There is not question that biased and fake news causes confusion. Often times when it comes to biased, media viewers are going to gravitate towards and stick with outlets that confirm their own biases, which is discussed within the PSE post. The issues with media bias is that it is favorable and therefore, due to either comfort and/or confirmation viewers of a specific news source will shy away from seeking out other coverage of a similar story from sources that do not support their own ideas and bias. There are sources that give the news as best and unbiased as possible, which are listed on this site. If you are one of those viewers who may not look beyond your own news source or bias, it would be a good idea to check out those sites that are posted on this site. Anyways, back to what was found about the want for factual, unbiased media delivered to them.
In a PEW Research Center article, it was found that from a survey taken from 38 different countries, 75% of the poll showed that it is never acceptable to show partisan in the news but only 52% of the poll felt as if their news outlet gave the news without partisan, which is biased within itself. For example, 47% of the sample taken from the U.S. feel as if the different political viewpoints are being reported very/somewhat well in news media, 56% feel as if their news is reported accurately, 61% feel as if the most important news stories are being presented very or somewhat well, and 58% feel as if their news about governmental leaders and officials are being reported well. The U.S. is slightly above the median on the feeling that there should never be partisan in the news sitting at 78%, and 56% of the sample says the news is doing totally well at reporting accurate news, 16% say very well, and 43% say totally not well. Now overall these numbers do not look horrible. However, when looking at this think about the fact that the news that we consume takes up part of knowledge of the world and the U.S. for that fact, so the concern that there is any percentage under the not very well category when it is dealing with our own awareness and knowledge that we receive from media outlets is concerning. Now to build off of those numbers in the survey dealing with the viewer’s news source reporting all sides of a story fairly show that only 47% say totally well, 13% say very well and 52% say not well at all. Proving that people at least the sample being asked is aware that the stories they are receiving may be true but not totally inclusive of all points of views and sides. The fact that the 47% in the U.S. falls under the global median of 52% is alarming.
The Pew Research Center’s study gives great insight into the feelings of people around the world and their thoughts on the state of their media. News, as mentioned before, is a crucial part to our knowledge of current events and circumstances surrounding us therefore, if you really care about what you are talking about and news that you are consuming then get outside of the box of your confirmation bias, understand that there is potential biased in the media, search for external sources with different point of views, and expand your knowledge beyond what you come to believe because you simply agree with it. There is biased in nearly everything, not just media, so it is much easier said than done but consider what was mentioned and be aware that although biased news may not be fake news it may not be accurate or thorough news. I if interested, the link that contains the statistics and research above and more like it from the PEW Research Center is posted below.