The Effects of Media Bias Study and Survey: Credible?

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:

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2007.00177.x/full

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.