How to Measure Media Bias on a Regular Basis?

To measure the immediate impact of dozens of presentations and workshops by 2,500 business and 42 political leaders we have constructed the Intrade World Crisis Index.

Our admittedly unsophisticated sentiment index priced at 50.0 at the official opening of the meeting is comprised of eight equally weighted markets that measure the likelihood of recessions, depressions, increased unemployment, lower stock markets, and greater international tensions.

A higher post meeting index means our markets predict a more disastrous 2009 than before. A lower post-meeting index means our markets predict global leaders have reduced the probability that 2009 will be the disaster we previously thought.

You can see the updated Intrade World Crisis Index here http://www.intrade.com/widgets/crisis/WorldCrisisIndex.html

I'm not all that interested in the Davos thing, but this Intrade WC index does interest me. Such indices may have a bright future. One I'd like to see is a media bias index.

05/02/2009 17:34:39 Subject: The Intrade World Crisis Index will tell us whether the Davos World Economic Forum Matters! jbeyer

How would you propose to calculate a media bias index? ___________________________________________________

ko wrote: Here's a place to start. Calculating a media bias index is as straight forward as the Intrade World Crisis Index. The issue is whether Intrade wants to do it. If they do, I'd be willing to do some footwork (for a percentage, hah hah )

Joined: 03/11/2007 19:01:54 Messages: 1291 Offline We need contracts that regularly measure media bias and pay out according to such measurements.

In the Tank: A Statistical Analysis of Media Bias--pervasive, institutionalized, measurable

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=D7971545-30B0-4C9C-85BD-E671BBCBE0FF

The Intrade World Crisis Index is essentially the average of eight different Intrade contracts, each of which corresponds to an economic indicator. What values would you aggregate into your media bias index? In your linked post, you talk about things such as "86 percent voted for Democrat Hubert Humphrey over Republican Richard Nixon". But those numbers aren't measured frequently, nor do they change frequently.

Then we use numbers that are measured frequently. The problem isn't finding the measurements, the problem is whether Intrade wants to use the numbers. And no, I will not go down the rabbit hole until I hear there's interest from Intrade.

We did this "index" quickly, I am sure it can be improved on and I would hope that a better index could be traded.

John, color me surprised. I didn't think you'd be interested. I have heard that the Cato Institute tracks media bias on a weekly basis but I can't find the article. It's from the Wikipedia entry on media bias.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_bias Look in the references -- # 5, 6, and 7.

# ^ www.cato.org Weekly Network Bias rankings # ^ Media Bias, the paper is now published on the Quarterly Journal of Economics

Here's what I'd do if I were in your shoes. I'd call the heads of the 2 biggest Media Watchdog Groups, one liberal and one conservative. I'd tell them that I'm going to generate a media bias index and would like their input and involvement. If they balk, you go on your own. But they'd have a vested interest in staying involved. So, I'm thinking that a panel of 9: 3 liberals from Media Matters or FAIR, 3 conservatives from AIR or Media Research Center, and yourself + 2 Intrade employees (or 3 panelists from Intrade/Intrade forum). The panel meets to decide a specific methodology by which media bias would be tracked and measured (and paid out) and they would meet just before payout each term (maybe quarterly) to decide the media bias score.

Once a year the panel would review the methodology and consider improvements. The aim would be to generate a final mechanical media bias measurement that is independent of any panel; I'm not sure that is available quite yet but some additional digging would probably generate data in that vein.

If there's a number that is regularly published by any watchdog group, that would be the starting point for this index.

On the Political Right Air (a.k.a) Accuracy In Reporting Fox News, CNN and other media groups continuously being accussed of political Bias by Media Watchdog Groups.

Fair and Balanced - measuring media bias http://mindblog.dericbownds.net/2008/10/fair-and-balanced-measuring-media-bias.html One hears charges from both left and right about media bias, with FOX News frequently cited as the most extreme case. Tim Groeling has done interesting work to objectively measure the bias shown by television media, in a paper (PDF here) http://dericbownds.net/uploaded_images/groeling.pdf to be published in the December issue of Presidential Studies Quarterly. He simply collected the in-house presidential approval polling by ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX News and compared these with the actual broadcasts of such polls on evening news shows from 1997 to early 2008. As an example, CBS was 35 percent less likely to report a five-point drop in approval for Bill Clinton than a similar rise in approval and was 33 percent more likely to report a five-point drop than a rise for George W. Bush. FOX News was 67 percent less likely to report a rise in approval for Clinton than a decrease and 36 percent more likely to report an increase rather than a decrease for Bush.

Measuring media bias Tim Groseclose and Jeffrey Milyo wrote a paper on "A measure of media bias." Here's the paper, http://www.polisci.ucla.edu/faculty/groseclose/Media.Bias.pdf and here's the abstract to the paper: We [Groseclose and Milyo] measure media bias by estimating ideological scores for several major media outlets. To compute this, we count the times that a particular media outlet cites various think tanks and policy groups, then compare this with the times that members of Congress cite the same groups. Our results show a strong liberal bias: all of the news outlets we examine, except Fox News’ Special Report and the Washington Times, received scores to the left of the average member of Congress. Consistent with claims made by conservative critics, CBS Evening News and the New York Times received scores far to the left of center. The most centrist media outlets were PBS NewsHour, CNN’s Newsnight, and ABC’s Good Morning America; among print outlets, USAToday was closest to the center. All of our findings refer strictly to news content; that is, we exclude editorials, letters, and the like. The Reid/Foley MSM Bias Index Cheat-Seeking Missile's Reid/Foley MSM Bias Index is a straightforward measurement of media bias. If the media were perfectly balanced, the Reid/Foley index would be 0, because stories of Senate Minory Leader Harry Reid's financial scandals would perfectly balance stories of Mark Foley's homosexual lust scandals.

