Examining the Facts

This resource uses evidence-based documentation to examine the veracity of claims and beliefs about the state, nature, and extent of media bias in American news media, including social media, television, radio, newspapers, magazines, and other media outlets.

The book provides students and other readers with a clear and accurate understanding of claims of media bias (both conservative and liberal) in the United States by refuting falsehoods, misunderstandings, and exaggerations surrounding this topic – and confirming the validity of other assertions. In addition, this sourcebook examines claims and assertions about media bias in other realms of American life, from popular entertainment to social media platforms.

Media Bias: Examining the Facts has been specifically crafted to give readers the tools for a fuller and more accurate understanding of the facts surrounding controversial issues, policies, and laws that occupy center stage in American life and politics. Specific areas of focus in this volume include defining and understanding conscious and unconscious bias; the evolution of the news industry and partisan news sources in the digital age; the ways in which political polarization exacerbates media bias, laws and practices that govern the operations of news media; and clear examples of conservative and liberal bias in such media sectors as cable and broadcast news, radio, newspapers and magazines, talk radio, and online platforms.