Ebola 2

Political bias and

documentaries

Political Bias

Write down everything you know about the

following:
ideology
left-wing
right-wing
left/right wing bias

Learning Objective:
To be able to identify how
political bias can affect the
representation of events in
media texts.

Why?
Sophisticated and perceptive
analysis, revealing a thorough
understanding of key signifiers and
techniques. Complex ideas
expressed coherently. Awareness of
the polysemic nature of texts with a
recognition of the ideological.
MS1- Examination Mark Scheme

Why?
Sophisticated and perceptive
analysis, revealing a thorough
understanding of key signifiers and
techniques. Complex ideas
expressed coherently. Awareness
of the polysemic nature of texts with
a recognition of the ideological.
MS1- Examination Mark Scheme

Starter Put these ideas into the

columns of left or right wing.
Cut benefits to save taxpayers money.
Expand the NHS
Regulate the banking industry (create rules for
them to follow)
Support immigration, seeing ethnic diversity as a
positive change
De-regulate the banking industry (making fewer
rules / cutting red-tape)
Ensure equal entitlement to benefits.
Creating strict laws to curb immigration, seeing
British jobs and taxpayers money at risk
Privatise the NHS

LEFT WING

RIGHT WING

Definitions
Left-wing
Emphasises the role of the
community (were all in it
together).
Supports liberal values,
more open to cultural
diversity.
Supports higher taxation
(ensures that everyone has
access to healthcare,
education, literature etc.)
More government
intervention in big business
(to avoid corporate
dominance and excessive
profiteering).
Supports a robust and
healthy welfare state.

Right-wing
Emphasises the role of the

individual (every man for

himself).
Supports conservative and
traditional values.
Supports lower taxation (if
people want healthcare,
education, literature etc., they
can pay for it).
Less government intervention
in big business (a successful
business is a respectful
exercise in individual success).
May support a welfare state,
but a more basic and stripped
down version. Big cuts will be
made.

Political ideology and crime

Left wing

Right-wing

Crime is a symptom of a
sick society. Therefore,
criminals should be
rehabilitated and society
improved to prevent
further crimes.

Criminals are individuals

who have made the wrong
choices. They should
therefore be punished.
The harsher the
punishment, the bigger the
warning to prevent other
criminals.

Grade C
Use media terminology
Make specific reference to
the text
Sound grasp of connotations

Grade B
Proficient use of media
terminology
Make detailed reference to
the text
Some awareness of
audience
Good grasp of connotations,
extrapolating on ideas

How has this

paper
represented the
London riots?

Grade A
Sophisticated use of media
terminology
Make detailed reference to
the text
Full awareness of audience
Expert grasp of
connotations, fully
extrapolating on ideas
Awareness of the ideological

The SocialistWorkers headline

shows sympathy for the rioters. The
word injustice connotes that the
riots took place because of social
inequality, and that they were an
extreme form of protest.

The SocialistWorkers headline

shows sympathy for the rioters. The
word injustice connotes that the
riots took place because of social
inequality, and that they were an
extreme form of protest. The word
erupts creates the impression that
the rioters could no longer hold back
their feelings and were therefore
victims rather than criminals.
The Socialist Workers headline
clearly displays a left-wing bias. Its
language positions the reader to
view the rioters as victims of social
inequality. The word injustice
evokes sympathy for their supposed
political cause, suggesting that the
rioters are the victims in this event.
This is furthered by the use of the
word erupts, which connotes that

