Bias in the News

Creative Commons photo by DonkeyHotey

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. Are you surprised by some of the hidden bias?

On a related note, some words over time are dropped by journalists when they become offensive to people. For example, a number of news organizations are refusing to print or broadcast the term "Washington Redskins".   Here is a brief article that explains the controversy. Do you think journalists need to avoid terms that may be offensive? Or do you think they shouldn't spend so much time worrying about being "politically correct"?

Interviewing Tips & Less is More

Although everyone in the class still needs more practice with writing hard news leads and writing stories that follow the basic inverted pyramid structure, it's time to move towards other forms of journalistic writing, beginning with basic feature writing. Features rely more heavily on quotes and interviews, so we need to spend some time in and out of class considering and practicing what makes a good interview.

It's true that the best interviews are like good conversations. That is, in most cases the interview should be a comfortable give-and-take session where you and the person you interview talk with each other, not ateach other. Of course, if the interviewee is hostile or defensive, this may not be the case. But the three best things you can do to have a good interview are:

1) Prepare thoroughly by researching the topic and/or the person and list questions.
2) Take good notes and record the interview if possible.
3) Listen very attentively.

Being a good listener is the most important thing you can do. One of the biggest mistakes many inexperienced reporters make is worrying so much about what question to ask next, that they don't realize something important or unexpected that the interviewee has just said. 

Here are a couple of short videos I would like you to watch. The first is some good advice about interviewing from former network anchor Katie Couric. The second is from National Public Radio's Scott Simon.

There's an old saying in journalism: "Less is more."

Forget about the times you wrote as much as you could about something in order to impress the teacher or give your reader the impression that you really know what you're talking about. In journalism brevity is key. Hard news stories must be concise or you'll confuse and lose the reader. While feature stories allow writers to be more descriptive and more creative, that doesn't mean you should necessarily start writing a lot more. Right now we're focusing on short profiles so that means first do thorough reporting and interviewing, then pick the very best information to write your story. Don't give the reader all of the information. While your words may be sacred to you, you have to be able to cut what's not necessary and edit wordy phrases.

Think of it as fat-free writing.

Click on the links below to see three more examples of 300-word stories by Brady Dennnis, then comment on which you like the best and why.

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