Editorial: Dealing with media bias

Last week during layout, The Concordian staff discussed an argument between one of the editors and another student about the criticisms of modern day media. This brought up some of our own opinions on media we would like to share with our readers.

Trust in the media is at a low in this country and has been for a while. Criticism has been aimed at biased news sources, and there is an ongoing paranoia that the media keeps some things from the public. As journalists it is hard to know what to do to change the public opinion, aside from doing what we can to stay fair and balanced.

Following the journalistic code of ethics is a good start, but educating the public on how to properly consume news is also important. If the public does not know how to separate quality journalism from biased commentary, then it is pretty easy for them to indict the media as being at fault for an uninformed public.

In order to become a news consumer, one must understand that not every news source is able to bring you the news in a neat little package. There is simply too much happening in the world to cover it all in one week. Certainly some organizations have the network to cover the entire world, but to truly get an accurate sense of what is happening, it is important to diversify the sources from which we get our information and understand the biases of those sources.

Every news source is different in how it covers an issue. If one source seems biased or has completely ignored a story, claiming that all of the media is that way completely misses the point. Every source has a bias, whether it is Fox News or The New York times. While the degrees of those biases vary, whenever you pick up a paper or turn on the news, it is important to consider slant and to question everything.

If you want to understand an issue, do some research. If you want to change bias in the media, avoid feeding the revenue streams of biased sources. Complaining about universal media bias does nothing to change it.

This editorial was written by The Concordian editorial staff.