Media Literacy: Media Bias

A media bias chart maps different media outlets with regards to reliability, bias, and political views.

Bias vs. Agenda

Students often come to media literacy thinking that the primary thing they should be concerned about is bias. And since everyone has some form of bias, that ultimately leads to students thinking no one can really be trusted.

Personal bias has real impacts. But bias isn’t agenda, and it's agenda that should be your primary concern for quick checks.

Bias is about how people see things; agenda is about what a news or research organization is set up to *do*. A site that clearly marks opinion columns as opinion, employs dozens of fact-checkers, hires professional reporters, and takes care to be transparent about sources, methods, and conflicts of interest are less likely to be driven by political agenda than a site that does not do these things. And this holds true even if the reporters themselves may have personal bias. Good process and good culture goes a long way to mitigating personal bias.

by Mike Caulfield Smoke-free (discussion) (notion.so) 

               Click the image below to learn about AllSides' media bias chart:

Click the image below to learn about Ad Fontes Media's Media Bias chart: