Media bias is very prevalent among leading new sources in
the United States. A study and survey distributed by two professors at
California State University Northridge found that newspapers have a significant
influence on public opinion regarding the angle in which the news is displayed
by certain newspapers with commonly known bias. The article, titled The Effects of Media Bias was completed
by August John Hoffman and Julie Wallach, and published March 7, 2007. A link
to the article can be found below:
According to the authors, the study found that people who
were exposed to photographs that had a significant bias towards one
presidential candidate over the other, tended to believe that particular bias.
The participants used identified themselves as moderate and were given
questions to ensure that was the case, to avoid participant bias. Both liberals
and conservatives argued on behalf of eliminating media bias.
The participants included undergraduate students who
attended California State University Northridge and Compton Community College.
Students varied in age, race, however, they were all enrolled in an
introductory psychology course in which they received credit. Geographical
information on individual participants was not mentioned.
The study claims to represent a college student demographic,
however, the study is limited by the fact that these are students located
solely in California, and students who enrolled in an introductory psychology
class were the only ones interviewed.
The questions the participants were asked to complete
included many agree/disagree style questions on media bias in news outlets.
Other questions were open-ended and required a written answer. For example:
1)
Absolutely do not agree 2) Somewhat disagree 3) Impartial
4) Somewhat agree 5) Absolutely
agree
1.
I believe that Saddam Hussein was harboring
Weapons of Mass Destruction _________
2.
I believe other countries around the world do
not like the U.S. ________
Based on the questions, this questionnaire was very
straight-forward. It would be difficult to misinterpret any of the questions
solely because the participants were shown a picture, then told to answer the
questions based solely on the previous picture. The study was intended to
measure bias in news outlets and its effects on the public.
This survey and study is somewhat credible, and based on the
questionnaire has an unbiased approach among the questions. However, in order
to become a more credible source for information on the effects of media bias,
the study needs to find a larger and more random sample of participants to
gather more generalized results.
