Bias in Online News

     One of the biggest issues facing the so-called information age is, ironically, bad information. The best and worst part about the internet is that anybody can say literally whatever they want. If someone wants to inform you, they can. If someone wants to trick you, they can. This reality means that people with adequate writing skills and an agenda to push can write in a way to influence a reader. The same story reported on by Fox News with the headline "Democrats want to take your guns" may read "Democrats making the world a safer place" on MSNBC. While this is purely an (accurate) example, it demonstrates that word choice greatly affects the impression left on readers. This intentional word crafting to influence someone is known as bias.
     The ability to detect bias is very important to remaining informed while avoiding ignorance. Writers often use 'power words' to do this. These words have either strong emotion or being forth a certain mood when read. For instance, an author with no bias would refer to a group of people by the name they wish to be called. If the author wants to make them look bad, he could make a play on words with their name, or call them a word with heavy emotion (evil, treacherous, etc.). To make them appear in a positive light the author could compliment the group or praise their actions, using words like (brave, noble, hero, etc.). Most writers aren't as simple as these examples, and it can be hard to see bias without reading another source on the subject. For this reason, I believe it is very important to read a multitude of news sources and make enlightened judgments from what you find.     
     Without critically thinking, an individual could easily read a biased article and believe something that is simply not true. Worse yet, that same person could blog or talk about what they believe to be true and spread the misinformation ever further. Because of how easy it is to be misinformed, being well informed is a fairly large undertaking. This task is all the easier once the ability to detect bias is mastered.
For more information on bias: http://fair.org/take-action-now/media-activism-kit/how-to-detect-bias-in-news-media/
Written by Gavin William Young.