Media as Bias in the Essay the Bias of Language, Bias of Pictures by Neil Postman and Steve Powers

According to a survey of 1,500 Americans, done by the Pew Research Center for the People and Press, Almost half of the surveyed thought that American media had bias, and 73% thought that American media often times did not show all sides of the Argument. Major media outlets are mainly privately owned. This opening up the opportunity for their own political views, thus allowing for the possibility of politically motivated censorship and bias.

The monopolization of American media and publishing industries serves as a form of censorship and bias. That reduces the opportunity of independent or controversial views and or opinions.

Major outlets such as New York Times, Huffington Post, Time, present a clearly Liberal biased point of view, while outlets such as Fox News, Conservative Tribune, New York Post clearly present a conservative biased form of view. Each are equally as damaging to the preservation of non biased spreading of information. Each of these media outlets will often present their own form of bias, censoring certain events and or cherry picking details of a specific event or story. For example, Liberal media outlets may censor or not report shooting events that were stopped by an armed lawful citizen or police officer. While reporting events where a citizen or police officer were not able to stop the shooter. This may be because it does not fit into their political agenda or agree with their political views. The same goes for Conservative media outlets, which may not report that the weapon used in the crime was legally purchased, as that may not support their political agenda or opinions. (Alterman 2010)

For those who only focus on watching one or two news outlets, who present the same censorship or bias. This in turn has the possibility of suppressing their independent views or presenting controversy, because the argument presented to them is biased and one sided, and they may not receive both sides of the argument and or story.

Another example would be political correctness. If censorship is suppression of expression by force, political correctness is suppression of expression by cognitive assent or social pressure.

In other words, it does not usually refer to the exercise of state power but most often refers to judgements taken about the political and social volatility of expression, and a decision to avoid (or not) sensitive or offensive expressions. Or to utilize some expressions rather than others, in light of a competing social 'good'. (Reinelt 2007) In turn political correctness (most evident in more Liberal media outlets) suppresses certain individual ideas or controversial ideas or events for the sake of "not offending" certain viewers. If an idea is deemed too "offensive" or "insensitive" it may not be discussed at all, or discussion of it could be categorized as taboo. Which is not a complete reflection of some individual views.

But it can be argued that there are alternatives to mainstream media and that there are many places to express individual opinions and ideas. Correct, there is a vast area where information and opinions can be spread. However mainstream media will always dominate through viewer reach and the ability to influence the average viewer. The average viewer simply does not have the passion to actively pursue the right facts and non-biased information, so mainstream news sources, as in newspapers and televised news will be their "go to" for information. Thus, the in the end in individual opinions or controversial events will be censored on mainstream media if it does not fit their agenda or their bias.

Concluding this, mainstream media and publishing has the ability to suppress controversial views or opinions as well as individual views and often uses such abilities when reporting information. There is bias in mainstream media, stemming from the views of the privately owned corporation, which in turn suppresses and censors controversial events or opinions, as well as some individual opinions or thoughts.

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