Bias in News Media essays

Bias in News Media essays It is no mystery that the media has much power in setting cultural guidelines and in shaping political discourse. This is why it is very important that the media is challenged every so often to be fair and accurate, in order to avoid bias. One way the media can show bias is in who they choose to interview. More often than not they will over-rely on "official" sources such as government, corporate and establishment think tanks. For example, FAIR found that in 40 months of Nightline programming, the most frequent guests were Henry Kissinger, Alexander Haig, Elliott Abrams and Jerry Falwell. Progressive and public interest voices were seldomly represented. In order for the media to accurately portray issues, they need to broaden their range of sources. If they do not, those in power have all the say so and the little guys lose out. Another way in which the news can be biased is in lack of diversity. If you really pay attention, how many producers or editors at media outlets are women, colored people, or openly gay or lesbian? For news outlets to fairly and accurately represent a variety of communities, they need to have members of all different races and ethnicities in high up, decision making positions. In a recent study, FAIR's 40-month survey of Nightline found its U.S. guests to be 92 percent white and 89 percent male. A similar survey of PBS's News Hour found its guest list was 90 percent white and 87 percent male. A big problem in news coverage now a days is stereotypes skewing coverage. More and more is seems like coverage of the drug crisis focuses almost all of its attention on African Americans, despite the fact that the majority of drug users are white. Also, coverage of women on welfare focuses tremendously on African-American women, even thought the majority of welfare recipients are not black. More often than not lesbians are shown as "man-hating" and gay men are portrayed as "sexual predators." Interes...