Less coverage of Reid would reveal a leftist bias, just as more coverage of Foley would. Reverse it, and we'd be seeing a conservative bias with more Reid coverage and less Foley coverage.

(As you can see at the outset, the index is flawed. Because Reid is still in office and holds a much higher position than Foley ever held, media coverage should tip towards Reid.)

Reid/Foley Bias Index Surges Left Today's reading: 110 Left* Yesterday's reading: 44 left

Yesterday's ruling by Judge Janet Farris that Dems should get a double-scoop of benefit from Mark Foley's late registration caused a legit news-reporting surge in Foley hits on Nexis today.

On the other hand, the Reid story of his $700,000 in politically induced profits has all but fallen out of the liberal MSM's universe.

Would one GOP elected please call for an ethics investigation of Reid? What's so hard about this?

* How the Index works: Perfect MSM balance yields an index of 0, as stories of Senate Minory Leader Harry Reid's financial scandals balance stories of Mark Foley's homosexual lust scandals. Less coverage of Reid/more coverage of Foley yields a "left" score, indicating leftist bias, with the number preceding "left" indicating the number of times greater Foley's coverage is. Greater Reid/lesser Foley coverage yields a "right" score with a similar multiplier. Reid/Foley Index Turns More Left

http://www.cheatseekingmissiles.com/2006/10/18/reidfoley-index-turns-more-left/ Has Mark Foley decided to very deliberately keep his name in the news and further foul the GOP waters before the election? Quite possibly. His announcement that he is going to announce the priest who allegedly molested him ensures at least two days of media coverage of that part of this tawdry tale.

The “He’s going to announce” announcement pushed up Foley media coverage, and today the C-SM Reid/Foley MSM Bias Index rose to 44 Left from yesterday’s 27 Left.* The true level of bias is actually much greater, since a significant number of the 22 Reid stories turned up by Nexis today were not about his financial scandal, while it appears that nearly all the 934 Foley stories referenced the page scandal. * How the Index works: Perfect MSM balance yields an index of 0, as stories of Senate Minory Leader Harry Reid’s financial scandals balance stories of Mark Foley’s homosexual lust scandals. Less coverage of Reid/more coverage of Foley yields a “left” score, indicating leftist bias, with the number preceding “left” indicating the number of times greater Foley’s coverage is. Greater Reid/lesser Foley coverage yields a “right” score with a similar multiplier.

Public Perceptions of Bias in the News Media: Taking A Closer Look ... File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML resulting Prior Media Bias index ranges from 2 (the belief that the news media is very biased in favor of pro-life/against pro-choice) to 14 (very biased ... www.uky.edu/AS/PoliSci/Peffley/pdf/MediaBiasMidwest2001_4-04-01_.PDF - Similar pages by M Peffley - Cited by 4 - Related articles - All 2 versions

Media Watchdog Groups 25 up, 4 down Organizations that are devoted to finding, diclaiming, and pointing out Media Bias where ever it shows up.

There is a large diverse goups of Media Watchdogs Groups. On The political Left. Here are just a few Organizations.

On the Political Right Air (a.k.a) Accuracy In Reporting Fox News, CNN and other media groups continuously being accussed of political Bias by Media Watchdog Groups.

Media Research Center, the largest media watchdog organization in America. Established in 1987, the MRC has made "media bias" a household term, tracking it daily and printing the compiled evidence biweekly in its well-known "Notable Quotables."

Joined: 03/11/2007 19:01:54 Messages: 1296 Online p.s. even if nothing happens with a media bias indicator, Intrade would make waves in the industry just by mentioning the intent. Just think if Rush Limbaugh started mentioning the project on his show and how much volume that could create for Intrade.

Continued discussion and a generation of a Media Bias Index of 16 points leftward...

ko wrote:

p.s. even if nothing happens with a media bias indicator, Intrade would make waves in the industry just by mentioning the intent. Just think if Rush Limbaugh started mentioning the project on his show and how much volume that could create for Intrade.

Ko,

Thanks for going to such efforts on the idea. IMO media bias is a great idea, but as you identified it is far from easy to get the market defined or settled with independent authority.

When I was thinking about at this morning I kept thinking of a somewhat related issue of when there seems to be an almost unspoken agreement between the media and politicians on certain economies issue. I cant say what I am thinking of here as it will suggest some markets on Intrade are undervalues and I should know between then most that the crowd is smarter than the individual – and in particular this individual.

Also, do you think media bias is the issue that the world is fixated on? Granted it, it is a profoundly important issues, but by comparison to recessions, depressions and economic growth it seems secondary in the minds of most.

Have you reviewed in detail the Reid/Foley MSM Bias Index? I wonder could that be a starting

10/02/2009 05:27:05

John Delaney wrote:

Also, do you think media bias is the issue that the world is fixated on? Granted it, it is a profoundly important issue, but by comparison to recessions, depressions and economic growth it seems secondary in the minds of most.

