Exploring a current fact + opinion case study

This week we will be exploring editorial writing. If you have been following the news in the last few days, you have undoubtedly heard about the crisis engulfing Penn State University in the wake of a sex scandal involving a former football coach. One Pennsylvania newspaper, The Patriot-News, took the highly unusual step of running a full page editorial on its front page calling for the resignation of Penn State's president. Click here to read about the trend of front page editorials.

The day after that editorial ran, the board of trustees at Penn State held an emergency meeting and decided to immediately fire the school's president and legendary football coach Joe Paterno. Paterno has NOT been charged with any crime but has come under a firestorm of criticism for failing to report his colleague's alleged sexual abuse of young boys to the police. Check out a pair of local opinion columns about Paterno's firing from sports columnists Mitch Albom and Drew Sharp, both of the Detroit Free Press.

Finally, one side note: Actor Ashton Kutcher committed an act of idiocy when he tweeted his support of Joe Paterno before he even knew why Paterno was let go. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, of course, but opinions must be based on fact, not ignorance.

Creative Commons photo by Joe Shlabotnik.

Bias in the news

As we examine the problem of bias in the news, you're probably thinking, "I'm not prejudiced. So I would never be biased in my reporting or writing." But bias isn't the same thing as prejudice. Prejudice is a deliberate negative feeling or attitude. Bias is a tendency or an inclincation to assume a certain viewpoint, and a bias may be favorable or unfavorable and is not always deliberate. Indeed, most reporters are unaware of bias in their reporting until someone points it out to them.

Even if your work is free of bias, you need to be a critical observer of the news media and have a greater understanding of bias in reporting. Because it happens. All the time.

Bias can occur in many ways, particularly through:

•  Selection and omission of specific details
  
•  Placement of a story
•  Choice of sources
•  Word choice and tone
•  Headlines
•  Photos and camera angles
•  Captions
•  Names and titles
•  Statistics

Click here to examine how two articles cover the same news event in much different way.Then click on some of the other menu items and explore this excellent University of Michigan website on news bias.