Political bias

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Political bias is a bias or perceived bias involving the slanting or altering of information to make a political position or political candidate seem more attractive. With a distinct association with media bias, it commonly refers to how a reporter, news organisation, or TV show covers a political candidate or a policy issue. [1]

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Bias emerges in a political context when individuals engage in an inability or an unwillingness to understand a politically opposing point of view. Such bias in individuals may have its roots in their personality traits and thinking styles; it is unclear whether individuals at particular positions along the political spectrum are more biased than any other individuals. [2]

Political bias exists beyond simple presentation and understanding of view-points favouring a particular political leader or party, but transcends into the readings and interactions among individuals undertaken daily. [3] The prevalence of political bias has a lasting impact with proven effects on voter behaviour and consequent political outcomes. [3]

With an understanding of political bias comes the acknowledgment of its violation of expected political neutrality. [4] A lack of political neutrality is the result of political bias. [4]

Types of bias in a political context

Concision bias: Refers to perspective reporting using only the words necessary to explain a view quickly and spends little or no time to detail unconventional, difficult-to-explain views. [1] Concision bias aims to increase communication by selectively focusing on the important information and eliminating redundancy. [1] In a political context, this can mean the omission of seemingly unnecessary details can constitute bias, depending on what information is deemed unnecessary. [5] Political opinions are often reduced to a simple party understanding or belief system, with other challenging information excluded in its presentation. [1]

Coverage bias: When political parties address topics and issues to different extents. [5] This makes certain issues seem more prevalent and presents ideas as more important or necessary. [5] In a political atmosphere, this applies to the presentation of policies and the issues they address, along with the actual coverage by media and politicians. [5]

Confirmation bias: A cognitive bias that favours and seeks information that affirms pre-existing beliefs and opinions. [6] When set in a political atmosphere, individuals with like-minded political beliefs will seek and affirm their opinions, discounting contradictory information. [7] A recent meta-analysis attempted to compare levels of confirmation bias among liberals and conservatives in the United States and found that both groups were roughly equally biased. [8]

False consensus bias: Exists when the normalisation of an individual's opinions, beliefs and values are believed to be common. [9] This bias exists in a group setting where the collective group opinion is attributed to the wider population, with little to no inter group challenges. [1] This is the basis of political party formation and engages in the ongoing attempt to normalise these views within the wider population with little recognition of different beliefs outside the party. [5]

Speculative content: When stories focus on what has the potential to occur with speculative phrasing such as "may", "what if", and "could" rather than focusing on the evidence of what has and/or definitely will occur. [6] When a piece is not specifically labelled as an opinion and analysis article, it can lead to further speculative bias. [5] This occurs in a political context, particularly introducing policies, or addressing opposing policies. [10] This bias allows parties to make their policies more appealing and appear to address issues more directly, by speculating the positive and negative outcomes. [10]

Gatekeeping bias: This type of bias exists through the use of ideological selection, deselection and/or omission of stories based on individualised opinions. [10] This is similarly related to agenda bias, primarily when focusing on politicians and how they choose to cover and present preferred policy discussions and issues. [5]

Partisan bias: Exists in the media when reporters serve and create the leaning of a particular political party. [11]

Political neutrality

Political neutrality is the counteraction to political bias, looking to ensure the ability of public servants to carry out any official duties impartially, relative to their political beliefs. [12] In areas like media coverage, legal and bureaucratic decisions and academic teachings, the need for taking corrective action against politically biased actions is the foundation of political neutrality enforcement. [4] Research suggests that political neutrality is favoured over political bias, with Republicans, Independents, and Democrats preferring to get their news from politically neutral media. [4] Individuals' responses to political bias and motivations are challenged when the engagement of bias furthers and assists their political party or ideology. [4] The denunciation of political neutrality itself elicits a more aggravated response, directly controlling a normative acceptance of political bias. [4] Limitations of political neutrality exist regarding media coverage and generate accusations for any actions or messages perceived as politically biased. [12] Biases remain embedded in contextual intergroup competition, meaning political considerations based on action or message can challenge specific ideologies or further enhance and advance an ideology. [4] [13]

Political bias and framing

Political bias exists primarily in the concept of framing. [5] Framing is the social construction of political or social movements with a positive or negative representation. [14] Political bias in this context is political leaders and parties presenting information to highlight a problem and offering solutions that favour their political position. [15] This makes their position appear more favourable and their policies as the expected course of action. [15] The framing effect looks at the situations in which people are only presented with options within two frames, one presented negatively and the other positively. [16] The framing effect is increasingly significant in opinion polls designed to encourage specific organisations that are commissioned to poll. [14] [ clarification needed ] If reliable, credible and sufficient information is provided, this bias can be significantly reduced. [16] Framing further looks at the impact of slanting in political campaigning and its potential impact on the distribution of political power where political bias is present. [17] It is important to understand framing is an omnipresent process used in analysis to discern connections between aspects of reality and to convey an interpretation of opinions that may not be entirely accurate. [14]