Kevmo wrote:
I think the trick is not necessarily to tap into the “minds of most” but into the minds of “them that put their money where their mouth is” and will generate volume on contracts here at Intrade. With that as a backdrop, it rises to a higher level of significance — but still not on the level of recessions, depressions, war, etc. of course. Interestingly, the folks who put more money down on issues are the guys who follow sports. If you could find a way to generate that level of sport tension & interest, you’d have the whole thing in the bag.

Here’s what Groseclose & Milyo have to say in their First 2 Sentences:
Do the major media outlets in the U.S. have a liberal bias? Few questions evoke stronger opinions, and we cannot think of a more important question to which objective statistical techniques can lend their service.

John Delaney wrote:

Have you reviewed in detail the Reid/Foley MSM Bias Index? I wonder could that be a starting

Kevmo wrote:
I believe it was a generated one-off index that compared the Reid scandals to the Foley scandals in their coverage. Such an index is an excellent starting point if you’d like to take nibbles at a media bias index by juxtapositioning 2 scandals to each other and declaring that they should be equal... see what kind of fireworks that generates here at Intrade. It might give you a good idea as to whether even pursuing such an index is worthwhilel Something like a Reid/Foley or “Latest Scandal on the right vs. Latest scandal on the left” MSM bias index is very focused and generates a lot of political heat in the short term. That should translate into volume on short term contracts. And if it DOES translate into volume for Intrade, soon this place would be the place to check for media bias on whatever issue is at hand. If this mustard seed sprouts, it could generate tons of ROI. And if it does not sprout, it still generates its own useful data point.

10/02/2009 06:48:55 Subject: Re:The Intrade World

ko wrote:

John Delaney:
That is a very powerful call to action, but still the ieeues of defining the market and establishing clear settlement rules remain. I will ask folks internally to consider it also. If we think we can progress it we certainly will keep you informed.

10/02/2009 06:51:18

ko wrote:

I believe it was a generated one-off index that compared the Reid scandals to the Foley scandals in their coverage. Such an index is an excellent starting point if you’d like to take nibbles at a media bias index by juxtapositioning 2 scandals to each other and declaring that they should be equal... see what kind of fireworks that generates here at Intrade. It might give you a good idea as to whether even pursuing such an index is worthwhilel Something like a Reid/Foley or “Latest Scandal on the right vs. Latest scandal on the left” MSM bias index is very focused and generates a lot of political heat in the short term. That should translate into volume on short term contracts. And if it DOES translate into volume for Intrade, soon this place would be the place to check for media bias on whatever issue is at hand. If this mustard seed sprouts, it could generate tons of ROI. And if it does not sprout, it still generates its own useful data point.

John Delaney:
Your comment “If this mustard seed sprouts, it could generate tons of ROI. And if it does not sprout, it still generates its own useful data point” reflects our mindset on markets. Some trade well and generate income vlaue. Others dont yet, may in the future but generate information value.

John:

Here’s an example of a completely independent data generation on media bias that could be harnessed: there is a website called Media Bias Ratings

http://www.mediabiasratings.com/

MBR’s results could generate a measurable, independently derived starting point index. For instance, Let’s say you choose to focus on TV bias, and combine MBR’s ratings which could easily be tweaked using your own multipliers.

Breakdown of the 41 votes in this category, as of 1/31/2009:
4 100% Liberal
7 Mostly Liberal
11 Slightly Liberal
3 No bias
6 Slightly Conservative
5 Mostly Conservative
5 100% Conservative

Note that MBR is a continuously moving tally.

Using a multiplier of 1 for 100%, 2 for “mostly”, 3 for Slightly, you’d get 1*4 + 2*7 + 3*11 = 51 points Liberal Bias compared to 1*5 + 2*5 + 3*6 = 33 points Conservative Bias.

The payout could be towards the difference (18 points) or as a percentage , 51/(33+51) or whatever you decide is proper.

__________________________________

In addition, there is currently a poll being conducted on media bias at Polling Point. A contract could be written that tracks their results. I think this poll is old, so a new poll that tracked the difference might prove interesting.

http://www.pollingpoint.com/polls/

http://surveyg2.pollingpoint.com/vQT8r0fdCvM1WW

Are the Media Playing Favorites?
Do you trust the media to deliver the news in a fair and unbiased way? Are reporters favoring candidates?

http://www.pollingpoint.com/polls/

http://surveyg2.pollingpoint.com/vQT8r0fdCvM1WW

http://survey.pollingpoint.com/638945

________________________________________

A combined index between polling point results and MBR’s results could generate a measurable, independently derived index.

55% Say Media Bias Bigger Problem Than Campaign Cash

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/election_20082/2008_presidential_election/55_say_media_bias_bigger_problem_than_campaign_cash

Monday, August 11, 2008

Voters overwhelmingly believe that politicians will “break the rules to help people who give them a lot of money,” but most say there’s a bigger problem in politics today—media bias.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 55% believe media bias is more of a problem than big campaign contributions. Thirty-six percent (36%) disagree and think that campaign cash is a bigger problem.

People believe media bias is a bigger problem even though 63% believe most politicians will break the rules to help campaign contributors. Just 14% believe most politicians would refrain from breaking the rules for a donor. Forty-four percent (44%) say that lobbyists and campaign contributors have too much influence on John McCain’s positions. Forty percent (40%) say the same about Barack Obama.

