Bias has a distorting effect on how facts are presented and
interpreted by different audiences. National news networks must make
decisions about what stories to run, how to present what happened, and
what order to tell those stories in. Bias can be a powerful factor in
how the news is reported. In this assignment, you’ll analyze bias and
write a paper that consists of at least 2500 words.
Prompt
Select two national news shows from the United States (do not
use local news shows) that air on the same day from two different major
networks (such as CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, etc.). Note the similarities and
differences between each network in terms of which stories both
networks report, which stories are covered by one and not the other, and
what differences there are in the stories they choose to report.
Summarize the stories and the way they were reported including a note of body language, word usage, and omissions.
Explore the historical issues of bias in both news sources and how that might affect coverage.
Discuss how viewers only watching one of these sources might
get a different sense of current events than one watching the other.
Discuss what steps each source could take to reduce their bias.
Related Lessons
Applying the Principle of Rational Acceptance
Evaluating Sources for Reliability, Credibility, and Worth
Media Bias & Criticism: Definition, Types & Examples
Recognizing Biases, Assumptions & Stereotypes in Written Works
Formatting & Sources
Please write your paper in APA format. You may refer to the course
material for supporting evidence, but you must also use at least 3 outside sources
and cite them using APA format. Please include a mix of both primary
and secondary sources, with at least one source from a scholarly
peer-reviewed journal. If you use any Study.com lessons as sources,
please also cite them in APA (including the lesson title and
instructor’s name).
Primary sources are first-hand accounts such as interviews,
advertisements, speeches, company documents, statements, and press
releases published by the company in question.
Secondary sources come from peer-reviewed scholarly journals,
such as Computing Edge. You may use sources like JSTOR, Google Scholar,
and IEEE.org to find articles from these journals. Secondary sources may
also come from reputable websites with .gov, .edu, or .org in the
domain. (Wikipedia is not a reputable source, though the sources listed
in Wikipedia articles may be acceptable.)
