Willoughby 1Britney WilloughbyDr. Geoff BowdenPOLS 110123 August 2018Media BiasHow is the media, biased, more towards progressive-liberal values, conservative valuesor in both directions depending on the specific media outlets you may access? According to anarticle written by Robert M. Entman, the term bias “seems to take on three major meanings.Sometimes, it is applied to news that distorts or falsifies reality (distortion bias), some- times tonews that favors one side rather than providing equivalent treatment to both sides in a politicalconflict (content bias), and sometimes to the motivations and mindsets of journalists whoproduce the biased content (decision-making bias).” The media has a large influence on politicalsiding. With one article sometimes, an opinion can be swayed in either direction with a simpleplay of words. The media as multiple ways to distract followers in whatever direction they wantthem to go in in order to achieve their goal.Bias can come in a variety of ways as well. The simplest being selective reporting. This is whena media chooses to focus on certain topics, while downplaying others. Some news agencies willeven ignore entire stories in favor of others. It is important to recognize that selective reporting isnot always evidence of a political bias. For example, there are a lot of negative news storiesabout Donald Trump. This is due to a mix of two factors. The first being, there are more storiesto write that portray the president in a negatively. Next “Obama Does Something Normal that WeAll Do” wouldn’t have as much appeal as “Obama does something that no President has DoneBefore”. Media need to sell that advertising space it is a business at the end of the day.
