Is the Press Really Unfair?
This weeks Media Lab reading touched upon the question concerning if the press in today's society is actually fair. It has been known that the press generally leans towards the negative bias of news today. It mentions that press fairness is in relation to the coverage of political and social issues. This means that this is considered impartial, because it provides balance and unbiased reporting.
However, press "fairness" before the 1930s was not an issue that constantly came up. The problems concerning fairness was certainly not an issue and not a priority until the early part of the 20th century.
In a survey mentioned in the article that more people were fair when it came to the subject on "labor and labor leaders." However when talking about politics people believed that this was covered unfairly.
It was also mentioned in the article that if there was to be a comparison of surveys between the 1930s or 60s and today's surveys there wouldn't be much of a difference. On the other hand, if today's surveys were being compared to those of the 1950s or 80s, it has appeared that the public attitude has become more unfavorable. So the question is, why is that?
In the 1930s public skepticism about the press's ability to cover politics fairly was at its peak. In other cases, the American press could have begun to live up to the objectivity and fairness of their press. The public's perception of fairness regarding politics was, all in all, at its peak during the mid-1950s.