Just 22% believe it would be a good idea to ban all campaign commercials so that voters could receive information on the campaign only from the news media and the internet. Sixty-six percent (66%) disagree and think that, despite the annoyance factor, it’s better to put up with an election-year barrage of advertising rather than rely on the news media.

An earlier survey found that 49% believe most reporters are trying to help Barack Obama win the election this year. Just 14% believe they’re trying to help McCain. Another survey found that the news you watch says a lot about how you will vote.

Not surprisingly, Republicans are the most likely to see media bias as the bigger problem. Eighty-one percent (81%) of the GOP faithful hold that view. Democrats and unaffiliated voters are more evenly divided. Obama’s Party, by a narrow 50% to 41% margin, say that campaign cash is the bigger issue. Among those not affiliated with either major party, 47% say media bias is the problem while 43% hold the opposite view.

Fifty-three percent (53%) of liberals see campaign contributions as a bigger problem than media bias. Seventy-four percent (74%) of conservatives hold the opposite view. Among the moderates, 49% say media bias is the problem while 42% disagree.

Another survey from earlier this year found that most voters say it is not possible to run for the presidency without the help of lobbyists and special interest groups.

Crosstabs are available to Premium Members only.

Rasmussen Reports is an electronic publishing firm specializing in the collection, publication, and distribution of public opinion polling information.

The Rasmussen Reports ElectionEdge™ Premium Service for Election 2008 offers the most comprehensive public opinion coverage ever provided for a Presidential election.

Scott Rasmussen, president of Rasmussen Reports, has been an independent pollster for more than a decade.

12/02/2009 05:55:11 Subject: Re:The Intrade World Crisis Index
ko

Sage

Joined: 03/11/2007 19:01:54
Messages: 1306
Online
Rasmussen Reports Site Search

Search for “media bias” returned 7 matches:

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/content/search?SearchText=media+bias&SearchButton.x=9&SearchButton.y=7

Majority Say Reporters Tried To Help Obama
As the presidential campaign comes to a close, a majority of voters (51%) say most reporters have tried to help Barack Obama win the presidency.

69% Say Reporters Try To Help The Candidate They Want To Win
Seven out of 10 voters (69%) remain convinced that reporters try to help the candidate they want to win, and this year by a nearly five-to-one margin voters believe they are trying to help Barack Obama.

47% Favor Government Mandated Political Balance on Radio, TV
Nearly half of Americans (47%) believe the government should require all radio and television stations to offer equal amounts of conservative and liberal political commentary, but they draw the line at imposing that same requirement on the Internet. Thirty-nine percent (39%) say leave radio and TV alone, too.

55% Say Media Bias Bigger Problem Than Campaign Cash
Voters overwhelmingly believe that politicians will “break the rules to help people who give them a lot of money,” but most say there’s a bigger problem in politics today—media bias.

Associated Press, MSNBC and CNBC Seen as Having Liberal Bias
In the final poll of a series measuring perceptions of media bias, the Associated Press, local television stations, MSNBC, and CNBC are all perceived as tilting to the left when reporting the news.

New York Times, Washington Post, and Local Newspapers Seen as Having Liberal Bias
A Rasmussen Reports survey on perceptions of media bias found that Americans tend to believe that the New York Times, Washington Post, and their local newspaper all show a bias in favor of liberals.

Americans See Liberal Media Bias on TV News
By a 39% to 20% margin, American adults believe that the three major broadcast networks deliver news with a bias in favor of liberals.

John:

Skews is a website that sounds like a soul mate for Intrade:

“Skewz is driven by the wisdom of the crowds. “

http://www.skewz.com/help/main?section=how_does_it_work

Skewz is driven by the wisdom of the crowds. You can read latest news, submit a new article, skew and comment on existing articles.

You can also create your own Personal Political Profile, check out our Media Comparison Chart, and add Friends from the community.

Get started now! Add the Skewz bookmarklet to your toolbar so you can skew anything you read on the web!

15/02/2009 04:47:28 Subject: Re:The Intrade World Crisis Index
ko

Sage

Joined: 03/11/2007 19:01:54
Messages: 1306
Online
Okay, john. Here’s a start. Let’s say you use a Skews element + Media bias ratings.com element + Pollingpoint element + opportunistic element + whatever other elements we can find — that would make up the media bias index.

The opportunistic elements would be things like scholarly journals that are published on media bias. The best elements would be followups to commissioned polls that ask directly about media bias, but those cost money.

With the prior example where MBR generated an 18 point liberal bias, you could look at Skews ratings for these TV sites:
msnbc.msn.com, abcnews.go.com, cnn.com, cbsnews.com, pbs.org

Today they’d generate
2 points leftward on Civil Liberties, 4 points leftward on Domestic Policy, zero points on economic policy, 3 points leftward on Elections 2008, 5 points leftward on Energy/Technology, 4 points leftward on foreign policy, 2 points rightward on health, 3 points leftward on Other. That’s 2 + 4 + 3 + 5 + 4 - 2 + 3 which generates 19 points leftward liberal bias. That agrees pretty handily with my previous calculation on MBR and you could average the two.

The pollingpoint results are not in yet. Since I don’t know how they’d present the data, it is difficult to say how it would fit. Let’s say it’s a percentage on these 2 questions. I’ll just put in some numbers.

