Response:

Bias has been around for as long as humans can remember, and it will continue to stay that way until the end of time. It is present in many of the things that we do, the things that we say, and also in the way that we act. We, as humans, are genetically made to connect to things, and grow a sort of comfort level with these things over time. And it is in this comfort where the bias that humans have always had is created. We see something that we like, and then keep taking in more and more of it, until it consumes us in how we see and think of things in the world around us. Such can be the case when it comes to how we get our news. In the political world there is just one thing that defines what type of person you are, that is the political spectrum. The political spectrum is a tool in which people identify on a “scale” what sort of political beliefs that they share; ranging from the “left”/democratic side of the “scale”, to the “right”/republican side of the “scale”. And then, there is also the middle ground in between both, as well as the extremes on both the left and right ends of the spectrum.

In the political media world there are many platforms that day-to-day content can be shared across. This is including, but not limited to TV, radio, podcasts, newspapers, online blogs, online articles/journals, social media, etc. As you can see many of these platforms are relatively new due to the recent surge in technology use over the past 10-20 years. This has not only expanded the reach of existing news stations, but also has gave way to multiply, ten fold, the number of new voices in the industry. This has been even more noticeable following the events of the recent 2016 presidential election. And even more specifically, when President Trump recently announced his new plans for the DACA program. My two example news sources regarding this event were from Fox News and Slate Magazine. Fox News has a reputation for being a well recognizable news source across many platforms, and also well known for leaning more right, or Republican. Slate magazine on the other hand is more left leaning, or Democratic, and is more confined to just the online article platform.

In these two articles they both discuss the DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) program and their view on the situation. Starting with the article from Slate, you can see their view on the matter right from the beginning when there headline for the story reads, “No Good Reason: The official rationale for Trumps DACA phase-out is totally flawed”. So before I even read a single word I can already sense a side of favoritism, and this can lead me to start “arming up” to defend his choice, or to not even have to read the article to know I will love it. This, in the eyes of unbiased journalism would be thrown out right away. Meanwhile, the Fox News article is a bit more of just pure journalism, with its article title reading, “Trump Administration ends DACA , with 6-month delay”. That title gives me no sense of bias (at least not yet) and it also still makes me indifferent and unsure of what they are about to say in their article, leaving me to have a more open mind to what they are about to say and take sides on. The Slate article continues to go on with some actual middle ground reporting about what took place, and using some helpful and relate able history to prove some points made within it. Though, the way they end their story kind of threw me off; due to the fact that they openly put into a comment box that the company was trying to “watchdog” the Trump administration for every little thing, this not only turned me off but it also discredited to me all of what I had just read in their article. That was because now I felt that they reported with an open bias, making them un-trustable. The Fox News article also did much of the same reporting with numbers and stats, therefore seeming to make there argument all that much stronger from beginning to end with no openly known bias expressed in the piece.

In conclusion, bias is assumed in everything that we see, read, and do. But bias is not accepted when it comes to reporting on important news stories. Yet it still occurs, and it is our job as the reader to identify it, pick it out, and make note of what sources are more trustworthy and reliable to use when it comes to obtaining my news, over others.

Citations:

Hemel, Daniel. “No Good Reason: The official rationale for Trump’s DACA phase-out is fatally flawed.” Slate Magazine, 7 Sept. 2017, http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2017/09/the_official_rationale_for_trump_s_daca_phase_out_is_fatally_flawed.html. Accessed 8 Sept. 2017.

Roberts, John, et al. “Trump administration ends DACA, with 6-month delay.” FOX News Politics, FOX News, 5 Sept. 2017, http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/09/05/trump-administration-ends-daca-with-6-month-delay.html. Accessed 8 Sept. 2017.