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.
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