Do you think that most reporters tend to favor one of the major political parties or not?
Yes, they favor the Democrats 55%
Yes, they favor the Republicans 40%
No, they are fair 5%

Do you think that most reporters’ personal views are liberal, moderate, or conservative?
Liberal 40%
Moderate 20%
Conservative 30%
Not sure 5%

You could take a weighted difference on these 2 questions. 55% -40% = 15% and 40% - 30 % = 10 %. The average is 12.5%.

So here’s what the media bias index would look like today.

MBR: 18
Skews: 19
Polling Point: 12.5 (pretending to use my data)

If the contract were to expire today, it would have zero opportunistic elements, so the value would be (18 + 19 + 12.5)/3 (assuming you weight all 3 the same) = 16.5 points leftward.

You could do this today. For free. You could have these quarterly, monthly, weekly, whatever suits you. You could add value by commissioning polls, soliciting scholarly journals, etc. It would be a good place to start.

Released: March 14, 2007 Zogby Poll: Voters Believe Media Bias is Very Real Institute for Politics, Democracy, and the Internet/Zogby Poll shows American voters are skeptical political motivation may be behind blogs run by mainstream news organizations The vast majority of American voters believe media bias is alive and well – 83% of likely voters said the media is biased in one direction or another, while just 11% believe the media doesn’t take political sides, a recent IPDI/Zogby Interactive poll shows. The Institute for Politics, Democracy, and the Internet is based at George Washington University in Washington D.C. Nearly two-thirds of those online respondents who detected bias in the media (64%) said the media leans left, while slightly more than a quarter of respondents (28%) said they see a conservative bias on their TV sets and in their column inches. The survey, which focuses on perceptions of the “old” and “new” media, will be released today at the PoliticsOnline Conference 2007 at GWU. It is also featured in the March issue of Zogby’s Real America newsletter, now available on www.zogby.com. Fritz Wenzel, Zogby’s Director of Communications, will also discuss with conference–goers the results of the first interactive survey to include video clips from presidential candidates. The video poll is the latest step in Zogby’s cutting–edge leadership in online polling, and revealed important respondent sentiment toward the candidates after viewing clips online of recent speeches and interviews. Zogby International’s Jonathan Zogby, Director of Domestic Business Development, has also published an article in the conference magazine about the emergence of Internet polling as an important survey research tool, particularly in light of the increasing difficulty of telephone polling. The IPDI PoliticsOnline conference is one of the most important annual national conferences focusing on how the Internet has affected American politics. While 97% of Republicans surveyed said the media are liberal, two-thirds of political independents feel the same, but fewer than one in four independents (23%) said they saw a conservative bias. Democrats, while much more likely to perceive a conservative bias than other groups, were not nearly as sure the media was against them as were the Republicans. While Republicans were unified in their perception of a left-wing media, just two-thirds of Democrats were certain the media skewed right – and 17% said the bias favored the left. The Zogby Interactive survey of 1,757 likely voters nationwide was conducted Feb. 20-26, 2007, and has a margin of error of +/- 2.4 percentage points. As the influence of blogs has risen, mainstream news organizations have attempted to get in on the action by creating their own blogs to counter those run by private citizens and those not in the news business. But American voters remain skeptical of major news outlets diving in to the blog pool – 26% speculated that the reason news organizations are placing blogs on their Web sites is that “blogs give news organizations a chance to promote a political agenda they could not promote in their regular broadcasts, cablecasts, or publications.” This month’s Zogby’s Real America newsletter also explores Americans’ divided views on how to fix the U.S. health care system – how the nation’s health care compares to other counties, whether Americans should seek a radical change and what type of health care system would benefit the most Americans. For detailed methodological statement on this survey, please visit: www.zogby.com

Capstone Seminar group
examines media bias

By Jessica Kemp

http://www.elon.edu/academics/communications/connections/2005/may_05/biascapstone.asp

This semester, Brooke Barnett, assistant professor of communications, developed a new approach to the traditional senior seminar class required for all communications majors. The course focused on the topic of media bias and students worked to gain some insight and understanding of this complex issue.

“The specific topic of this course,” explained Barnett, “came from my own personal frustration in reading all these tomes about the liberal media, conservative media and media bias in general, and trying to make some sense of it myself.”

The 15-member class worked together for three months to help Barnett address this issue. Class members included Dominic Barrett, Matt Belanger, Lindsay Bird, Candace Buckman, Ashley Corum, Matt Crews, Sarah DeBock, Jason Hepler, Amy Jo Jenkins, Barclay Keir, Jessica Kemp, Jocelyn Maningo, Ryann McMillan, Scott McPhate, and Adam Smith.

With so much media coverage devoted to this issue, it was not difficult for the class to jump right into the mess. Students began by identifying their own personal biases and trying to set them aside in order to take an objective look at the media.

Most students explained they were uncertain in the beginning if the media really is biased. “Whether it’s left or right I’m not sure,” admitted senior Barrett. “I think hopefully that’s what we’ll examine.”

“I think they [the media] throw out the point that they try to include both sides,” said senior McMillan, “but I think there is often a huge shadow one way or the other.”

“When you have somebody saying this and somebody saying that, in the end somebody is lying,” said Barnett. “Who is it?” In an effort to address this question, students next conducted individual research on several media pundits, including Ann Coulter, Bill O’Reilly, Al Franken and Eric Alterman, and tried to separate the truth from the lies. Often, the problem is in the method of delivery, not the actual content.

“The basic thing I found was they were all technically right. It’s just the way they did it,” said senior DeBock. “It’s okay to present a different view, but you have to do it properly.” DeBock explained that most pundits only use the information that helps their argument, or use sources in ways that are unethical.

