Tuesday, June 22, 2010

The Effect of Worldview on News Reporting

Worldview shapes what events reporters cover, how they cover them, and even which pictures they choose for their stories. To illustrate this effect, read these two articles, one from Fox News and one from CNN.
Can you tell the reporter's opinion of the events that are occurring, even though it's never directly stated? With the CNN article, it is pretty obvious. The picture alone tells the reader that CNN is opposed to the actions taken by Freemont, NE. The article itself views the measure in a negative light, as well. There is hardly any mention of why people this resolution and no interviews with supporters. The Fox News article also shows some evidence of bias. The picture at the start of the article tells the reader the view of the reporter (the opposite of CNN's picture). But Fox News at least tries to balance its coverage, having interviews with both sides of the debate.
In this case, the political worldviews that shape the two networks show up relatively clearly. Fox News, despite being derided as biased by liberals, comes out ahead in this case on being closer to balanced. CNN, which conservatives also deride as being biased, does worse in the neutrality issue. In each case, however, the event is interpreted through the reporter's/network's worldview. There's no way to prevent this. It is how we operate as humans, and it is one reason why we need to be wise in how we interact with the news reports that are out there. Sometimes, it is necessary to read two or three different reports to get the full story because reporters (unintentionally) angle their store as a result of their worldview.

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