RE: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] Hostile media or fair and balanced reporting?

["Spurling, Shannon" <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

Doesn't the entire concept of one thing being a con versus a pro, as
opposed to being just facts, lend it's self to being biased one way or
another?
I mean, look at it this way. If I wrote a story and said something was a
pro, and something else was a con, I would be promoting the pro side and
saying the con side was bad. In that, you might say my reporting was
balanced, but the author is still supporting a position. About the only
unbiased reporting your going to find would be an encyclopedia article.
:-)
In English class the focus was always "Establish and support your
position". I think this whole bias thing comes from that we teach our
kids from a young age to have a position and support it. If you write
from that perspective, it is more interesting, but it is biased by its
basic nature. I am not saying that having a position and supporting it
is bad, but you have to understand that it's biased too. It's not purely
neutral and factual. 
Maybe we place too much emphasis on bias? I think maybe we should just
get used to the fact that stuff carries a bias and evaluate it on our
own. Balanced is not unbiased, it's equal presentation. If I present
both sides of an issue equally, that is balanced. If I say one is good
and the other is bad that's biased, but is that necessarily unbalanced?
I just presented both sides. I just think bias has become a negative
term, when it should not. It should be understood and evaluated. "Oh
he's biased, and they aren't" "This one is biased" "That one is biased".
For Pete's sake, they are all biased. Don't tell me they aren't, because
then I know your trying to sell me something. :-)

Shannon Spurling
WAN Engineer -Specialist

MOREnet, Network Services, Core Network
3212 LeMone Industrial Blvd.
Columbia, MO 65201

Main:(573) 884-7200   Fax:(573)884-6673

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-----Original Message-----
From: EMAIL:PROTECTED
[mailto:EMAIL:PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Vern Green
Sent: Tuesday, October 05, 2004 11:18 AM
To: MLUG Off-Topic Discussion
Subject: Re: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] Hostile media or fair and balanced
reporting?

Well this PDF link did not have the test story in it, that is what I
was looking for. This did have some additional information in it that
I thought was interesting. I am still not convinced this debunks the
bias in the media sentiment. In fact, I would go as far as to say that
I wish news outlets would go to the same lengths the writers of this
test did.

"In an effort to produce a balanced and  "neutral" article, we took
care to make the "pro" and "con" sections of the story equal in length
and similar in style. In addition we prestested the original draft
with nine judges who professed to be disinterested and nonpartisan on
the GM foods issue and revised it until they agreed it was balanced"

This is impossible for news outlets to do of course, but I am still
convinced and I have yet to see anything to sway my opinion that there
is still liberal bias in the main stream media. I see it almost
everyday in the way the stories are covered, presented, written and
commented on.


On Mon, 4 Oct 2004 21:38:36 -0500 (CDT), Mike Miller
<EMAIL:PROTECTED> wrote:
> On Mon, 4 Oct 2004, Vern Green wrote:
> 
> > Why don't we have the article? I want to read what the people read
> > before I can comment on the validity of this study, or how it
effects my
> > view of bias in the media.
> 
> No problema, Vern.  Here ya go:
> 
>
http://taxa.epi.umn.edu/~mbmiller/journals/j_comm/2004_54_Gunther_hostil
e_media.pdf
> 
> Mike
> 
> 
> 
> 
> > On Mon, 4 Oct 2004 20:13:22 -0500 (CDT), Mike Miller
> > <EMAIL:PROTECTED> wrote:
> >> This article is by the guy from UW-Madison that I told you about a
while
> >> ago:
> >>
> >> http://news.cals.wisc.edu/newsDisplay.asp?id=1022
> >>
> >> You can see a different twist in this research.  He showed the same
> >> article to people on two sides of an issue and he either told them
that
> >> the article was from a national newspaper or that it was from a
college
> >> student essay.  When people were told that the article was written
by a
> >> college student, they generally had no complaints.  When they were
told
> >> that the article was from a newspaper, they felt that the article
was
> >> unbiased only if they had no stake in the issue.  People who were
partisan
> >> on the issue saw the article was biased against them, not against
their
> >> opponents, but they did so only when told it was a newspaper
article.
> >>
> >> Read the URL above to get the whole story.
> >>
> >> I think the meaning is pretty clear.  People react defensively
against
> >> unbiased news reports that they think are harming them or their
cause.
> >> Therefore, unsubstantiated claims of bias in the mainstream news
media
> >> should be taken with a large grain of salt.
> >>
> >> Mike
> _______________________________________________
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> 


-- 
Thanks
F Vernon Green
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