Media Bias

Media bias refers to the concept that traditional news media have an inherent bias for or against some positions, views, or individuals. In traditional research in mass media, this concept has usually been studied under the title hostile media effect. In the 1970s, President Richard Nixon, in his ongoing disagreements with the press, carefully pursued a strategy that involved changing any references to the journalistic profession from the press to the media, under the assumption that the latter phrase was devoid of connotations regarding the objectivity of the press. Nixon and his aides also compiled an enemies list of hostile reporters and often appealed for sympathy from the public by portraying himself as a victim of media that he claimed were too liberal. The Nixon ...