Implicit Biases and Stereotypes in Media

 

Implicit Biases and Stereotypes in Media

    While in a photojournalism class, my professor, Dr. Assaf, said “We try so hard to be neutral about certain topics, but we can never quite get away from our biases.” This got me thinking about biases in media and how journalist have to navigate through them. 

    The Federal Communications Commission was introduced in congress in 1954. It was enforcing the policy of ensuring that all media outlets show all side of the news it presented. Now in the court case Red Lion v FCC, Fred Cook sued a Chrisian radio show. He felt like he was being attacked and said that it was violates the first Amendment. In 1985, the FCC did away with this Doctrine.  Soon after this doctrine ended, there was an influx of media outlets being very secluded with their media and align themselves with onions that are true to the people of the station. 

     I think that it is important to look back at historical motions like this in media history. Implicit biases don’t go away on their own and it is up to use to look out for them. Walter Lippmann once said, “An ordered, more or less consistent picture of the world, to which our habits, our tastes, our comforts and our hopes have adjusted themselves. They may not be a complete picture of the world, but they are a picture of a possible world to which we are adapted.” 

    Lippmann was right about this because social norms are something we condition ourselves based on environment that effects our ability to stand on our biases. This is why we have different news outlets that people trust. My mother always like WFAA in Dallas whereas my fiancé’s grandparents like to watch Fox4. Media outlets play into people’s own biases, and this can create stereotypes that live in the people that watch them. It is important to know that we can learn and grow out of these conditions.We just have to get out of our comfort zone.