Evidence of political bias in search engines

Search results from search engines like Google often shape opinions and perceptions of political issues and candidates. [18] Google does not design algorithms to provide a balanced or equal representation of controversial issues. [18] Search engines influence democracy because of the potential distrust of media, leading to increasing online searches for political information and understanding. [18] Looking specifically at America, the Fairness Doctrine was introduced in 1949 to avoid political bias in all licensed broadcasting media. [19] Within the context of polarising topics such as political bias, the top search results can play a significant role in shaping opinions. [20] Through the use of a bias quantification framework, [21] bias can be measured within the political bias by rank within the search system. It can further address the sources of the bias through the input data and ranking system. [22] Within the context of information queries, a ranking system determines the search results, which in the case of topics such as politics can return politically biased search results. [22] The bias presented in the search results can directly result from either biased data that collaborates with the ranking system or because of the structure of the ranking system itself. [22] This questionable nature of search results raises questions of the impact on users and to what degree the ranking system can impact political opinions and beliefs, which can directly translate into voter behaviour. [22] This can also affirm or encourage biased data within the Google search results. [22] Whilst research has shown users do not place exclusive trust on the information provided by search engines, [22] studies have shown that individuals who are undecided politically are susceptible to manipulation by bias relative to political candidates and the light in which their policies and actions are presented and conveyed. [22] In the quantification of political bias, both the input data for search results and the ranking system in which they are presented to the user encapsulates bias to varying degrees. [22]

There is distinctive political bias in social media where the algorithm that structures user content facilitates confirmation bias. [22] This involves presenting political information dependent on common searches and users' focus, further re-affirming political bias and reducing exposure to politically neutral content. [22]

Determining the difference between content and source bias is a significant focus of determining the role of political bias in search engines. [22] This focus looks directly at the actual content of the information present and whether it is purposefully selective in the information presented, or rather whether the source of information is projecting personalised opinions relative to their political opinions. [22]

Political bias in the media

Media bias highlights political bias in the reporting of political topics and the representation of politicians. [19] Where a reporter sometimes emphasises particular points of view and conveys selected information to further their own political view, they may present biased information favouring their own political opinion [23] or that of their readership. [24] Determining media biases relative to political positioning, there are distinctive regulations which protect against the fabrication of information. [20] The media, rather, may alter the representation of information to promote political positions. [23] Media bias can change political opinions, which directly impact voter behaviour and decisions, because of the failed representation of information. [20] This form of political bias has continuing impacts when used to change the opinions of others. [20] Where media remains a powerful information source for political information, it can create political bias in the informational representation of political actors [24] and policy issues. [20]

Use of media to further political bias Media Bias Study Table.gif
Use of media to further political bias

An example of quantification of political bias in the media is a propaganda model, a concept introduced by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky. It is a political economy model, looking at the "manufacturing" of political policies through the manipulation of mass media. [25] This model further looked at the capital funding of media outlets and their ownership, which often relates to political ties. [25]

Political bias in the media is also discussed, showing how social leaders discuss political issues. [23] To determine the existence of political bias, agenda determination is used. [20] Agenda determination is designed to provide an understanding of the agenda behind the presentation of political issues and attempt to determine the political bias that is present. [20]

Within a 2002 study by Jim A. Kuypers: Press Bias and Politics: How the Media Frame Controversial Issues, [26] he looks at the omission of left leaning points of view from the mainstream print press. [26] Kuypers determined politicians would receive positive press coverage only when covering and delivering topics that aligned with press-supported beliefs. [26] This meant the press was engaging in bias within the media through their coverage and selection/release of political information, which was challenging the neutral conveyance of political messages. [26]

David Baron similarly presents a game-theoretic model [27] of media behaviour, [28] suggesting that mass media outlets only hire journalists whose writing is aligned with their political positions. [28] This engages false consensus bias, as beliefs are determined to be common because of being surrounding by aligned views. This effectively heightens the political bias within media representation of information, and creates false narratives about the nations political climate. [28]

See also

Related Research Articles

Media bias occurs when journalists and news producers show bias in how they report and cover news. The term "media bias" implies a pervasive or widespread bias contravening of the standards of journalism, rather than the perspective of an individual journalist or article. The direction and degree of media bias in various countries is widely disputed.

