3 ms·
Finding bias is easy. You recognize patterns and often little cheap shots against only one candidate or only one party. And in tech sites it comes across as arr
by michaelbuddy 10y ago
Finding bias is easy. You recognize patterns and often little cheap shots against only one candidate or only one party. And in tech sites it comes across as arrogant and amateurish or simply out of place. It's not hard to write unbiased copy or provide an overview that doesn't assume a particular political pov is right or wrong. It's also the job of editing chiefs to ensure that the big picture of a publication is providing a collection of unbiased or at least a balance of biased pieces in order to maintain an unbiased reputation.
You can write so as to describe an incident, you can get quotes to balance out a view. And what you choose to EXCLUDE matters just as much as what you include. Even down to how images are cropped. A writer who is self-aware of bias can do an outstanding job by understanding that what they think they know they may not actually know.
For example, a topic such as climate change, I may realize both that I have a bias AND I don't have very good info of the other sides of an argument. If I were being a responsible writer that should mean that I need to study up both on the topic AND on the view points, separate the valid from the invalid and go from there. Taking my own side on faith or from a narrow perspective is my undoing if I'm to be a reliable source as a reporter or journalist to 'inform'.
Also this is the age of clickbait so it's even easier to detect bias because the headlines are begging for scrutiny.
- andybak 10y agoThis all sounds reasonable but there are some problematic assumptions and circular reasoning. 'bias', 'both sides', 'balance' etc all rely on the idea that there is a reasonable middle ground. Aren't you assuming the very thing I'm asking you to justify? For example in the UK - the BBC has been criticised for 'false balance' in it's science reporting. i.e. giving equal weight to mainstream views and fringe views: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/10944629/BBC-staff-told-to-stop-inviting-cranks-on-to-science-programmes.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/10944629/B... (this is from a right wing newspaper - bear in mind that the right in the UK doesn't strongly support climate change skepticism in the same way they do in the US). Also I've found the concept of the Overton window to be useful and fascinating: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton_window https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton_window