Back to Ebola

http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/10/19/how-right-wing-medi
a-have-used-ebola-to-scare-a/201222
Blowing the threat of ebola out of proportion and trying to link it to
Obama has been a constant theme on the right in recent days.
Elisabeth Hasselbeck of Fox News literally demanded that we put
the country on lockdown, banning all travel in and out. In a bit of
race-baiting,Andrea Tantaros of Fox suggested that people who
travel to the country and show symptoms of ebola will seek
treatment from a witch doctor instead of go to the hospital.
Fox host Steve Doocy suggested the CDC is lying about ebola
because theyre part of the administration. Fox also
promoted a conspiracy theorist who is trying to claim the CDC is lyi
ng
when they caution people not to panic.
Other right wing media joined in. Tammy Bruceblamed ebolaon the
Obama legacy.Laura Ingraham said Obama was prevented from
doing more to stop the disease because of his core ties to the
African continent.Rush Limbaugh even went as far as to accuse
Obama of letting the disease spread because he supposes liberals
believe we kind of deserve a little bit of this.

With the threat being so small, why are conservatives going crazy
like this?
Part of it is pure political opportunism - anti-Obama.
as conservative pundits know that when people are afraid, the are more
open to reactionary ideas.
But a large part of it might be that conservatives are just far more prone
than liberals are both to getting wound up over the fear of disease and
being compelled by the idea that people who are not themselves are
undeserving of care.
Researcher Jonathan Haidt isthe architect of themoral foundations
theory that suggests that political inclinations, at least in modern times,
are rooted in five different foundations:
harm, fairness, ingroup, authority, and purity. Liberals and conservatives
weigh these five considerations very differently. For instance, liberals are
more likely than conservatives to factor in whether an action causes harm
when deciding if its wrong or not. Liberals also worry more about fairness
and have more regard for people that are outside of their group than
conservatives. Conservatives, on the other hand, put far more trust in
authority. Conservatives are also far more obsessed with purity and far
more likely to get hung up on the idea that the body is a temple which
can be desecrated by immoral activities and contaminants, as Haidt
explains.

Left v Right
You can see these differences play out with the response to ebola.
For liberals, the proper response to ebola patients is to reduce
harm by caring for them and to treat the people who got it fairly,
by understanding that they didnt do anything wrong to get it.
for conservatives, two big, red buttons. First, its a disease, so of
course its going to set off the fears of contamination that Haidt
demonstrates plague conservatives far more than liberals.
Second of all, conservatives associate ebola with people who are
different from themfrom different countries, often of different
racesand they have little regard for people in out groups,
which is Haidts term for people who are different. And because
conservatives are less worried about harming others or being fair,
it becomes easy for them to demonize people with ebola,
demand that they be left to die without care, and simply kept
from contaminating the rest of us.

Documentary 1
Ebola - The Search for a Cure
BBC2 (Think about the License Fee!) The BBC is not funded by advertising but by the
licence fee. Therefore it is a PSB and has a duty to educate, inform and entertain
the whole British public. This means BBC1 programmes have to be popular, but
have to have an extra quality - being very well made, having educational value or
representing all the different parts of Britain, for example.

BB2 Horizon, 2014-2015 Episode 6 of 13

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x27s0q9_ebola-the-search-for-a-cure_news

The Ebola virus. No-one knows exactly where it comes

from but one thing is certain - it's one of the most
virulent infections known to science. This special episode
of Horizon meets the scientists and doctors from all
around the world looking for the cure and hears firsthand accounts of what it's actually like to catch - and
survive - this terrible disease.

Documentary 2
Ebola : Inside the Deadly Outbreak
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0Jpn22
HJys
Published on 22 Sep 2014
Ebola : Inside the Deadly Outbreak.
ABC News Dr. Richard Besser travels into
the hot zone where thousands of Africans
are dying of Ebola, and doctors risk their
own lives to save them. Interviews with
those on the front lines, and an American
survivor, weave together an incredible story

Use guide to answer

Using your own detailed examples, explore
the representation of Two events in the
media today. [30]
Candidates must discuss the media
representation of two events, using at least
one example of each event. The two
examples should be in two different media
forms (newspapers, TV news reports etc.)
blog.analyse print texts

Q1
http://
www.bsm-media.com/MS1%20Winte
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Recap Print text for exam!
Peer marking Q1