Several students commented that the use of uncredited sources by some of these professionals would constitute an honor code violation at Elon. “The fact is, we would consider this to be shoddy research in an academic setting. But the public does not have the time to try to sort through all this, looking at the actual documents these people (media pundits) are citing and make sense of it all, “ Barnett said.

Following the pundit research, students developed individual projects on different aspects of bias in the media. They found there are surprisingly few academic studies that have tried to systematically measure media bias.

“We looked at media watchdog groups,” said senior Smith. “We were so surprised that more research had not been done in this area. Because so many people use these groups to monitor what is happening in the press, you’d think more work would have been done to investigate them. But that was what made our research important. These watchdog groups had just not gotten enough attention.”

“I think universities should be doing the work of this,” said Barnett. “Right now it’s been journalists, pundits, and watchdogs, but I haven’t seen a real university effort to say what’s really going on here?”

The class completed six separate research projects, each dealing with different topics that related back to the central topic of media bias. The projects were:

Admissions of Media Bias - Keir studied admissions of bias by the media and the public. Keir looked at 6 media outlets to determine if they admit a bias in their outlet or the media in general.

Media Watchdog Groups and Audience Perception of Bias - Debock, Corum and Smith looked at the effect media watchdog groups have on audience perception of bias and accuracy in news articles.

“The Daily Show” and Agenda Setting - Buckman and Kemp studied “The Daily Show” as an agenda-setting tool for college students through the use of both surveys and a content analysis of one week of tapings.

Framing of the Feb. 15 Protests - Bird and Barrett analyzed television news framings of the protests against the preemptive war in Iraq.

Pundits on Television - Hepler analyzed five cable news programs with popular pundits, looking at interview styles and guest quality.

Presidential Pictures - Maningo and McMillan analyzed photos of President Bush and John Kerry in both Time and Newsweek prior to the 2004 Presidential election.

Another group of students created a video documentary following the process the class went through as they struggled to understand such a broad topic. After such extensive research, the students concluded that media bias may not be in the media, but in the audience.

“The problem may be media literacy,” said Barnett, “and I know people don’t like that phrase because media has to do with reading, but I think it fits with what we’re talking about, which is a wherewithal to be able to make sense of the news.”

Barnett and the students took their work a step further, working to get the word out on what the class had found in its studies throughout the semester. “We spent a lot of intellectual energy working towards some sort of higher meaning,” said Barnett, “and I was trying to find some ways to do something that would get beyond the classroom.”

The group created press kits detailing its work, and Barnett and her students have been actively contacting different local and national media outlets in an effort share the work they have been doing.

They will discuss their work on the WUNC Radio program “The State of Things” in June. They also appeared on a Burlington-area radio talk show - students DeBock, Crews and Bird were guests on WBAG Radio, where they talked about media bias with host Bill Huff on “Talk Line.” They shared their research projects on the program, and talked about the focus of the class, answering general questions about media ethics and bias.

Another effort to get the word out is student-written newspaper editorials; Barrett and Hepler have written opinion pieces.

Okay, john. Here’s a start. Let’s say you use a Skews element + Media bias ratings.com element + Pollingpoint element + opportunistic element + whatever other elements we can find — that would make up the media bias index.

With the prior example where MBR generated an 18 point liberal bias, you could look at Skews ratings for these TV sites:
msnbc.msn.com, abcnews.go.com, cnn.com, cbsnews.com, pbs.org

Do you think that most reporters tend to favor one of the major political parties or not?
Yes, they favor the Democrats 55%
Yes, they favor the Republicans 40%
No, they are fair 5%

Do you think that most reporters’ personal views are liberal, moderate, or conservative?
Liberal 40%
Moderate 20%
Conservative 30%
Not sure 5%

You could take a weighted difference on these 2 questions. 55% -40% = 15% and 40% - 30 % = 10 %. The average is 12.5%.

So here’s what the media bias index would look like today.

MBR: 18
Skews: 19
Polling Point: 12.5 (pretending to use my data)

If the contract were to expire today, it would have zero opportunistic elements, so the value would be (18 + 19 + 12.5)/3 (assuming you weight all 3 the same) = 16.5 points leftward.

Here’s a couple of polls from Polling Report

http://www.pollingreport.com/media.htm

Gallup Poll. Sept. 14-16, 2007.
N=1,010 adults nationwide. MoE ± 3 (for all adults).

.
“Now thinking for a moment about the news media: In general, do you think the news media is too liberal, just about right, or too conservative?” Options rotated. N=501, MoE ± 5 (Form A).

Too Liberal ......... About Right .........Too Conservative .........Unsure

% % % % .

9/14-16/07
45 .........35 ......... 18 ......... 2 .

9/7-10/06
44 .........33 ......... 19 ......... 4 .

9/12-15/05
46 ......... 37 .........16 .........1 .

9/13-15/04
48 .........33 .........15 .........4 .

9/03
45 .........39 .........14 .........2 .

2/03
45 .........36 .........15 .........4 .

9/02
47 .........37 .........13 .........3 .

9/01
45 .........40 .........11 .........4 .

“In general, do you think the national news media are too liberal, just about right, or too conservative?” Options rotated. N=509, MoE ± 5 (Form B).

Too Liberal ......... About Right ......... Too Conservative ......... Unsure
.

