{"id":50,"date":"2015-05-28T22:13:42","date_gmt":"2015-05-28T22:13:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.candelalearning.com\/englishcomp2kscopexmaster\/?post_type=chapter&p=50"},"modified":"2016-05-31T18:47:59","modified_gmt":"2016-05-31T18:47:59","slug":"understanding-bias","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-englishcomp2kscopexmaster\/chapter\/understanding-bias\/","title":{"raw":"Understanding Bias","rendered":"Understanding Bias"},"content":{"raw":"

\"PhotoBias<\/h2>\r\nBias means presenting facts and arguments in a way that consciously favours one side or other in an argument. Is bias bad or wrong?\r\n\r\nNo! Everyone who argues strongly for something is biased. So it\u2019s not enough, when you are doing a language analysis, to merely spot some bias and say\u2026\u201dThis writer is biased\u201d or \u201cThis speaker is biased.\u201d\r\n\r\nLet\u2019s begin by reading a biased text.\r\n
\r\n\r\nHypocrites gather to feed off Daniel\u2019s tragic death\r\n\r\nThe death of two-year-old Daniel Valerio at the hands of his step-father brought outrage from the media.\r\n\r\nDaniel suffered repeated beatings before the final attack by Paul Alton, who was sentenced in Melbourne in February to 22 years jail.\r\n\r\nRupert Murdoch\u2019s Herald-Sun launched a campaign which included a public meeting of hundreds of readers. Time magazine put Daniel on its front cover. The Herald-Sun summed up their message:\r\n\r\nThe community has a duty to protect our children from abuse \u2013 if necessary by laws that some people regard as possibly harsh or unnecessary.<\/em>\r\n\r\nBut laws \u2013 like making it compulsory for doctors and others to report suspected abuse \u2013 cannot stop the violence.\r\n\r\nLast year, 30 children were murdered across Australia. Babies under one are more likely to be killed than any other social group.\r\n\r\nDaniel\u2019s murder was not a horrific exception but the product of a society that sends some of its members over the edge into despairing violence.\r\n\r\nThe origin of these tragedies lies in the enormous pressures on families, especially working class families.\r\n\r\nThe media and politicians wring their hands over a million unemployed. But they ignore the impact that having no job, or a stressful poorly paid job, can have.\r\n\r\nChild abuse can happen in wealthy families. But generally it is linked to poverty.\r\n\r\nA survey in 1980 of \u201cmaltreating families\u201d showed that 56.5 per cent were living in poverty and debt. A further 20 per cent expressed extreme anxiety about finances.\r\n\r\nA study in Queensland found that all the children who died from abuse came from working class families.\r\n\r\nPolice records show that school holidays \u2013 especially Xmas \u2013 are peak times for family violence. \u201cThe sad fact is that when families are together for longer than usual, there tends to be more violence\u201d, said one Victorian police officer.\r\n\r\nMost people get by. Family life may get tense, but not violent.\r\n\r\nBut a minority cannot cope and lash out at the nearest vulnerable person to hand \u2013 an elderly person, a woman, or a child.\r\n\r\nCompulsory reporting of child abuse puts the blame on the individual parents rather than the system that drives them to this kind of despair.\r\n\r\nNeither is it a solution. Daniel was seen by 21 professionals before he was killed. Nonetheless, the Victorian Liberal government has agreed to bring it in.\r\n\r\nTheir hypocrisy is breathtaking.\r\n\r\nThis is the same government that is sacking 250 fire-fighters, a move that will lead to more deaths.\r\n\r\nA real challenge to the basis of domestic violence means a challenge to poverty.\r\n\r\nYet which side were the media on when Labor cut the under-18 dole, or when Jeff Kennett[1] added $30 a week to the cost of sending a child to kindergarten?\r\n\r\nTo really minimise family violence, we need a fight for every job and against every cutback.\r\n\r\n- by David Glanz, The Socialist<\/em>, April 1993\r\n
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There are good and bad aspects of bias.<\/h3>\r\n
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  1. It is good to be open about one\u2019s bias. For example, the article about Daniel Valerio\u2019s tragic death is written for The Socialist<\/em> newspaper. Clearly socialists will have a bias against arguments that blame only the individual for a crime when it could be argued that many other factors in society contributed to the crime and need to be changed. Focusing on the individual, from the socialist\u2019s point of view, gets \u201cthe system\u201d off the hook when crimes happen. The socialist\u2019s main reason for writing is to criticise the capitalist system. So David Glanz is not pretending to not be biased, because he has published his article in a partisan[2] newspaper.\r\n