Bias
May 2014
Audience bias – our tendency to call news ‘biased’ when it doesn’t match our beliefs – is one 
of the key underlying concepts of News Literacy. How open are our minds, really? How accurate is our ability to perceive truth? Our brains are sometimes the biggest barriers to our search for reliable information.
First, find a still-unfolding local news story with elements that trigger implicit biases about gender, race, religion or some other hot button topic (such as the Trayvon Martin killing and the subsequent trial, or this environmental controversy) Choose a story early in the coverage cycle, when both reporters and consumers are most tempted to jump to conclusions, and use it to illustrate the power of unconscious biases.
Next, give the very basic details of the story — such as telling the the headline of a print story, or showing the teaser of a television story. Write down their expectations, based on that headline and your knowledge of similar events in the past. Then, keep score of how often your predictions are confirmed. Later, reflect on how your perceptions may have changed.
Next, view this conversation between Dr. Nancy Franklin, an expert on memory, information processing and cognition, and Center for News Literacy Director Dean Miller. Together they explore such common perceptual barriers as source amnesia, confirmation bias, wishful thinking and other weaknesses of human perception.
Your goal is to see just where your own predilections and beliefs may color the way that they perceive or even read a particular story. Come up with a question that you may ask others that share your beliefs in order to challenge yourself and each other.
Questions to Prompt Discussion:
- What is cognitive dissonance? How is it evident in the comments that have accumulated online about this story?
- How might your previously held views change when confronted with surprising facts?
- Have you ever found your own version of the truth challenged? Did those views then change or stay the same?
- Define “Inherent Bias”. How might it affect a reader of this story? Give an example.
- What other questions might you need to ask yourself and others when confronted with a story like this one that may challenge your own beliefs?
Additional Resources:
- Read and reflect on this interview with Daniel Kahneman
- How Biased Are You? Find out by taking this simple test
