Understanding Bias

Introduction

Bias means presenting facts and arguments in a way that consciously favours one side or other in an argument.

Probably all sources exhibit some bias, simply because it’s impossible for their authors to avoid letting their life experience and education have an effect on their decisions about what is relevant to put on the site and what to say about it.

But that kind of unavoidable bias is very different from a wholesale effort to shape the message so the site (or other source) amounts to a persuasive advertisement for something important to the author.

Even if the effort is not as strong as a wholesale effort, authors can find many—sometimes subtle—ways to shape communication until it loses its integrity. Such communication is too persuasive, meaning the author has sacrificed its value as information in order to persuade.

While sifting through resources for the ones that suit your purpose, you’ll have to pay attention to both what’s on the sites and in your own mind.

That’s because one of the things that gets in the way of identifying evidence of bias is our own biases. Sometimes the things that look most correct to us are the ones that play to our own biases.

Strategies for analyzing a source for bias include:

Assess the Quality of the Argument, if the article is persuasive

Identify the author’s main claim. Pay attention to what the author uses to support his or her claim – do you find relevant evidence or just emotional examples? Do you find statistics used consistently and fairly, with an explanation of where they came from? Do you see logical fallacies in the author’s argument? Does the author consider opposing viewpoints– if so, how thoroughly?

Assess the Quality of the Explanation, if the article is explanatory

Identify the author’s thesis. Pay attention to how balanced the author’s explanation is – does he or she present all sides equally so as to avoid clear judgement? Does the author effectively summarize sources used? (Please note that magazine and newspaper writing style does not require the types of in-text citations that we use in our papers).

Evaluating for Bias

“Fake news!” “Media Bias!”

We hear charges like these often, mostly in reference to the types of popular sources that we can find on the internet, on TV, on the radio, or in print.

We should not be tempted to write off all popular news sources as somehow “bad”; we should, however, be willing to evaluate any news source’s authority and credibility before choosing to include it in any academic assignment.

How to evaluate newspaper and magazine sources? Do some research on the author and the publication, and use your critical reading skills in examining the article’s strength.

Author Bias

Do a background check on the author of the material.

• Does the author support a particular political or religious view that could be affecting his or her objectivity in the piece?
• Is the author supported by any special-interest groups (i.e. the American Library Association or Keep America Safe)?

Authority and Expertise of Author

• Who is the author? A highly educated expert on that topic who is choosing to publish an article for a popular, mainstream audience? A journalist who specializes in the topic? A journalist whose specialty is unclear? A citizen who is weighing in?

• Is the author writing from personal experience, or is he/she synthesizing and offering commentary on others’ experiences?

• Each of these different levels of expertise will confer a different level of authority on the topic.

• Be careful that you are not using an article that is actually a middle school student essay published in a school newspaper!

Publication Ideology

Certain newspapers or magazines are subject to corporate owners’ political ideologies or biases. Just as you can do some background research on an individual author, do some research on the publication that hosts the article you would like to use.

Does it lean liberal or conservative? Is it religious or secular? If you cannot easily answer these questions by reading the source, don’t be afraid to do seek those answers through further research.

Examples of Bias

Coverage

• Unbiased: This source’s information is not drastically different from coverage of the topic elsewhere. Information and opinion about the topic don’t seem to come out of nowhere. It doesn’t seem as though information has been shaped to fit.
• Biased: Compared to what you’ve found in other sources covering the same topic, this content seems to omit a lot of information about the topic, emphasize vastly different aspects of it, and/or contain stereotypes or overly simplified information. Everything seems to fit the site’s theme, even though you know there are various ways to look at the issue(s).

Citing Sources

• Unbiased: The source links to any earlier news or documents it refers to.
• Biased: The source refers to earlier news or documents, but does not link to the news report or document itself.

Evidence

• Unbiased: Statements are supported by evidence and documentation.
• Biased: There is little evidence and documentation presented, just assertions that seem intended to persuade by themselves.

Vested Interest

• Unbiased: There is no overt evidence that the author will benefit from whichever way the topic is decided.
• Biased: The author seems to have a “vested interest” in the topic. For instance, if the site asks for contributions, the author probably will benefit if contributions are made. Or, perhaps the author may get to continue his or her job if the topic that the website promotes gets decided in a particular way.

Imperative Language

• Unbiased: Statements are made without strong emphasis and without provocative twists. There aren’t many exclamation points.
• Biased: There are many strongly worded assertions. There are a lot of exclamation points.

Multiple Viewpoints

• Unbiased: Both pro and con viewpoints are provided about controversial issues.
• Biased: Only one version of the truth is presented about controversial issues.

Summary

BIAS

Do a background check on the author and publisher of the material. Do they support a particular political or religious view that could be affecting their objectivity in the piece? If they are associated with a special-interest group (i.e. the American Library Association or Keep America Safe), this might also be an indication of bias, unless alternative views are presented and addressed with appropriate respect.

ASSESS THE ARGUMENT

Identify the author’s main claim. What are they arguing is true or untrue? Pay attention to what the author uses to support their claim – do you find relevant evidence or just emotional examples? Statistics should be used consistently and fairly, with an explanation of where they came from. Check for logical fallacies in the author’s argument and make sure the author considers opposing viewpoints.

“Degrees of Bias.” By Teaching & Learning, Ohio State University Libraries. Retrieved from: https://ohiostate.pressbooks.pub/choosingsources/chapter/degree-of-bias/ Licensed under: CC-BY

“Evaluating Sources.” By Robin Jeffrey. Retrieved from: https://openoregon.pressbooks.pub/aboutwriting/chapter/evaluating-sources/ Licensed under: CC-BY

“Understanding Bias.” By Lumen Learning. Retrieved from: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/englishcomp2kscopexmaster/chapter/understanding-bias/ Licensed under: CC-BY-SA