Is the media biased? If so, in what way or in which direction (politically speaking)? How do you know? In this paper I want you to answer these questions with reference to what is normally thought of as the “big three” television news networks’ nightly broadcasts over the span of a couple of days (the “big three” are thought to be ABC, NBC, and CBS). These networks are found in the center of one of the most frequently-referenced media bias charts (see here: https://www.adfontesmedia.com/intro-to-the-media-bias-chart/). Pick one (or more) of these networks to watch (they are all available online) and take notes over a couple of days. Then determine whether the news broadcasts that you watched are biased in some way. You might think of bias in terms of media ownership (e.g., news stories that are pro-corporate), negativity bias (“if it bleeds, it leads”), bias toward official sources (e.g., Bennett’s “indexing” hypothesis), and, of course, political bias (e.g., bias toward one political party or ideological worldview).
It is important that you articulate precisely how you intend to measure bias of any kind. Justice Potter Stewart’s (in)famous standard with respect to obscenity (“I know it when I see it”) likely isn’t going to cut it here. One model for establishing a standard involves examining how networks cover (or don’t) stories where there is an objective benchmark (e.g., the unemployment rate or the results of a particular poll). David Niven (1999) takes this particular tack. You might also come up with a dictionary of “liberal” words and “conservative” words and see how often each are mentioned in the span of a broadcast or two. Whatever you do, make sure you clearly spell out your approach and are able to defend your position on whether network news is biased in a particular way (over the span of a few days anyways).
