This figure from the report rates news programs in relation to politicians with a score of 50 being "Moderate" with anything above 50 being increasingly liberal and anything below 50 being increasingly conservative.Because of the stigma associated with specific newspapers, I always try to be a well rounded reader of the news looking at as many newspapers as I can to get my information. Still, it can be difficult to judge whether a piece of news is truly being objective or not, and I find blogs to be a very helpful source to get information based on people’s personal experience and clear biases. In a way blogs are more informative and more straightforward in relaying information about the news because the reader knows when there may be a clear bias and can get a better, more personal understanding of a situation.
My favorite blog source to use in attaining news information whether it is for issues concerning urban planning, local policy issues, or even the latest entertainment fad happens to be the online Los Angeles Times website where many, many blogs are published daily on a wide variety of topics. I first discovered the blogs when I was doing some research in trying to make an educated vote in the 2008 elections. The LA Times is one of the nation's most credible and most read newspapers, and while I have always been hesitant about reading blogs of any kind, the ones published here have been very informative and opened my eyes to the world around me.
Of course Proposition 8 was one of the most controversial ballot issues of all time, and I wanted to be sure I was making the best decision before casting my vote. I wanted to know all sides of every part of the story, and I came across an opinion blog piece called No-on-8's White Bias written by a Black Lesbian in Southern California who thought marriage rights was a "secondary issue...at a time when blacks are still more likely than whites to be pulled over for no reason, more likely to be unemployed than whites, [and] more likely to live at or below the poverty line." Working with trafficking victim cases in LA, I could definitely identify with this personal argument more than the news articles trying to persuade me with uncertain facts and data to vote their way. Plus, knowing her bias, I knew not to take everything she said word for word. This piece opened up the world of blogs as an innovative news source; after all, blogs are the future. The internet has made this world so fast-paced and so full of information. It is only right that blogs should play a major part in the changing dynamics of news sources all around the world.
2 comments:
Not only do newspapers have their political bias, local new broadcasts such as FOX News or the Channel "numerical value here" News. I find myself wondering, why am I watching these programs? They are so obviously biased towards one side of the issue they're reporting that I switch the channel in disgust. What happened to the days when news stations prided themselves in their objectivity and desired to bring to the people the real stories. Not to mention, many of the morning news programs include fluffy "entertainment" fillers that have no real relevance to current events. It seems that my household must purchase cable to find stations that will actually report the current events as is, like CNN or BBC. With so many people watching these watered down news reports, it is no wonder we elect political leaders, such as the recently arrested Illinois governor, who do not really represent our voice.
Ari, I am sorry but you completely misread my post. The post was talking about the strong bias in news LIKE CNN and BBC. THOSE are the liberal, biased media sources that report the news with a strongly left-ward slant. Yes, there are "biased" programs on Fox News, but those are opinion pieces and are meant to be biased. What disgusts ME is that the news sources like CNN are getting away with this. And this goes for both liberal and conservative pieces.
If you really read my post, what I was trying to say is that ALL news sources in America are left leaning, and it isn't doing our nation any good. We only know a fraction of the actual news that's out there from the media, and on top of that the reporting is SO biased - people are finding evidence to fit their stories left and right rather than finding evidence to TELL a story. After I read the journal article cited here, I have become so disgusted and disillusioned with news media. I try to read as many different sources as possible to maintain as rounded a view as possible about the news, but with liberal reporting it has become difficult to know the truth in this country.
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