Bias in the News

Bias through selection and omission;
A journalist can express a bias by choosing to use or not a use of a specific news story. Within a story, some details may be ignored and others included. This is to manipulate audience into a different opinion on the events being reported. An example of this could be when someone is giving a speech and a few people 'boo' and the reaction can be described as 'remarks greeted with jeer's' or they can be ignored.

Bias through placement;
Readers of the newspapers judge the front page stories ti be more significant than the ones in the back, whilst news websites out the most important story on their homepage. Television and radio newscasts runs the most important stories first and leave the less significant ones till last. Where the story is placed really influences people to the significance of the story.

Bias by headline;
Many people read only the headlines of a news item.

Bias by photos, captions and camera angles;
some pictures flatter a person, whilst others are made to look unpleasant. A paper can choose a picture to influence opinion about, for example, a candidate for election.

Bias by use of names and titles;
News media often use labels and titles to describe a person, place or event. a person can be called an 'ex-con' or someone who 'served time twenty years ago for a minor offence'.weather the person is described as a 'terrorist' or a 'freedom fighter' is a clear indication of editorial bias

Bias through statistics and crowd counts;
To make a disaster seem more spectacular and therefore more news worthy, numbers can be inflated.

Bias by source control;
Always consider where the term comes from. Is the information supplied by a reporter, an eyewitness, policce of fireman, executives or elected or appointed government officials? Each may be particularly biased towards a certain story.