Can You Still Trust the News?

In today's modern day and age of a million different ideas, articles, and news sources, it can seem impossible to know what sources are accurate. Rest assured, you are not alone in these worries, as struggling to determine the validity of news media is a widespread problem these days, especially with media bias. While no journalistic media outlet is 100% perfect in factual accuracy or completely free from bias, there are various ways to determine the reliability of news articles and outlets.

Determining outlets' reliability, bias, and factual accuracy is crucial for maintaining an accurate worldview. This article aims to help you understand how to determine the bias and reliability of specific news sources and articles. While there is no "magic bullet" to assess accuracy, there are various ways to determine the reliability of news sources and decrease the risk of falling for false or misleading information.

Why Trust In The News Has Eroded

Unfortunately, trust in the news has significantly degraded today and will likely continue declining. Oddly, the average person reading this article here also distrusts mass media and believes it is unreliable. According to Gallup, only 34% of Americans have " a great deal" or "fair amount" of trust in news media, while 38% have "no trust at all" in news. These statistics remind us that our sources of what should be one of our most effective ways of determining objective reality are rightly or wrongly greatly mistrusted. To assess the accuracy of journalistic media, we must first uncover the contributing factors to why the media is so mistrusted. Some of the factors that have led to media mistrust are:

The politicization of news and newsrooms has led to a divide over what is considered trustworthy news. Those who listen to FOX have a different view than those who listen to MSNBC, and partisan divide leads to higher bias and lower factual news delivery. Another contributing factor is the rise of clickbait and misinformation. With distrust in mass media and the rise of the internet, it becomes much easier for conspiracy theories, clickbait, and misinformation to thrive, further lowering trust in media. Finally, with such a large media market today, vast political polarization and news echo chambers reign over trust in news media. These factors lead to great distrust of news, making it harder to determine factual accuracy and what news sources to trust.

What Does it Mean for News to Be Fair?

Fairness reporting does not automatically take sides due to bias but instead determines the truth based on factual, specific information. There are several factors that must be noted regarding fair and objective reporting in news media. The difference between objective journalism and opinion pieces is perhaps the most significant. Objective journalism is reporting on a situation's facts and knowledge, whereas an opinion piece is the opinion of the article's author.

An example would be in an outlet like the Washington Post, which has objective and opinion pieces. Another essential consideration is the difference between fair reporting and a false balance. Just because there are two sides to an opinion on a topic, even a politically divided one, does not mean that both sides are equally factual. One example of a false balance might be a journalistic piece on "the evolution debate," presenting both sides as similarly supported despite 98% of scientists supporting the view that evolution is real. Journalistic bias is not binary but a spectrum. All news has some bias, but not all news sources are equally biased. For instance, InfoWars and NBC News may have biases, but not to the same degree.

Understanding Media Bias: Types and Examples

To fully understand media bias, however, it is necessary to understand the various types of ways in which sources may be biased. One example of bias in news is framing bias, or how an issue is framed. One news outlet might frame in its headlines a war, another defense, another an invasion, another fighting terrorists. How an article title or article itself is framed can often present a bias. Another example of bias in news media is selection bias, or what stories are covered or omitted.

A right-biased outlet might omit stories harmful to a right-wing candidate, and a left-wing outlet vice versa. Confirmation bias is when news articles or outlets give readers only the stories they already believe rather than objective stories. Spin or Loaded language are stories with deliberate, emotionally charged speech and vague language specifically meant to sway a reader to one side without presenting factual information. Partisan bias is media with an ideological alignment that affects objective reporting, rather than media that is heavily biased towards one side. Various news outlets might have different framing or take on the same issues due to partisanship and ideological bias.

For example, regarding something like Israel's recent actions, like food blockades in Gaza, the Guardian, a left outlet, will have a vastly different framing than Fox News, a right outlet. Fox News would likely frame issues on blockaded aid from the perspective of the Israeli government. In contrast, The Guardian would likely frame issues from the perspective of those who believe Israel is committing atrocities or genocide. With this in mind, it is vital to note that there are places such as Biasly that help determine the media bias and credibility of news organizations and articles. Biasly is a non-partisan media-bias-checking site with numerous interpretive tools, including the Media Bias Chart, and many more. Platforms like Biasly help determine factual accuracy and bias in the news media.

How to Evaluate a News Source Yourself

Evaluating news may be interesting, but how exactly am I, your average Joe or Jane, supposed to improve my media literacy? You may be wondering. Rest assured, there are many ways to learn and determine how to notice media accuracy and inoculate yourself from misinformation! There are several important ways to evaluate news credibility when searching for accurate news sources, which will vastly improve factual accuracy.

One such way is relatively simple: reading about who owns the outlet. If an outlet is owned by someone who has previously proven trustworthy or untrustworthy regarding facts, then that can help determine the outlet or source’s accuracy. Another way to determine factual accuracy is to see if the journalist is named and what, if any, sources are cited. Named journalists have a record and past journalism that can be analyzed, and the works cited publicly are much more reliable than anonymous sources.

Are opposing views frequently presented, or are one-sided views disproportionately represented? What is the language of the piece? Does it show a more neutral and non-slanted stance, or is it emotionally charged and meant to rile the reader up? Finally, and most usefully, can the facts be cross-checked and verified with other dependable sources, or can they be backed up through other works?

A number of useful or helpful news bias rating sources can help determine reliability in the media. One such example is Biasly’s Bias Checker that lets you detect bias in a news article from just the URL. It’s simple, just put the URL in the box and the AI-powered Bias Meter will determine the bias and reliability score of the article.

Though there is no one tactic to decide how to evaluate news credibility, various tools and tricks can considerably increase the odds of a healthy media diet.

How Bias Affects Public Perception and Democracy

All this may be good, but why must it go through all that effort? What's the harm if you don't have an accurate media diet? Who cares if people don't trust or cannot rely on fact-based media? What's the real harm? Unfortunately, being unable to determine actual news or trust in unbiased media can have dire consequences. A distorted or heavily biased news media can, and has, led to a vast increase in political polarization. Distrust in the media also tends to vastly increase distrust in democracy, leading to increased political extremism and potential democratic collapse.

A distorted news media also inevitably distorts public understanding of issues, leading to a dangerous, undereducated public, or with manufactured consent for very harmful ideas. According to the Pew Research Center, mass media consumption has drastically declined in the last 20 years.”Meanwhile, many traditional news organizations have struggled. In 2004, daily weekday news circulation in the US totaled 55 million. By 2022, that had fallen to just 21 million." Better media literacy is vital because evaluating reliable news sources objectively is the most critical tool for countering misinformation.

Through the steps and tricks detailed above, you can be an aware reader and substantially increase your interpretation of reliable news starting today. There are, unfortunately, no perfect sources, but with the right tools, you can learn to differentiate fact from fiction. One of the benefits of using these tools is the ability to make informed judgments and to gain a more fact-based approach to the world. Another vital gain is the ability to observe diverse viewpoints, which reduces the odds of falling into a media bias echo chamber. Finally, it can help avoid a pitfall we all are unfortunately capable of, which is falling to manipulation by unreliable sources. So, the next time you're looking for reliable and unbiased news, check out a trustworthy bias checker to determine the accuracy of the news source.