Kylie Dean
Ms. Newberg
English II pre-ap
05 April 2018
Consuming News
Wake up! Biased news doesn’t open readers’ eyes, but rather makes them blind!
An internet user scrolls down Facebook and sees a political news argument that seems interesting. They click and open it onto their computer dashboard. The news article opens up, and it’s bashing Trump and exaggerated the bad things he has done in life. The statements made by the news article emotionally affects them, so they decide to believe it. Stop! This is not what a good consumer of news would do.
Bias and shifted news has been used for a long time to persuade people to believe a certain side of a story. Many news sources have been called untrustworthy, therefore losing viewers/ consumers. It’s not the news sources fault though. If the reader believes this source is untrustworthy, they should take the responsibility to find real and trustworthy news.
For a member of the United States society, a person must understand both sides and be open to read both sides of biased arguments to be a good consumer of news and media.
First of all, to understand and read both sides of biased news, readers or consumers should know the definition of bias and when bias is being used. The consumer must understand that bias is “a perceived attribute of a news source whereby the individual news source, or the group the news source represents, has a clear, vested interest in a cause or action relative to maintaining or changing the status quo.” (Rouner). Biased news articles will present only one side of a political argument, while unbiased news will present both sides of the argument. A large percentage of news does not show both sides of the story, and therefore is biased. “In their study of news stories in 21 newspapers, they found many lacked balance. In 28 percent of instances the two clear sides of a controversial issue were not contacted.” (Rouner). Because many articles do not show both sides of an argument, consumers should recognize this and find a better article with low amount of bias.
Another thing consumers must do to understand and read both sides of biased news, is to leave their personal and emotional bias out, especially when choosing what news to read or who to follow on social media. When watching or reading news, a consumer should pick resources that are for and against their own bias to read and understand both sides of the controversy. “A new Pew Research Center report found that the outlets peo...
