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Essay / Bias in the News Media
The news media reports to the public what is happening in the world. When the public lacks direct experience or knowledge of events occurring, they tend to rely particularly heavily on the media for information. This may not mean that the media tells us what to think: "people don't absorb media messages indiscriminately." However, the media sets the public's agenda and directs its attention to particular issues, thereby limiting the range of controversies and mindsets. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay As stated by Lippman (1921), the media is the most important means of establishing connections between the public and the invisible environment. In particular, we believe that the media should, twice a day, present us with the true picture of the outside world, of the world that interests us. We expect them to tell us the truth, “however unprofitable it may be.” ". But we know that this expectation is not always met. Happer and Philo (2013) argue that mass media allows information to flow efficiently between different audience groups. The fact is, however, that the media “systematically edit and interpret the mass of information, thereby making sense of the world for the public.” As some information is advocated more than others, it becomes favored because it is authoritative and sometimes even true. . - There is also a popular belief that news only presents facts. In particular, some Iranians believe that Western news agencies such as the BBC and CNN, unlike national agencies, only present facts; and what's more, they perceive it to be the truth. However, contrary to this popular belief, some, such as Mencken (1975) and Goldberg (2002), argue that the news media do not necessarily report clear facts and that they are generally biased. Georgiy Revyakin, a financial analyst, also believes that all major news agencies and websites are biased towards the particular point of view of their owners, but in different ways and to varying degrees. Furthermore, nowadays the relatively traditional mass media are engaged in politics and are usually sponsored by a narrow circle of people who lobby to serve their interests. Revyakin (2015) suggests that all information is subjective because it was written by certain people. A series of influential studies called "the bad news" which were carried out by the Glasgow University Media Group and which examined television news programmes, systematic analyzes of program content as well as interviews and the visual dimensions of information, revealed that among other things, the assumption or prescription of impartiality of information representations (of public broadcasters like the BBC) is challenged by biases in favor of the powerful who are sometimes present in subtle details such as style, interview turns, camera shots, etc. These biases often exist in the smallest linguistic details of reporting where power relations and political ideologies are hidden. However, major news organizations such as Reuters, BBC, Guardian, and Associated Press, which have briefing manuals providing guidance to their writers and editors, make claims contrary to the above. In these manuals, news agencies explain their style, their,.