Bias News examples

How to spot Bias in a newspaper...

-Bias through Pictures/graphics - E.g. Camera angles, captions.

This example shows Donald Trump when he won the presidency. The camera angle used is not very flattering towards him and makes him look unappealing giving the audience a biased negative perception of Trump. By using bias through pictures and graphics, the audience is being brain washed to see him in an unappealing light as the Guardian is anti-Trump.

-Bias through Word choice and tone in the body of the text. 

This example shows two newspaper front cover from the Sun which contain word choices that are Anti- Labour. The first paper uses negative words such as 'last,' 'leave,' and 'out.' By using these words, they are showing the Labour party in a negative light. In the second paper, it uses the word choice of 'monster.'

-Bias through choice of Journalist and sources - Who is writing it and what are their beliefs, and who have they got their information from?

This example shows an article written by a Daily mail reporter and Julian Robinson so obviously this article will be full of their opinion and their knowledge of the story so it is bias because they are using their own beliefs in the article so people reading may believe it is true. Also the quotes made about 'Mugabe' are largely negative towards him so this article is against him so is one sided as it is from the viewpoint of people against him so is very biased.

- Biased through where the article is in the paper - Is it prominent or hidden? Front page or far back?

This example shows a political article that is on page 28, in other papers this story might be nearer the front as is it about the Prime Minister but this paper has put it further back as they think it is less important showing bias.

-Bias through omission and selection - Whether the article is even published or not.

In this example, the paper on the right has a top story about schools begging parents to pay for pens but in the paper on the left on the same day, they do not publish this story as they think it is not important so they are biased because they aren't showing their audience the story.

 - Bias by headline

This example shows The Sun with a biased headline against Labour and Jeremy Corbyn. The Sun is very well known for putting puns in their headlines and make their readers seeing the worst if they want them too. In this example they are persuading the audience to vote against Labour.

-Bias by use of names and titles - E.g. 'terrorist' or 'freedom fighter'? 'Ex con' or 'someone who served a sentence a long time ago.'

This example shows yet another bias by The Sun as they are largely biased in their writing. In this example, they do not called the Prime Minister by her full name which would be respectful but a nickname of Theresa Dismay which plays on her last name to show a negative appearance for her by changing her name. This is largely biased as it persuades the audience to see her in a negative light.

-Bias through statistics and Crowd counts - E.g. 'A hundred injured in air crash' or 'Only Minor injuries in an Air crash.'

This example show the headline and intro to an article about a bus crash where they mention the amount or people killed and the amount of people injured showing bias because instead of saying only a few hurt, they say the actual figures. Making their readers know the extent of the crash.