Chapter 14 and 16

Question 1

Critiquing the Media

Answer 1

• The main source of information about the world is the mass media
• Due to the tremendously important role media plays in democratic societies, many countries grant special legal protections to the media
• There is a risk of abuse of these freedoms
• We have a responsibility to defend the freedom of media, but also a responsibility to scrutinize and criticize it

Question 2

Determining Bias

Answer 2

• Loaded Terms
  ~ appear to be descriptive but have a moral outcome
• “President Blames Staff for Fiasco”
• “Military Accepts Reso=ponsibility for Embarrassing President”
• “City Council ‘Cover-Up’ of Hospital Fraud”
• “Councilor Alleges Cover-Up of Hospital Fraud”
  -Selectivity
  ~ Decisions about what to report and what to ignore
  ~ Decisions about the prominence given to each story
  ~ Decisions about the amount of coverage given to each story

Question 3

Objective reporting

Answer 3

• The ability to understand objectivity is presupposed by criticisms of bias
• Interpretation is always present, but not all interpretations are equally legitimate
• When we encounter conflicting interpretations, it is possible that one may be more defensible than others

Question 4

Assessing new reports

Answer 4

• News reports consist of empirical truth-claims
• Scrutinizing reliability
  ~ Does the news organization have a reputation for checking its factual claims
  ~ Does it apologize on occasions on which it makes an error?

Question 5

Assessing interpretive frameworks

Answer 5

• Is a set of positions underlying the overall news coverage of a given news organization
• Does not need to be accepted or rejected as a whole; a reader can agree with some aspects of the framework while disagreeing with others
• Can extend beyond the overtly political to include positions on any aspect of society