Media Bias

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that political media bias has a great influence on the formation of public belief because, according to the cultivation theory, in the case of the media, people only hear what it believes is at play. The paper explains that, as advertising revenues are the most dominant critical goal of corporate media giants, their goal is not thought-provoking media unbiased reporting or representational drama but rather glossy, often biased programing that will attract viewers and thus advertisers. The main types of media bias, which are reviewed in this paper, are advertiser influence, corporate censorship and sensationalism.

Table of Contents:
Political Media Bias
Examples of Political Media Bias
Glossy Perspective of Complicated World
Public Belief
Corporate Media Bias
Ideological Media Bias
Main Types of Media Bias
Advertiser Influence
Corporate Censorship
Sensationalism
Conclusion

From the Paper:

"Without a doubt, the greatest risk to the creation of social damage is the sensationalism that is pervasive in the media. With an emphasis on the very worst and more extreme of social situations, the idea that individuals have of society becomes skewed. Just as in law enforcement the individual officers and enforcers have a skewed selection of people to view, the look for and see the flaws in people and then seek to explain this by assuming that most people are law breaking, while in reality the opposite is true."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Aday, Sean, John Cluverius, and Steven Livingston. "As Goes the Statue, So Goes the War: The Emergence of the Victory Frame in Television Coverage of the Iraq War." Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 49.3 (2005): 314.
• Bogart, Leo. Commercial Culture: The Media System and the Public Interest. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.
• Champlin, Dell, and Janet Knoedler. "Operating in the Public Interest or in Pursuit of Private Profits? News in the Age of Media Consolidation." Journal of Economic Issues 36.2 (2002): 459.
• "Chapter 2 How Journalists Deal with Scientific Uncertainty." Communicating Uncertainty: Media Coverage of New and Controversial Science. Ed. Sharon M. Friedman, Sharon Dunwoody, and Carol L. Rogers. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1999. 23-38.
• Dugger, Ronnie. "Corporate Takeover of the Media." Free Inquiry Winter 2001: 24.

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