Election Day Bias

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On election day, people will line up at the polls. After they line up at the polls, they will cast their votes for who they want to be political leaders, and will then go home. In the context of the rest of the year, this is technically news, but it will not be reported, for these facts alone are boring. This presents the bias of story choice; reporters prefer to present information that is entertaining because entertainment attracts viewers, and attaining viewers is the primary goal. Another common bias is the ‘two, you’re through’ method in presenting ‘sides’ of a story. On election day, it is common to show footage of one person saying they want the Republican candidate to win and footage of another saying they want the Democratic candidate to win, exemplifying the desired polarity of our political system. It is not often one sees third party or independent candidates represented. To take the time to present these ‘sides’ of the story would probably be considered by a reporter to be too time consuming and, in …show more content…
While violence and murder aren’t aesthetically pleasing, they are entertaining in that they cater to the individual’s fascination with the macabre. This is enough for murder and violence to garner attention on the news, a fact that has made many people equate the news with being depressing. According to Potter, most journalists lack the experience it takes to properly choose experts for news stories, so they choose people that appear to know what they’re talking about, despite whether or not they actually do. These ‘experts’ are chosen through ‘operational bias,’ which “places its emphasis on players, policies, and predictions of what will happen next” (Potter, 2013). In layman's terms, reporters choose experts based on how much the expert’s information affirms the reporter’s prior knowledge. This limits the opinions that receive representation on the