Bias is a disproportionate weight in favor of or against an idea or thing, usually in a way that is inaccurate, closed-minded, prejudicial, or unfair. Biases can be innate or learned. People may develop biases for or against an individual, a group, or a belief. In science and engineering, a bias is a systematic error. Statistical bias results from an unfair sampling of a population, or from an estimation process that does not give accurate results on average.

Confirmation bias is the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms or supports one's prior beliefs or values. People display this bias when they select information that supports their views, ignoring contrary information, or when they interpret ambiguous evidence as supporting their existing attitudes. The effect is strongest for desired outcomes, for emotionally charged issues, and for deeply entrenched beliefs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Media manipulation</span> Techniques in which partisans create an image that favours their interests

Media manipulation refers to orchestrated campaigns in which actors exploit the distinctive features of broadcasting mass communications or digital media platforms to mislead, misinform, or create a narrative that advance their interests and agendas.

Public opinion, or popular opinion, is the collective opinion on a specific topic or voting intention relevant to society. It is the people's views on matters affecting them.

Agenda-setting theory suggests that the communications media, through their ability to identify and publicize issues, play a pivotal role in shaping the problems that attract attention from governments and international organizations, and direct public opinion towards specific issues. The theory suggests that the media can shape public opinion by determining what issues are given the most attention, and has been widely studied and applied to various forms of media. The way news stories and topics that impact public opinion are presented is influenced by the media. It is predicated on the idea that most individuals only have access to one source of information on most issues: the news media. Since they establish the agenda, they may affect how important some things are seen to be.

The hostile media effect, originally deemed the hostile media phenomenon and sometimes called hostile media perception, is a perceptual theory of mass communication that refers to the tendency for individuals with a strong preexisting attitude on an issue to perceive media coverage as biased against their side and in favor of their antagonists' point of view. Partisans from opposite sides of an issue will tend to find the same coverage to be biased against them. The phenomenon was first proposed and studied experimentally by Robert Vallone, Lee Ross and Mark Lepper.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pluralistic ignorance</span> Incorrect perception of others beliefs

In social psychology, pluralistic ignorance is a phenomenon in which people mistakenly believe that others predominantly hold an opinion different from their own. In this phenomenon, most people in a group may go along with a view they do not hold because they think, incorrectly, that most other people in the group hold it. Pluralistic ignorance encompasses situations in which a minority position on a given topic is wrongly perceived to be the majority position, or the majority position is wrongly perceived to be a minority position.

In media studies, mass communication, media psychology, communication theory, and sociology, media influence and themedia effect are topics relating to mass media and media culture's effects on individuals' or audiences' thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors. Through written, televised, or spoken channels, mass media reach large audiences. Mass media's role in shaping modern culture is a central issue for the study of culture.

Claims of media bias in the United States generally focus on the idea of media outlets reporting news in a way that seems partisan. Other claims argue that outlets sometimes sacrifice objectivity in pursuit of growth or profits.

Political socialization is the process by which individuals internalize and develop their political values, ideas, attitudes, and perceptions via the agents of socialization. Political socialization occurs through processes of socialization, that can be structured as primary and secondary socialization. Primary socialization agents include the family, whereas secondary socialization refers to agents outside the family. Agents such as family, education, media, and peers influence the most in establishing varying political lenses that frame one's perception of political values, ideas, and attitudes. These perceptions, in turn, shape and define individuals' definitions of who they are and how they should behave in the political and economic institutions in which they live. This learning process shapes perceptions that influence which norms, behaviors, values, opinions, morals, and priorities will ultimately shape their political ideology: it is a "study of the developmental processes by which people of all ages and adolescents acquire political cognition, attitudes, and behaviors." These agents expose individuals through varying degrees of influence, inducing them into the political culture and their orientations towards political objects. Throughout a lifetime, these experiences influence your political identity and shape your political outlook. 

Civic journalism is the idea of integrating journalism into the democratic process. The media not only informs the public, but it also works towards engaging citizens and creating public debate. The civic journalism movement is an attempt to abandon the notion that journalists and their audiences are spectators in political and social processes. In its place, the civic journalism movement seeks to treat readers and community members as participants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gatekeeping (communication)</span> Filtering process in communication

Gatekeeping is the process through which information is filtered for dissemination, whether for publication, broadcasting, the Internet, or some other mode of communication. The academic theory of gatekeeping may be found in multiple fields of study, including communication studies, journalism, political science, and sociology. Gatekeeping originally focused on the mass media with its few-to-many dynamic. Currently, the gatekeeping theory also addresses face-to-face communication and the many-to-many dynamic inherent on the Internet. Social psychologist Kurt Lewin first instituted Gatekeeping theory in 1943. Gatekeeping occurs at all levels of the media structure—from a reporter deciding which sources are presented in a headline story to editors choosing which stories are printed or covered. Including, but not limited to, media outlet owner and advertisers.

