Set aside time each day to tackle one article at a time. This will help you practice the kind of skills you need to recognize bias, and you’ll go faster each time. Start by giving yourself about a half hour for an article that’s a few pages long.
For example, the headline “Hundreds Attend Peaceful Protest” tells a different story than “Angry Riot Confronts Police. "
After you’re finished reading, take a minute to think about how you feel about the issue the article covered. Do you suddenly want to support a particular politician or fall on one side of political debate? If so, you’ll need to think about whether the article convinced you with facts or slanted language.
Enter something like “demographics of New York Times readers” into the Google search bar. You may find information that’s a few years out of date, but your search should still give you a broad idea of who reads the paper. Understanding newspapers’ usual demographics can help you think about what various groups of people care about. Younger readers might have strong feelings about education, since they’re still students. Older readers might want content about taxes and retirement.
For example, an informational description of a politician could look like this: “Senator Smith is originally from Connecticut and is thirty years old. ” Check out how this description makes the same content emotional: “Senator Smith comes from a rich town in Connecticut and is just barely out of her twenties. ” Look for words that reveal the reporter’s double standards. For example, one person might be described as “passionate and inspired” while another might be described as “stubborn and rash,” even if both people are showing dedication to a particular cause.
Focus on how the tone of the article changes the way you read the information rather than associating the intent directly to the reporter. The best way to monitor your own emotions is to think about whether it’s the topic that’s making you feel something, or the way the article is written. Maybe the article is about a new amusement park opening in your town. This could be great news, and you may just be pumped about it. But if the article is about something you wouldn’t normally feel strongly about, and you do, ask yourself why.
Maybe the article is about a military conflict in a different country. Did the reporter quote from a balanced list of all the different people involved in the conflict? This list would probably include military officers and leaders, diplomats, politicians, and, most importantly, people from the actual country where the conflict is located. If the article only quotes, say, military personnel, read carefully to try and understand why that is.
Is the data cited in the article, or only the conclusions of the study? Did the author give you access to the full study? Did the author skim over the statistics without much detail and then make a strongly worded conclusion based on evidence they didn’t really give you? If the article is only citing a small amount of information or data, ask yourself why that is. There may be other information in the study that the reporter decided to leave out.
Check out websites such as Wikipedia and Snopes to see if the newspaper is known to have a particular bias. Evaluate the sources you use to check the credibility of the newspaper. Many initial Google searches will pull up websites that insist on a bias.
You should also be suspicious of weird language and typing in either the URL or the article. Anything that has lots of typos, all CAPS, or exclamation points needs a super close read. It could easily be biased or made up.
What topics are covered in the most important and least important stories, based on placement? What does this coverage tell you about the newspaper’s priorities?
If one company or industry comes up in lots of ads, this could be a problem. It’ll be difficult for a newspaper to provide unbiased coverage if they’re trying to keep someone happy and out of the news.
For example, if you’re reading a story about an environmental issue, and the article only cites politicians, think about why they didn’t quote any scientists. Is it because the topic was only related to politicians, or is the reporter ignoring one side of a debate?
This may mean that you read one newspaper article and one blog post. It’s okay to read different kinds of sources to check on the bias of newspaper articles. Just be sure to read critically and carefully no matter where you find your information. As you read more articles or sources, you’ll find that people, events, and debates are always super complicated. This means that there won’t be one simple explanation for any issue. Don’t get stressed out by this. Just try to learn as much as you can by reading widely. The more you know, the more prepared you’ll be to deal with complex problems.
Looking for this feedback can tell you a lot about who supports the content in the article and who doesn’t. While this won’t necessarily tell you if the article itself is biased, it’s a great way to discover who appreciates the reporting. This will help you figure out who the article helps and who it hurts.
