"Media Bias." Student News Daily. 2021. https://www.studentnewsdaily.com/types-of-media-bias/
"Media Bias" is one of many resources provided by Student News Daily (SND), a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization founded in 2005, dedicated to teaching critical thinking, information literacy, and media literacy.
Pro: Defining Media Bias
"Media Bias" gives an overview of bias and the forms it can take, such as omission, source selection, spin, labeling (word choice), and placement (organization). It allows students to see how subtle bias can be and still shape opinion.
My analysis of SND and "Media Bias" matches Fact-checking sites' conclusions, which is that SND is:
slightly right of center politically.
credible and reliable in that it cites and links to a wide range of sources.
"mostly factual."
It falls just short of Media Bias/Fact Check's "highly factual" rating because it links to a few sources that fall at the fringes of the political spectrum that have failed failed fact checks.
It offers an important counterbalance to most mainstream journalism, media, and education sources' significant left-of-center bias.
Con: Lack of Transparency
My only criticism of SND is its lack of transparency. Its "About Us" section explains that it is funded by donations, but I couldn't identify its donors, owners, or leadership from any portion of its site or from other research I conducted. Since the site teaches students to identify bias, its lack of transparency is ironic and disappointing.
SND's strengths far outweigh this weakness, which can be pointed out as part of lessons about transparency, so I intend to use it for teaching critical thinking, media literacy, information literacy, and narrative analysis in several courses.
Additional Resources
"Media Bias" links to the following supplemental information I also found useful:
Conservative vs. Liberal Beliefs explains the two major political parties' worldviews and summarizes their stances on many issues.
Socialism vs. Capitalism describes the two systems' goals and means of operation, then defines key terms and poses questions based on real-world examples. It also presents commentary in the form of op-ed, political cartoons, quotes, and videos. The commentary, while not inaccurate, shows a strong anti-socialism bias.
Both pages provide context useful for understanding media bias, including "Socialism vs Capitalism's" own bias, which can be pointed out as part of lessons.
Lesson: Evaluating News Organizations' Political Bias
For educators who wish to assess students' critical thinking, information literacy, media literacy, or narrative analysis skills, use Student News Daily's Conservative vs. Liberal Beliefs as a pre-test. Or use my Assessment Pre-Test. Ask students to summarize each party's platform, identify its stance on some issues, and define the types of bias covered in "Media Bias" at the top of this page. Then, ask them to select "conservative/republican," "liberal/democrat," or "neutral" for each of the following news organizations:
CNN
MSNBC
The New York Times
NPR (National Public Radio)
Fox News
The Guardian
The Wall Street Journal
Minneapolis Star-Tribune
HuffPost (The Huffington Post)
The National Review
Introduce the concept of bias and the forms it takes through lecture or discussion using "Media Bias" at the top of this page. Then, introduce students to America's two major political parties through lecture or discussion. (Include socialist, libertarian, and green parties if desired.) Explain how news organizations' ownership and funding overlap with political bias.
Project the Fox News homepage so all students can see it. Ask students to identify the sites' political affiliation. Ask what about the homepage led them to identify that affiliation: images? headlines? prior knowledge? word choices or phrases? Ask them to identify types of bias defined in "Media Bias." Repeat this process for 1-2 additional sites from the list above to prepare students for doing this work independently.
Put students in small groups and have them repeat step #2 above for the remaining news organizations in the list. Emphasize being specific and including examples of images, phrases, etc. to document what led to their conclusions.
Bring the class back together and ask each group to summarize its findings for one news organization. Ask whether other groups agree or disagree with the presenting group's conclusions.
Choose a story covered on 2-3 of the news organizations' sites. Repeat the large-group/small-group/large-group process, asking students to identify types of bias in the stories. Have them pay special attention to how narrative features (placement, labeling) show bias and shape the coverage.
For assessment, ask students to complete the same list of terms, platforms, and issues used for the pre-test. Compare pre- and post-test results.