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Media Literacy Part 14: Bias Try Us 1328 Views


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Transcript

00:01

We speak student!

00:05

Media Literacy

00:07

Bias? Try us!

00:09

a la Shmoop

00:12

Bias? Try us.

00:13

Deb, define for us what bias is.

00:16

Bias in the sense of prejudice.

00:18

Yes. Bias is basically belief,

00:23

either negative or positive, in one direction or another,

00:26

about a certain subject.

00:28

So, we usually think of bias as being negative.

00:30

I don't like a specific politician,

00:34

so I am biased against them.

00:36

But you can also be biased for something.

00:37

I do like that politician, then I am biased for them.

00:40

[ woo! ]

00:41

And the most important thing to remember about bias is that

00:44

everyone has a bias about everything.

00:48

Very few instances exist in which someone

00:51

is completely neutral about something.

00:55

So Shmoop, we're biased all the time and we say this in our lessons.

00:59

We think education is valuable.

01:01

That's a bias toward education.

01:03

So even if it's a bias that almost everyone agrees on, it's still a bias.

01:07

And it's just something to be aware of,

01:09

that you kind of believe whatever anyone says to you.

01:13

And you have to remember, well they believe what they're saying

01:16

for a specific reason. And maybe not everyone does agree with them.

01:19

Talk to us about some of the elements that

01:22

can help us identify bias.

01:26

So, let's say you're reading an article on the Internet

01:29

and you're trying to identify the bias in it.

01:30

The first thing you need to do is consider the source.

01:33

If that source is known for being

01:36

specifically biased in one direction or another --

01:38

The classic example is Fox news versus MSNBC.

01:41

You're reading Fox news, you kind of understand that it is

01:44

biased toward the right. You're reading MSNBC,

01:46

bias toward the left.

01:47

Just go into it knowing that.

01:49

It does not mean you cannot use those sources.

01:51

It just means you have to be aware of the bias.

01:53

So considering the source is important.

01:55

Considering the author.

01:57

Does that author have

01:59

a history of being biased in one direction or another?

02:02

[ evil laugh ]

02:03

Check out some other articles they've written.

02:05

Maybe this piece seems pretty neutral,

02:08

but then you Google the author

02:10

and you find out that they've written

02:11

a lot of letters to the editor

02:13

that are really left-leaning or right-leaning or really

02:16

pro-war, anti-war, whatever the case is.

02:19

Another thing to do is check for accuracy.

02:22

If the author is giving stats

02:25

or quoting things, make sure they're right.

02:27

If they're not accurate,

02:29

probably there's a lot of bias.

02:31

If everything they're quoting is accurate,

02:34

they're ideally less biased,

02:35

but then you have to check for omissions.

02:37

What stats aren't they quoting?

02:39

You have to make sure that they're considering both sides.

02:42

And that then leaves one of the last things,

02:45

which is oversimplification.

02:47

You wanna look in the source and say,

02:49

"Is this issue being oversimplified by the author?

02:53

Are they only showing one side of it

02:56

or are they making really broad statements

02:59

without getting into the nitty gritty?"

03:00

Because oversimplification can be a pretty obvious sign of bias.

03:04

Got it. Understood.

03:05

Where do we go for

03:07

a neutral perspective on things?

03:11

Are there any unbiased news sources?

03:15

No, there really doesn't exist an unbiased source.

03:18

There are certain sources that

03:20

are more -- The BBC is a good example, right?

03:24

Where it's slightly more reliable than MSNBC or Fox News,

03:27

for sure.

03:28

But you kind of want to base it more

03:31

on the individual author or speaker of the source,

03:35

because every source is leaning in one direction or another.

03:38

So when it comes to the news

03:40

and current events, almost every single thing you see is going to be biased.

03:46

[ whoop ]

03:47

What is bias?

03:49

How can we identify bias?

03:53

Are there are any unbiased news sources?

03:58

[ silly laugh ]

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