Media_And_The_Presidency

Media And The Presidency Television News Bias In Presidential Elections Political bias in television news has been studied for many years, especially concerning Presidential elections. One would like to believe that television networks offer complete and unbiased coverage of Presidential elections and candidates. In fact some believe that in a democracy it is the media’s responsibility is to provide citizens with the information needed to make informed and rational decisions (Kaid, Tesdesco & McKinnon, 2000). In this paper I will examine the nature of partisan television news bias within the specific realm of presidential election campaigns. Presidential campaigns are small enough, and scrutinized enough, to make it possible to reasonably measure the amount and effects of media bias on the population (Allen & D’Alessio, 2000). More specifically, I will discuss the nature of television news bias and types of bias projected during a presidential election. Paying close attention to the ultimate effects of such bias. The Nature of Television News Bias According to White (1950), "media bias is disputable in the absence of certain properties of that bias: It must be volitional, or willful: it must be influential or else it is irrelevant; it must be threatening to widely held conventions, least it be dismissed bias, television, presidential, news, 2000, elections, coverage, allen, media, election, political, tesdesco, mckinnon, liberal, kaid, during, candidates, campaigns, believe, thus, one, nature, conservative, stories, networks, must, information, individuals, ideological, general, found, fact, effect, considered