Tell it straight: Avoid bias in journalism

Journalism has changed a lot over the years. In my opinion, I feel that today’s journalists show a lot of bias toward the subjects they report. Journalists can show bias in two different ways. They can ask questions that lead the person being interviewed to answer a certain way, and they can choose which media to present to the public. There are other ways they can show bias, but I believe these are two of the main ways.

When interviewing someone, it is important to ask well thought out questions and that those questions don’t lead answers in a certain direction. For example, it is better to ask “About how fast do you think the cars were going when they hit each other?,” rather than “About how fast do you think the cars were going when they smashed into each other?” The second question makes people think that the cars were going faster than they probably were. Word choice is important.

The other way journalists can show bias is by choosing which media to present to the public. They can choose which stories and headlines to show, and they can also choose how to present it. They can make something appear more serious than it really is or just the opposite. For example, the media can make someone such as Michael Brown look good or look bad. They change the view of someone that is known by limited people look a certain way to the whole nation.

Bias in journalism isn’t ok because the people should know the real story with no bias whatsoever. When putting bias in news stories, you make people think a certain way without letting them choose for themselves what to believe.