. I have my own thoughts on this, and we’ll get there, but first, we need to discuss what media bias actually is.

Media bias is defined by a textbook on Media Studies as, “the unjust favoritism and reporting of a certain ideas or standpoint.” This was backed by one of my interviewees, Mr. Richardson, the instructor for the Radio and Broadcast Media CTE, who said, “Media bias would be where a news organization…are leaning towards one way or another, either politically or by the stories they choose to highlight and …the angle they put on that story.” 

Want to know more about where different sources' biases lie? Mr. Richardson told me, “There's helpful grids online that show different news sources and whether they tend to… go to the left, to the right, a little more center and that can help as a guide.” I’ve included one such chart from AllSides here, so you can find your preferred news source, and where they tend to lean.

So why is that important? As a student studying journalism, one of the first things we’re told when writing is to be unbiased. Mr. Richardson also tries to help his students be unbiased. “I always tell students, definitely look for multiple sources. Knowing who owns certain companies can help and what are potentially their [viewpoints], so that's why it's good to look at several sources when you see a story.” 

Image Credit: AllSides

The point of journalism and putting out news in general is to inform people of the things that are happening around them, on a local or global level. If the articles and reported stories are influenced by heavy biases, it means that the story isn’t being accurately told. This can lead to confusion and cause people to distrust the news, which can lead to many more problems. 

But if as students we’re instructed to try our best to be unbiased, why does media bias still exist? As Mr. Richardson touched on, the owners of a news source are the biggest reason for media bias. Every major news source, whether in print, like the New York Times, or televised, like CNN, has someone who is paying the checks. The owners of these news sources have final say over what gets published and what doesn’t, and the deciding factor on whether something gets published often comes down to if the piece reflects well on any groups or organizations the owner belongs to, and/or reflects critically on any opposing groups or organizations.

Even here at the Riley Review, we have to deal with this. “Even within our own rims of being within the school, I mean there's still some bias when it comes to sports or promoting certain things,” Mr. Henderson told me. 

Image Credit: iStock

We as student journalists have to keep in mind that what we say reflects on the school, just as a professional journalist’s story reflects on the organization they’re associated with. We at the Review have had stories turned down before, and while Mr. Henderson allows us to publish the majority of the stories that we write, it’s part of his responsibility to make sure that we’re helping to promote our school’s image.

Part of the importance of keeping the reputation of our school a positive one in our own reporting comes with the fact that (like many schools across the country) sometimes the news can be biased against us, and this is something that can be prevented. How? As Mr. Henderson told me, “I think just providing a balance, coming out to the things that are positive as well as showing some of the things that are not so positive. We all know that negative sells and that's what people want to look at, but creating a balance, don't just come for a snapshot of a basketball game but come for an entire event. I have yet to see any media coming to a swim meet, you know?”

Really, the biggest way the media can avoid being overly biased is by reporting on all sides of the story. For consumers, it’s important to be able to identify if a source is giving you all the details. Just as Mr. Richardson told his students, anyone viewing a piece of media should look at different sources to get the full scope on the topic, even if you don’t agree as much with one side. 

It’s always important to look at multiple news sources, even ones you don’t agree with. Otherwise, this could be you!

Image credit: Santa Cruz Sentinel

As broadcast media student and senior Cooper VanDriessche put it, “You have to be your own investigator when it comes to that, if you don't believe what they're saying then you don't want to take that in, but sometimes you need to see what they're saying to get both sides of the story.”

But it isn’t just your regular, everyday, run of the mill news sources that are affected by bias- it’s any news source. That includes independent journalists and social media accounts that post news stories. 

Social media is everywhere, which causes news to be everywhere. Some accounts posting about news are from well known news outlets, such as NBC News, ABC News, Fox News, and CBS news. When trying to find a good, less biased source, look at a well known or trusted source, just like you would with anything else. YouTube has a Breaking News panel, which can make looking at current events possible, as these videos are usually plucked from these trusted sources.

According to a data set from the Pew Research Center, ⅓ of adults get their news from Facebook. In addition, through my own survey of 50 people, 70% said they get their news from social media sites like Facebook. 72% from that same survey said they get their news from video sites like YouTube and Tik Tok. However, less than 50% get their news from newspapers, or TV news, local or national/international.That’s why it’s important to be able to find accurate news online; that’s where most people find information.

However, if you’re like the fourth of the population who gets their news from independent sources, what can you do to try and find a good source? Cooper gave some good advice on this. “[It’s biased] if it happens multiple times in one brand.” If you have someone who is clearly not showing all sides of the story, or only focusing on a minor portion of the facts, they are not a trusted source and are proving to be heavily biased.

Another good idea when it comes to finding media you can trust is remembering something Cooper put quite well, “If it's going to become political, then you know there's automatically going to be bias.” No matter the news source, when politics are involved, there’s always bias, whether to the right, left, middle, or against the political system all together.

Picture the news as bread for a moment. When you go to the grocery store, there’s a whole aisle dedicated to bread, bread is everywhere. But when you look across all the different brands, you can tell that some loaves are higher quality than others.  The same goes for the news you see. Some sources (or brands) are more skewed than others, which can lead to them not sharing the whole story.

Now that we have a better understanding of why biases are important, and how we can avoid them, the root of this article can be brought up: Does Non-Biased Media Truly Exist? The answer is no. To put it simply, any piece of media, pertaining to news, celebrities, or anything else, is going to have biases. Some biases are less extreme than others, but it is inescapable. Every story has an agenda.

However, this in itself isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Think about it. If no media had an agenda, it might be even more confusing. The key is, as Mr. Henderson stated, balance. 

Image Credit: Poynter

As someone who writes articles, I have to make sure that it’s in accordance with the biases of my publisher (i.e. the school). This means that I have to stay within the boundaries that are set by those in charge, both the advisor as well as the principal. But as long as I stay within those bounds, I can write what I want to, which includes articles like this.

This article is biased. Every article you have ever read, every newscast you’ve watched, every report you’ve heard on the radio, every single one of these things has been biased. But as long as they are still rooted in the facts, they can still be trusted.