3 ms·
There's no such thing as unbiased news, especially international news. Not even Reuters or AP manage to be un-biased. Biases flow in like thin air from cracks w
by atmosx 10y ago
There's no such thing as unbiased news, especially international news. Not even Reuters or AP manage to be un-biased. Biases flow in like thin air from cracks without the journalist even noticing, because of framing[1].
You have to understand that for a news story to be unbiased you have to report just the fact, e.g. "Bombing in Alepo, 13 dead". However, that's not even considered reporting for most people, since they lack the context: Where is Alepo, why is important, who bombed them? The moment you put context on a reality that is so complex, you're starting to putting upfront your biases. Even referencing a US-based institution vs a Chinese or Russian based institution is a form of rather strong bias.
So since everyone is biased what we can do to reach a balanced compromised is the following:
* Make sure we understand where the author comes from[2].
* Accept the fact that we don't know, hence remain open to other possibilities/interpretation
* Try (and you have to try hard...) to look for the truth. Most of us, read the publications that are ideologically aligned with our beliefs. That doesn't help much, as we already know the strong arguments for our case.
Some high quality publications in my view are:
* The New York Times
* The Atlantic
* The New Yorker
[1] In the social sciences, framing comprises a set of concepts and theoretical perspectives on how individuals, groups, and societies, organize, perceive, and communicate about reality, URL: https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Framing_(social_sciences) https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Framing_(social_sciences)
[2] I still remember the WSJ presenting the saviour of miners in South American as a win of capitalism while it was, by all means, the exact opposite. It was companies-do-what-they-do who put them in that situation, plus all the tech that powered the machines that saved them, were founded by public research.