Communications and Media

Media bias is defined as the partiality of news producers and journalists within the mass media by means of their activity of selecting what or which stories and events will be reported to the public and the manner of coverage of these stories and news. The term is considered in contrast to the standards of journalism which evade to the main topic or issue that a journalist must be delivering. However, practical limitations to media neutrality also exist especially when journalists were not able to report all available facts and stories regarding an issue making the factor of selection inevitable. In the United States, media bias is showcased by the activity of a media outfit and its journalists to present methodically a particular viewpoint or perspective. Various claims of bias in the United States media include mainstream bias, conservative bias, corporate bias and liberal bias. In this essay, the main focus would be the existence of liberal bias in American media and its prevalence based on the facts and arguments to be presented that would served as evidences of the liberal bias of the media.  

American medias liberal bias happens when liberal ideas have excessive influence on the coverage and selection of news of a journalist in a particular issue. Thus, critics have argued that various media and network channels in the United States possessed some degree of liberal bias by pointing to the results of the study made by Robert Lichter, Stanley Rothman and Linda Lichter. The outcome of the Lichter-Rothman study suggested that the majority of the journalists being interviewed consider themselves supporters of liberal ideas as most of them are supporters of Democratic candidates (Sloan and Mackay, p. 54).

The outcomes of the Lichter-Rothman study were later published into a book entitled The Media Elite that was published in 1986. To be specific, the researchers were able to survey media outlets like the journalists in The Washington Post, The New York Times and various broadcast media networks. Since the result of the Lichter-Rothman study provided that most journalists possessed liberal ideas due to their unwavering support to Democratic candidates, the authors concluded in their study that the journalists coverage of controversial or timely issues are reflected on their own viewpoints and are geared towards a liberal direction.

Existing Evidence of Liberal Bias in US Media
It has long been acknowledged that the mainstream media in the United States is exhibiting liberal bias or is inclined with the concepts of social liberalism. A significant key finding in the Lichter-Rothman study was four fifths of the 240 journalists being interviewed in the survey voted for a Democratic candidate for President in every national election between the years 1964 and 1976. The survey of the 240 journalists in the Lichter-Rothman study revealed that fifty four percent of the respondents have chosen to be recognized to the left of the center while only nineteen percent chose to be rightist or conservatives. Another finding of the pioneering study on the liberal bias of the journalists in the United States was that nearly half of the total number of respondents agreed that the structure of the society of the United States makes people feel alienated while the researchers found that five out of six of the respondents believe that the US legal system favors the wealthy (Media Research Center, p.3). Likewise, a key finding of the study of the authors presented that thirty percent were in disagreement on the issue of fairness of the private enterprise system in the United States to workers. Another finding is that twenty eight percent of the respondents agreed that all political systems in the United States are considered repressive.

In the year 1992, journalism professors at the Indiana University named G. Cleveland Wilhoit and David H. Weaver was able to survey a total of 1,410 journalists who are working on a wide range of daily and weekly newspapers, television stations, radio stations, magazines and news services throughout the United States of America. The results of their study were presented in the Media Studies Journal that was released in 1992. In general, the study found that majority of the respondents were more liberal and favored the Democrats and are in favor for the legalization of abortion and are not so religious than the general public. To be specific, the key findings of the Indiana University poll recorded that 44 percent of the journalists in the United States are identifying themselves as Democrats while a little 16 percent of the respondents recognized themselves as supporters of the Republican (Media Research Center, p.6).