Frame analysis is a multi-disciplinary social science research method used to analyze how people understand situations and activities. Frame analysis looks at images, stereotypes, metaphors, actors, messages, and more. It examines how important these factors are and how and why they are chosen. The concept is generally attributed to the work of Erving Goffman and his 1974 book Frame analysis: An essay on the organization of experience and has been developed in social movement theory, policy studies and elsewhere.

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. Framing can manifest in thought or interpersonal communication. Frames in thought consist of the mental representations, interpretations, and simplifications of reality. Frames in communication consist of the communication of frames between different actors. Framing is a key component of sociology, the study of social interaction among humans. Framing is an integral part of conveying and processing data daily. Successful framing techniques can be used to reduce the ambiguity of intangible topics by contextualizing the information in such a way that recipients can connect to what they already know.

Selective exposure is a theory within the practice of psychology, often used in media and communication research, that historically refers to individuals' tendency to favor information which reinforces their pre-existing views while avoiding contradictory information. Selective exposure has also been known and defined as "congeniality bias" or "confirmation bias" in various texts throughout the years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Political journalism</span> Political reporter

Political journalism is a broad branch of journalism that includes coverage of all aspects of politics and political science, although the term usually refers specifically to coverage of civil governments and political power.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Echo chamber (media)</span> Situation that reinforces beliefs by repetition inside a closed system

In news media and social media, an echo chamber is an environment or ecosystem in which participants encounter beliefs that amplify or reinforce their preexisting beliefs by communication and repetition inside a closed system and insulated from rebuttal. An echo chamber circulates existing views without encountering opposing views, potentially resulting in confirmation bias. Echo chambers may increase social and political polarization and extremism. On social media, it is thought that echo chambers limit exposure to diverse perspectives, and favor and reinforce presupposed narratives and ideologies.

Civil discourse is the practice of deliberating about matters of public concern in a way that seeks to expand knowledge and promote understanding. The word "civil" relates directly to civic in the sense of being oriented toward public life, and less directly to civility, in the sense of mere politeness. Discourse is defined as the use of written or spoken communications, similar to having a conversation. Civil discourse includes the practice of deliberating about things that are of concern to society in a way that seeks to help all participants understand each other. It is an essential part of democratic citizenship and is thus a fundamental aspect of freedom of speech, characterized by dialogue that supports the societal good." For civil discourse to truly be effective as a democratic tool, all people need to be heard and share their viewpoints. Civil discourse involves more than just politeness; it involves disagreement without disrespect, seeking common ground, listening beyond preconceptions, and remaining present in dialogues despite deep disagreements. This can help develop better public policies that benefit all people of a society. Members of the U.S. Supreme Court session in 2011 aptly described civil discourse as "robust, honest, frank and constructive dialogue and deliberation that seeks to advance the public interest." Viewpoints are grounded in reason and evidence, adhering to strict guidelines for the appropriate behavior to be practiced. In contrast, uncivil discourse contains direct insults, unwarranted attributions of motive, and open contempt." Civil discourse has its foundation on several key values:

Motivated reasoning is a cognitive and social response in which individuals, consciously or sub-consciously, allow emotion-loaded motivational biases to affect how new information is perceived. Individuals tend to favor evidence that coincides with their current beliefs and reject new information that contradicts them, despite contrary evidence.

References

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  13. ↑ Yair, Omar; Sulitzeanu-Kenan, Raanan (2018). "When do we care about political neutrality? The hypocritical nature of reaction to political bias". PLOS One . 13 (5): e0196674. Bibcode:2018PLoSO..1396674Y. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0196674 . PMC   5933769 . PMID   29723271.
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  16. 1 2 Druckman, James (2001). "On the Limits of Framing Effects: Who can Frame?". Political Science .
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  19. 1 2 Patterson, Thomas (2013). "The News Media: Communicating Political Images". We the People. 10.
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  25. 1 2 Robinson, Piers (25 October 2018). "Does the Propaganda Model Actually Theorise Propaganda?". The Propaganda Model Today: Filtering Perception and Awareness. University of Westminster Press. pp. 53–67. doi: 10.16997/book27.e . ISBN   9781912656165.
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