extreme webmaster evernerve

Hey! This is going to be a long read, so if you are short on time, feel free to just skip to a graph that says it all.

In an interesting post about the various types of content found on the Web and its influence on reality Aaron Wall stated

Biased content is easier to reference, syndicate, and subscribe to than more balanced content because we are more aligned to communications messages that match our worldview. And much of the passion driven content is tied to a strong bias (like hate sites). Which means that search engines can try to display a diverse set of search results, but as time passes they will reflect more biased groups of opinions and far fewer balanced articles.

And commented on my remark that “The Web reflects reality” by replying

I think it reflects a biased subset of reality due to self-selection of media consumption habits, biased content being more remarkable than balanced content, precise measures of ROI, and improved ad targeting.

I want to expound on his comment that “it reflects a biased subset of reality”.

It’s a biased world

First, is the Web really a biased subset of reality? What makes our reality in the first place? Objectivity is hard to define, and it can barely be found in our world, let alone in the media.

There are two main domains in which the media tends to be extremely biased:

1. The selection of the subject matter which is going to be discussed,
2. The opinions and world views being imposed through the discussion of the subject matter.

The media lets you see what it wants you to see

The media is biased beacuse it offers the consumer a choice of themes and topics which make only a tiny fraction of all the actual events going on in our world today. Sure, there isn’t enough paper or time to give the consumer the vast choices that I am talking about. But still, it is easy to notice that content gets recycled and that some themes dominate over others. Some are never even mentioned. Here are some examples:

The war in Congo and the Darfur genocide

I am speaking of DR Congo, aka Congo Kinshasa, formerly known as Zaire. This is the 12th biggest country in the world. The Second Congo War, aka Africa’s World War, has raged from 1998 to 2003. A third war looms on the horizon. This conflict is the cause of 4 million deaths (mostly from hunger and disease). How many times did you hear about this conflict? How many discussions were held on it, in printed media, on tv? Answer: no one really cares, although this is one of the deadliest wars since WWII.

As for Darfur, a province in Sudan, the media has been saturated with it for many months now. What’s been going on in Sudan is a genocide of disastrous proportions. It is believed that more than 400,000 persons suffered a violent death.

Both of these conflicts are tragic and of cataclysmic proportions. But why is it that Darfur has so much more media coverage than Congo? Why is there so much more effort being made to bring peace to Darfur and not to Congo? Answer: it’s the oil, stupid. This is a major factorbehind the media bias in this particular case.

Bizarre but sad country you’ve never even heard of

If you are still skeptical, check out Equatorial Guinea, a country where the US Ambassador received death threats, whose people have been killed by their own leaders, and where the president’s son owns a rap label in Beverly Hills. Neat. My question is not if you have ever heard discussions on the subject of Equatorial Guinea, but were you aware of its existence at all?

The themes that are deemed important by the media are omnipresent

I have followed this year’s French presidential elections both online and offline. The media have consistently pushed forward two candidates only: Nicolas Sarkozy (republican, right-wing) and Ségolène Royal (socialist, leftist). There were a host of other candidates, some of which had excellent programs, but, alas, none of them got even a fraction of the media space that the two aforementioned persons have.

What is really interesting is that even the media which hasn’t got to do anything at all with politics had more or less regular features about Sarkozy and Royal during the election campaign. The French magazines for women had articles on madame Royal’s style and clothing choices, as well as those ofher opponent. Even the sleaziest of tabloids were full of stories on them. I don’t even have to mention the mainstream press and most-watched French TV channels.

The French were bombarded with these two candidates non-stop by an unrelenting media machine. Sure, the majority of people are already biased: they tend to lean either to the left or to the right. But do they need the media to tell them who’s the best person for them that shares and represents their world view? Oh, by coincidence, Royal and Sarkozy met and were backed by the most powerful lobbies and commercial and industrial groups. On a final note, the majority of all the printed media in France are owned by a single company: the Groupe Lagardère, who in turn owns Hachette Filipacchi Médias, the world’s largest magazine publisher.

Molding the public opinion

Furthermore, even within the narrow choice of pre-selected subjects, there are seldom heard many different opinions on the subject, let alone radical ones. The media are expert at convincing the consumer that they are balanced, objective and non-biased. The image they project of themselves is that of a real concern for their fellow humans, of things being questioned, investigated and looked upon from many different angles. While in reality, they represent special interests and nothing else.

This in turn leads to the molding of public opinion. Edward Bernays, the father of public relations, wrote about this in his seminal book Propaganda:

Modern propaganda is a consistent, enduring effort to create or shape events to influence the relations of the public to an enterprise, idea or group… …Small groups of persons can, and do, make the rest of us think what they please about a given subject.

This mind “massaging” by the big media has, of course, spilled onto the Web.

The Web is also full of consolidated media bias

If you check out the entertainment section of Google’s news aggregator, you will often see the likes of Paris Hilton and Britney Spears making headlines there. Why? Because all the major media are talking about them all the time, so it’s only logical that a news aggregator will put them up front as the most relevant story of any given day (arrrgh).

So, the average Web user will absorb these pre-selected, biased stories. Think about it for a minute: how many people are using Hotmail and MSN for their email, search and news? How many are using Yahoo or going over to Google for the latest news? These are the Web companies only, think also about all the other mainstream media’s portals like CNN, for example. A great number of Web users go to these websites to get their daily those of information and stick to them.

With each passing day, it is getting harder and harder to find non-biased news, alternative worldviews and balanced discussions on the Web. If you are reading this, you are smart, because you actually think about the media-saturated world that we all live in. You are questioning things. What about people who type in an URL into Yahoo’s or Google’s search box? What about people whose deepest literary excursion was actually the manual which explained how to connect to the Internet?

With the Web, the freedom of expression came, which empowers individuals unlike any media in any period of history before has ever been able to. But much of this freedom boils down to the individual’s selection of pre-made biased content and pure bullshit. A lot of people don’t even bother to think, let alone read about politics which affect their daily lives, energy and climate issues, and so on. They prefer to look at dumb videos and skim thorugh stories with bombastic headings.

The biased subset of reality that Aaron mentioned is growing stronger and bigger as we speak.

An image is worth a thousand biases

Enough said:

Still think that the media isn’t biased?

If you enjoyed this post, consider subscribing to my RSS feed or leave a comment. Share and bookmark: