Wednesday's Biased Item - March 26, 2008
One Year Analysis: Reuters 2007 “Pictures of the Month”
Directions
Read the excerpt below (from a post at HonestReporting.com). Read "Types of Media Bias" in the right column. Then answer the question.
Questions
1. What 3 types of bias is the excerpt below endeavoring to highlight? (Scroll down to the bottom of the page for the answer.)
2. Go to HonestReporting.com for the entire report. Does Honest Reporting do a good job of demonstrating the bias it has discovered? Explain your answer.
Scroll down to the bottom of the page for the answer.
Excerpt
(from the HonestReporting.org post):
62% of images in our study were sympathic to the Palestinians.
Each month, Reuters selects about 250 images from thousands of its own photographs for inclusion in a "Pictures of the Month" package. These photographs depict people and events from around the world, encompassing culture, sport, politics and significant news events. Reuters uses these photo packages to draw attention to the best examples of its work each month.
Key Findings
Having previously challenged Reuters for its objectivity in a subjectively selected group of images (see Desk Calendar at the complete posting for this entry, found at HonestReporting.com), we were interested in seeing if that case represented a one-time aberration, or if Reuters has a serious bias problem in its coverage of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
We looked at those photographs that featured Palestinians or Israelis included by Reuters in the twelve monthly "Pictures" packages of 2007. We studied 2,666 photos. Our findings are based on 124 photographs of Israelis and Palestinians (promoted by Reuters as the "Best of the Month"):
- 62% of images provoke sympathy for the Palestinians.
- Fifteen photographs of Palestinian funerals were selected as "Pictures of the Month." None were similarly promoted of Israeli funerals of those killed in the conflict. (Nor were there pictures of funerals from Darfur, Afghanistan, or Sri Lanka from the thousands of combat deaths in those places).
- The images consistently depicted Israelis as the aggressors and Palestinians as the victims. Only 10% of the images could be considered sympathetic to Israelis.
Go to HonestReporting.com for the complete posting.
To accurately identify different types of bias, you should be aware of the issues of the day, and the liberal and conservative perspectives on each issue. (See our chart “Conservative vs. Liberal Beliefs”)
Types of Media Bias:
Omission – leaving one side out of an article or a series of articles over a period of time... (read more)
Selection of Sources – including more sources that support one view over another... (read more)
Story Selection – a pattern of highlighting news stories that support one side of an issue over another... (read more)
Placement – the location in the paper or article where a story or event is printed; a pattern of placing news stories so as to downplay information supportive of one side... (read more)
Labeling – comes in two forms: 1. Tagging of person from one party or group with extreme labels while leaving the other side unlabeled or with more mild labels. 2. A reporter not only fails to identify a liberal or conservative as such, but also describes the person or group with positive labels, such as “an expert” or “independent consumer group”... (read more)
Spin – occurs when the story has only one interpretation of an event or policy, to the exclusion of the other. Spin involves tone- a reporter’s subjective comments about objective facts... (read more)
Previous Biased Items
- When Watchdogs Snore: How ABC, CBS & NBC Ignored Fannie & Freddie
October 1, 2008 - AP: US ‘A Nation That Enshrined Slavery in its Constitution’
September 24, 2008 - Media’s Treatment of Hillary, Barack and Sarah
September 17, 2008 - Media Credibility Plummets
September 10, 2008 - The NY Times: A Year-Long Analysis: Part 2
September 3, 2008