% % % % .

9/14-16/07
42 ......... 38 ......... 16 ......... 3 .

“In general, do you think the local news media in your area are too liberal, just about right, or too conservative?” Options rotated. N=509, MoE ± 5 (Form B).

Too Liberal ......... About Right ......... Too Conservative ......... Unsure
.

% % % % .

9/14-16/07
25 ......... 56 ......... 16 ......... 3

Chicago Tribune Poll conducted by Market Shares Corp. June 23-27, 2004. N=1,000 adults nationwide. MoE ± 3 (total sample).

“Thinking again about the media and their news stories about politics, elected officials, and election campaigns, do you think their coverage is biased or not biased?”
.

Biased ......... Not Biased ......... Don’t Know
% % %
ALL 76 14 9
Republicans ......... 85 ......... 11 ......... 4
Independents ......... 74 ......... 16 ......... 9
Democrats ......... 73 ......... 17 ......... 9
.

Asked of respondents who answered “Biased”:
“Generally speaking, do you think the news media are mostly biased in favor of Republicans, mostly biased in favor of Democrats, or does the bias favor each party about the same?”

In Favor of Democrats ......... In Favor of Republicans .........
Each About The Same ......... Don’t Know
% % % %

Republicans ......... 53 ......... 4 ......... 26 ......... 2
Independents ......... 14 ......... 11 ......... 42 ......... 7
Democrats ......... 4 ......... 24 ......... 40 ......... 4

Let’s generate an Opportunistic Poll Element to the Bias Index. The only way to really use such an element is to know ahead of time what the methodology would be so that such an analysis would be published ahead of time in consideration of the contract rules and payout.

Gallup Poll. Sept. 14-16, 2007.
N=1,010 adults nationwide. MoE ± 3 (for all adults).

Since this is a “scientific poll”, the N should be proportional to the weight attributed to the element. And we’d want this kind of scientific result to have more weight than a standard element that may derive its value from how many online activists there are. If you choose a standard divisor for all polls, this might prove fair. For now, let’s say we divide N by 400, leaving a multiplier of 2.525.

Let’s subtract the “too Liberal” from the “too conservative” and we get
9/14-16/07
45 - 18 = 27 points of liberal bias.

For grins...
9/7-10/06
44 - 19 = 25 points of liberal bias.
9/12-15/05
46 - 16 = 30 points of liberal bias.
9/13-15/04
48 - 15 = 33 points of liberal bias.
9/03
45 - 14 = 31 points of liberal bias.
2/03
45 - 15 = 30 points of liberal bias.
9/02
47 - 13 = 33 points of liberal bias.
9/01
45 - 11 = 34 points of liberal bias.

If anything, this poll shows double the amount of liberal bias that the online polls show.

So if we used the 2007 Gallup poll, we’d have 2.525*27 points of liberal bias = 68.175. Since this is the 4th element in the equation, we divide by 4 ( we’d also have to divide the other 3 elements by 4).

Previously, we had
MBR: 18 points of liberal bias
Skews: 19 points of liberal bias
Polling Point: 12.5 (pretending to use my data) points of liberal bias

If the contract were to expire today, it would have ONE opportunistic element, so the value would be (18 + 19 + 12.5)/4 (assuming you weight all 3 the same) + 68.175/4 = 29.4 points of liberal bias. The opportunistic result pushes the result around heavily. Perhaps too heavily, considering that other indicators show < 20 points of liberal bias. However, all the previous polls showed about 30 points of liberal bias.
__________________________________________________

Let’s pretend the Chicago Tribune poll was within the window of 2 years of looking at media bias.
____________________________________________________

Chicago Tribune Poll conducted by Market Shares Corp. June 23-27, 2004. N=1,000 adults nationwide. MoE ± 3 (total sample).

“Thinking again about the media and their news stories about politics, elected officials, and election campaigns, do you think their coverage is biased or not biased?”
....
.

In Favor of Democrats ......... In Favor of Republicans .........
Each About The Same ......... Don’t Know
% % % %

Republicans ......... 53 ......... 4 ......... 26 ......... 2
Independents ......... 14 ......... 11 ......... 42 ......... 7
Democrats ......... 4 ......... 24 ......... 40 ......... 4
__________________________________________________

For this poll, we would subtract what the republicans view as liberal bias minus what the democrats view as conservative bias. We’d also seek to magnify any bias found by independents.

53 (pub view of dem bias) - 24 (dem view of pub bias) = 29 points of liberal bias. Independents see 14- 11 = 3 points of democrat bias. I don’t see how we could use this number to help in a calculation, but if it strikes Intrade as important, a suitable multiplier could be found. Perhaps we just add the amount of bias to the result, which yields 29 + 3 = 32 points of bias.

Since N = 1000, N/400 = 2.5

Previously, we had
MBR: 18 points of liberal bias
Skews: 19 points of liberal bias
Polling Point: 12.5 (pretending to use my data) points of liberal bias

If the contract were to expire today, it would have ONE opportunistic element, so the value would be (18 + 19 + 12.5)/4 (assuming you weight all 3 the same) + 32/4 = 20.4 points of liberal bias. The opportunistic result in this case does not push the result around heavily.

__________________________________

Political Referee found an average of 37.5 points of media bias leftward.

47.5- 10 = 37.5 points of media bias.

http://www.politicalref.com/media_fairness.html

Voters asked if the media coverage favors one candidate or is neutral.

