Media Bias on Personal Blogs?
There is a "professional" blogger who goes by the pen name of "dooce." She has a blog that many people read. So much so that she actually makes a living off of the amount of traffic that runs through her site. She, at one time, had your typical 9-5 job but was fired because she would post negative blog posts about her workplace.Anyway, the reason I am posting is that she represents one of the problems I have with our political system as it stands today and how media bias can be used to feed this problem. She makes no secret that she is about as liberal as it comes and lives in a very conservative part of the country. To me, she is no better than some of these conservative crack-pots that rant their own points of view and go on and on about how you have to be a fool not to see it from their perspective. Her most recent post is about a liberal writer who makes fun of undecided voters and how there is no reason for people to be undecided because the choice for president should be very obvious at this point. Personally, I know who I will be voting for, but I think this is an unfair depiction of undecided voters. I actually admire some of these folks because they are not blindly pulling the voting lever for the party they have chosen to align themselves with. To me they just want to make sure they have all the facts (which aren't always easy to find in elections) so they can use that wonderful voting liberty that has been bestowed upon them.
So I pose the question, given the popularity of blogs, especially those that have such a high readership that the creator makes a living off of them, is there an obligation to be more unbiased? There are a lot of blind lever pullers out there, many of whom get their information on candidates and elections from their favorite media source and believe that this source would never be biased or lie to them. So what do you think? Do most readers see these sites as merely entertainment and recognize bias when they see it? Or is there a danger of herd mentality in these situations? I would love to hear your thoughts.
Labels: elections, media, politics
posted by Heath @ 2:19 PM
4 Comments:
It's a tricky situation. Part of me feels that it's irresponsible to post stuff like that when you have that many readers. But, the greater part of me thinks that it is their absolute right to do so. There is no ambiguity that her site is her own and that her views are her own opinions and not fact. Yes, she feels very strongly about the views and doesn't always precede them with "in my opinion...", but I think that's okay. If we want people to be responsible enough in their thinking to think critically about news outlets' biases, then they should absolutely be responsible to think critically about people's blogs and websites. I think it comes down to free speech more than anything in this case. To her credit, she certainly doesn't claim to be unbiased, as is implied and often mistakenly assumed as far as network and print news outlets go.
Good points. Maybe the great question is, can we trust the greater population to understand bias vs fact when they see? It really does scare me how quickly people will just follow a train of thought because of quickly digested media snippets rather than thinking for themselves. Thanks for your thoughts.
I see the problem existing in all media as well... I think in general, blog-readers understand the nature of blogs and that the source (at least in the case of Dooce) is stating a political opinion, albeit one-sided... and that should not be used exclusively to make a decision on who to vote for. I think a bigger threat to the integrity of the voting "system" is the masses who make their decisions based on mud-slinging, spin-doctored commercials (for example) that distort the truth (which both sides are guilty of). Esp. since TV is probably the most accessible for of media, and a lot of people are content to get all their information that way. Then again, stupid people have the right to vote too, and the candidates are well aware of that group and use it to their advantage. Some people make a decision based on who is better looking, whether they have "cool" music playing at their convention, or a candidates ethnic name. It's really pretty scary.
Yeah, it is interesting and scarey to see the psychology that goes on with elections. There are some that will believe anything they see on TV. I also know some people that have voted for someone just because they thought they would be "cool to have a beer with" with just baffles me. I understand people have to feel personally comfortable with someone but you could be the nicest coolest person in the world but not have a clue on how to run a 5K let alone a whole country with nuclear capability! But hey if you are down with Miller time then you got my vote!
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