How reporters are biased
“In America the President reigns for four years, and Journalism governs for ever and ever.”
–Oscar Wilde
Social psychologists have confirmed that cognition is an important ingredient in how information is perceived. They have found that perceptions can be swayed relatively easily by racial stereotypes, body language, facial expressions, previous bias (1), and self deceptions (2).
While the peer-reviewed process of research – in which other researchers evaluate, critique and edit manuscripts before results are officially published – can guard against perceptual biases, perception by journalists and the public is not as easily safeguarded.
The tiers of accountability for what constitutes news are comparatively sloppy, inconsistently applied and may not even be reviewed by editors or producers prior to airing or publication.
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The rest of this post has been updated, revised and is available in paperbook or ebook.
Melanie Robbins
2 years ago
Bias is so insidious that we don’t even recognize it in ourselves. If you want to find out how prejudiced you yourself actually are, try a couple of tests at Harvard’s Project Implicit: https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/
Great article, Bob.