The 2020 election has become an important topic nowadays. News featuring election has also received enormous attention. Many people have their political ideas, let alone journalists who are responsible for writing relevant stories. Therefore, political news can be instilled with certain political beliefs of the journalists or news organizations.
First, I want to talk about media bias research conducted by ALLSides. There are five categories in its Media Bias Chart, including left, lean left, center, lean right and right. We can look at some famous news organization. For instance, The New York Times and The New Yorker are categorized as left. The BBC and NPR are viewed as the center.
Under this circumstance, media bias can have an impact on people’s political thoughts.
When people have certain political beliefs, chances are that they will choose media stories that confirm his or her news belief. Hence, they will be consistently exposed to news stories with similar political beliefs, making them more unwilling to accept ideas that contradict theirs. This phenomenon can be illustrated by a term called the “echo chamber.” According to GCF Global, an online education website, the echo chamber means that a person only encounters information or opinions that reflect and reinforce their own. When people are immersed in the environment without opposing viewpoints, they may contribute to political polarization. For instance, research shows that Republicans and Democrats spot bias only in articles that favor the other party. If an article tilts in favor of their party, they tend to see it as unbiased.
All in all, people need to have a better understanding of the media bias of media outlets, which enables them to develop a balanced news diet. Plus, they need to be willing to read the news that may contradict their original political belief, trying to understand views and opinions in other groups. Only in this way can they get a full picture of political issues.
Reference:
https://edu.gcfglobal.org/en/digital-media-literacy/what-is-an-echo-chamber/1/
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