The Myth

of a Free
Press
E . P. S A L A Z A R
Introduction : MEDIA BIAS

MEDIA BIAS – the bias of journalists and news

producers in the selection of events and stories

that are reported, and how they are covered.

 Key Points

• Political bias has been a feature of the mass media since its birth following the invention of the printing press. Historians have
found that publishers often served the interests of powerful social groups.

• Like newspapers, the broadcast media—radio and television—have been used as a mechanism for propaganda from their earliest
days, a tendency made more pronounced by the initial ownership of the broadcast spectrum by national governments.
• The most commonly discussed forms of bias occur when the media support or attack a particular political party, candidate, or
ideology; however, other common forms of bias exist, including advertising bias, corporate bias, mainstream bias,
sensationalism, and concision bias.

• A technique used to avoid bias is the round table, an adversarial format in which representatives of opposing views comment on
an issue. This approach theoretically allows diverse views to appear in the media.
• Another technique used to avoid bias is disclosure of affiliations that may be considered a possible conflict of interest. This is
especially apparent when a news organization is reporting a story with some relevancy to the news organization itself or to its
ownership individuals or conglomerate.
Role of News Media & Bias Against it

Television, radio, print, digital

Perceived bias of journalistic reporting has seen a lessening of public trust of media reportage

* Since its inception, media has always been questioned – its framing and its biases

Presentation of reports – are always situated, exclusionary and particular so bias is inevitable

* Legitimacy of mainstream media (mass media, i.e. TV, radio and print) have taken center stage in political
discourse

“Fake news” , “conspiracy theories”

Political figures, both from Left (liberal) and Right (conservative), have called into question the biases of
media outlets
Democracy dies in darkness
Media as exposing or shedding light on the works of personalities that are powerful and influential.

Defense of media comes in the form of explaining “the role of news reportage in the public sphere”
( J. Habermas, 1989)

Public sphere – free market of ideas : “ideas are debated” & “exercise of power questioned”
Media Bias
Edward S. Herman & Noam Chomsky “Manufacturing Consent” and Stuart Hall

MAIN CRITICISM : The media doesn’t just reflect the world back at us in a neutral sense; but
encourages us to interpret the world in a certain way.

What biases can we identify

How are these biases encouraged by the economic and political structures which govern the news
we read, see and witness

Methodology : Case study approach based on a specific news coverage by BBC

Media Representation

Herman & Chomsky “Manufacturing Consent” (1988)

“ …requires a macro alongside a micro (story by story) view of media operations”

To understand media bias, it’s important to learn about the big picture (who owns the media outlet,
how they’re governed, what is their relationship to political, economic and commercial institutions)

micro operations – smaller actors

Understanding Micro-actors

How reports are communicated & how meaning in those reports are constructed

Two views about how news media works

1. The media spins outright lies around the world around us

2. Media as oasis of truth & society as a source of confusion

Inaccurate and homogenizing tendencies in viewing media

Media as vowed to confuse us vs media as presentor of unfiltered truths

Stuart Hall (1997) “Representation and the Media”

Stuart Hall suggested a two-fold distinction:

1. Event – the thing being reported
2. Meaning – the attribution of a constructed meaning about an event

Example :

BBC coverage – August 2020 (Friday) – Migrant caravan off the shores of the UK

Attribution of meaning is seen in the interview, the decision to choose whom to interview, etc.

Components of report – numbers of refugees, statistics (that is too high) – laying a groundwork for a latter content to an
event – intrinsic involvement of attribution of meaning ( as a potential problem & threat)
“The one true thing you can say about an event is that there is no one true, fixed meaning about
it…The true meaning of it will depend on what meaning people will make out of it, and the
meanings that they will make will depend on how they are represented.” (Stuart Hall, 1997
“Representation and Media”)
Shift of Critical Stance Towards News Reporting

Attitudes towards reportage :

“Is this true? “

“How do the choices that have been made in how to represent the event which this report focuses on work to
encourage me to attribute certain meanings to it”?

“Why are certain meanings foregrounded over others?”

Macro view using “Manufacturing Consent”
(1988)

CENTRAL THESIS:

“The mainstream media in the West consistently work to attribute the event for which it reports on
meaning which serves the interests of the economic and political elite.”

“It operates on a propaganda model” (Herman & Chomsky, 1988)

Context : Cold War era ( global struggle of free world of capitalism vs the slave world of communism)

US as icon of freedom & capitalism  spill into popular media

USSR as an icon of oppression & communism

Five Filters of Propaganda Model

They fix the premises of the discourse and interpretation, and the definition of what is newsworthy in
the first place. They influence what events get reported on, as well as the meanings that get attributed
to them.

1. Size, ownership and profit orientation of mass media – owners and companies whose vested
interests are at stake. They claim to not interfere but they hire editors and crew.

Does The Washington Post pulls its punches about reports on its company Amazon?

2. The Advertising to do license business

Media activity (news reporting, etc.) are highly reliant on advertising – source of revenue stream to
cover cost of operation
3. Sourcing Mass Media news

“The media cannot afford to have reporters and cameras at all places where important stories may
break.” (Herman & Chomsky, 1989)

“Economics dictates that they concentrate their resources where significant news often occurs..”

4. Flak and the enforcers

- those with political, economic & cultural power are able to “get back” at media who report
them in an unflattering way
5. Anticommunism as a control mechanism

Scare tactics that promote anticommunism as pro-nationalist; Liberals are often on the defensive
in these kinds of discourses.
The Case of the BBC (British Broadcasting Company)
OWNERSHIP:
Herman & Chomsky’s filters that are left for
BBC BBC as publicly owned & independent from gov’t

1. Ownership Its senior executives are political appointees & its

license fee/constitution are set by gov’t
2. Sourcing
Ex. Tom Divy (A Tory) was appointed under
3. Flak British PM Johnson

BBC reportage/coverage of the migrant crisis

panders to:

Current British gov’t;s

Reducing immigration an economic priority

Anti-refugee & anti-immigration agenda

The Case of the BBC (British Broadcasting Company)

Herman & Chomsky’s filters that are left for SOURCING MASS MEDIA NEWS:
BBC The selection of interviews limited to pro-govt
1. Ownership MPs – Tory; no representative MPs from other
parties
2. Sourcing
No representatives who can be considered as
3. Flak stakeholders (refugee or border officers)

No one was interviewed that was sympathetic to

migrants

- Effect is the report is glaringly right-wing or

conservative
The Case of the BBC (British Broadcasting Company)

Herman & Chomsky’s filters that are left for FLAK

BBC
- The ability of powerful individuals to
1. Ownership reprimand reporters for not portraying
them well
2. Sourcing
Fake news campaign & accusations at
3. Flak
members of the BBC press; effect – BBC
became more accommodating to assuage
right wingers
Worthy and unworthy victims – Media’s tendency to frame which people are worthy or unworthy of
the media viewer’s attention/sympathy

The asylum seekers in the BBC coverage of “unworthy victims” in the reportage – unworthy of our
sympathy

Manufacturing consent – how media bias is influenced by media ownership

Conclusion
Media bias is inevitable if not impossible to eradicate.

Some forms of media bias at work are consistent and not random – they consciously support the
interest of those with the most wealth & power in society.

Media reportage benefits the state, corporations and economic elite.