Poll Date ...... Sample ...... Pro-Obama ...... Pro-McCain ...... Neutral

The Ref’s Averages 7/19-7/23 ...... 950V ...... 47.5 ...... 10 ...... 30

Fox News/Op. Dynamics 7/22-7/23 ...... 900RV ...... 46 ...... 6 ...... 36
Rasmussen 7/19 ...... 1000LV ...... 49 ...... 14 ...... 24
Rasmussen 6/6 ...... 1000LV ...... 44 ...... 13 ...... 24

If this were plugged into the previous equation, N= 950, N/400 = 2.375

Previously, we had
MBR: 18 points of liberal bias
Skews: 19 points of liberal bias
Polling Point: 12.5 (pretending to use my data) points of liberal bias

If the contract were to expire today, it would have ONE opportunistic element, so the value would be (18 + 19 + 12.5)/4 (assuming you weight all 3 the same) + (2.375*37.5)/4 = 34.6 points of liberal bias. The opportunistic result again pushes the result around heavily. Note that all the previous polls showed about 30 points of liberal bias. Since it’s a commissioned poll, the results can’t be gamed by Intraders and online activists.

News Reporting is Perceived as Biased, though Less Agreement on Whether it is Liberal or Conservative Bias

Harris Interactive

http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/index.asp?PID=679

Over six in 10 U.S. adults agree that there is bias in the reporting of news, though there is less agreement as to whether there is a liberal or conservative bias. ....

These are the results of a nationwide Harris Poll of 1,179 U.S. adults surveyed online by Harris Interactive® between June 7 and 13, 2006.

....

Interestingly, the adult public overall thinks that there is more of a liberal bias (38%) than a conservative bias (25%). While this may not be altogether surprising, the fact that the findings don’t show an even greater liberal bias is noteworthy.

Furthermore, among those who are “heavy” users of the media, a majority (54%) say that there is a liberal bias in news reporting, compared to 24 percent who say there is a conservative bias. Among “light” media users there is less of a difference, with similar numbers saying that there is a liberal bias (31%) or conservative bias (25%).
CNN viewers are split on this issue, with a third (33%) saying that there is a liberal bias and another third (32%) saying there is a conservative bias.
FOX News viewers, however, strongly feel that there is a liberal bias (69%) as compared to 12 percent who say there is a conservative bias.

.....

There is a liberal bias in the media
Republican 66 %

There is a conservative bias in the media
Democrat 37 %

Using the previous approach, 66% - 37% = 29% liberal media bias.

Most Republicans See Media Bias; Most Democrats See Fair Media Coverage

http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/index.asp?PID=969

ROCHESTER, N.Y. – October 30, 2008 – Republicans are much more critical than Democrats of bias in the media’s election coverage. Two-thirds (65%) of Republicans believe that press coverage of the election has unfairly favored Senator Barack Obama and only 16% think media coverage has been fair. Most Democrats (54%) believe that press coverage of the election has been fair and only 12% think it has unfairly favored Senator John McCain.

Overall just over one-third of all adults (36%) think press coverage has been fair to the two candidates, one-third (34%) think the press has unfairly favored Obama and less than one in ten (9%) think it has unfairly favored McCain.

These are some of the results of The Harris Poll®, a new nationwide survey of 2,119 U.S. adults surveyed online between October 16 and 20, 2008 by Harris Interactive®.

Using the prior approach, we’d have 54% pub view - 12% dem view = 57 liberal media bias points. This agrees with anecdotal evidence that media coverage for Obama on this cycle was over-the-top liberal in its biased approach.

If we plug this back into the equation,
N=2119, N/400 = 5.3

Previously, we had
MBR: 18 points of liberal bias
Skews: 19 points of liberal bias
Polling Point: 12.5 (pretending to use my data) points of liberal bias

If the contract were to expire today, it would have ONE opportunistic element, so the value would be (18 + 19 + 12.5)/4 (assuming you weight all 3 the same) + (5.3*57)/4 = 87.9 points of liberal bias. The opportunistic result again pushes the result around heavily. Note that all the previous polls showed about 30 points of liberal bias. Since it’s a commissioned poll, the results can’t be gamed by Intraders and online activists.

From this article on Rasmussen’s poll:

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/election_20082/2008_presidential_election/belief_growing_that_reporters_are_trying_to_help_obama_win

Twenty-seven percent (27%) believe most reporters are trying to help Obama and 21% in Obama’s party think reporters are trying to help the Republican candidate. Among Republicans, 78% believe reporters are trying to help Obama and 10% see most offering unbiased coverage.

....

This national telephone survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted by Rasmussen Reports July 19, 2008. The margin of sampling error for the survey is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.

________________________________________

Using the previous approach, N = 1000, N/400 = 2.5

Using the prior approach, we’d have 78% pub view - 21% dem view = 57 liberal media bias points. This agrees with anecdotal evidence that media coverage for Obama on this cycle was over-the-top liberal in its biased approach.

If we plug this back into the equation,
N=1000, N/400 = 2.5

Previously, we had
MBR: 18 points of liberal bias
Skews: 19 points of liberal bias
Polling Point: 12.5 (pretending to use my data) points of liberal bias

If the contract were to expire today, it would have ONE opportunistic element, so the value would be (18 + 19 + 12.5)/4 (assuming you weight all 3 the same) + (2.5*57)/4 = 48 points of liberal bias.

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