Bias in Journalism & News - Essay Example

The news can be in form of press reporting, media content, internet material and various other official reports being generated from authoritative bodies of a particular country. A prerequisite to the field of journalism is the objectivity of the content being provided. If the reporting so being done is of subjective nature it yields to creation of opinion from the reporting the entity (Ward,16). Usage of objectivity would result in opinion in the news; while the characteristic of news is being void any opinion, and in fact only the true representation of what has happened in actual.

The field of journalism can be used for the negative purpose. Any report that contains an opinion or a bias is tempered news in the context of journalistic world. A bias is attached to a report on account of number of purposes. It could be for the purpose of defamation of a person, hiding the information from the masses, reporting with views of conveying on behalf of a section of society that is based on some particular objective and motive. Bias in journalistic world is a pretty common concept and many organizations fall for this at times knowingly and at others unknowingly.

A biased report and journalistic approach is always termed as compromised one and does not fulfill the requirements of professional rules of field of journalism and mass communication. While certain segment of journalist community might fall for bias and unprofessional manners, with advancements in recent times and free and fair media, the element of bias has reduced considerably especially in the free and democratic states . Mostly the information in this category may involve the private life activities of people.

Number of incidents have been reported and have come to forefront where a line has been occasionally crossed with regard to the sensitivity and respect of private life. While internet has become an integral part of mass media and journalism, even it at times suffers from the aspect of bias. Bias in journalistic work is often seen in situations of wars, political rivalries and other mega events. When the purpose is to hide some information mostly related to the popularity of the rivals, hiding the low performance of incumbents, or aiming to achieve some political objectives through motivation, in all these cases, biased reporting is adopted.

At times the biased reporting is part of the government’s policy and mostly the government run channels and media is largely used for manipulative purposes. This is commonly seen in states where there is no free system of transparency and the media is under curbs for example the states under military rulers and monarchs have often practiced tight control over media for their advantage and objectives. Over period of time, with development of societal activities, the field of journalism has filtered out to a great percentage and mostly all over the world; the agencies operate to the norms and requirements of field of professional journalism Conclusion: While certain segment of journalist community might fall for bias and unprofessional manners, with advancements in recent times and free and fair media, the element of bias has reduced considerably especially in the free and democratic states .Proper