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Good to Know: How Biased is Your Media?



Media Bias Chart, used with permission, from www.adfontesmedia.com


While fake news is actually a thing and had a heyday in the yellow journalism of the early 20th century, the term has been co-opted and applied broadly, incorrectly, and unfairly to all forms of mass media. The mainstream media has been characterized as left-leaning with something of a liberal bias for several decades, though traditional media outlets (think the big three networks, for example) sought to remain neutral, relying on original fact reporting and a balanced, two-sides to every issue perspective. 

As media channels proliferated, catering to all manner of niche and special interest, so too did the sourcing of material; the standards of journalism degraded the further one moved from established media properties. Today, anyone with basic access to technology can espouse and broadcast all manner of opinions, theories, and "news" online. As consumers, it is left to us to determine the credibility and reliability of the many sources of news available to us. Though not a definitive guideline, the Media Bias Chart gives us a picture of bias juxtaposed against the content and sourcing of stories.

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