April 13th Blog

The first source I chose was an online dissertation titled, ‘Are perceptions of media bias an effective shortcut?”, and was written by Glen Smith for the Washington State University Department of Political Science. The dissertation describes how the media uses its own bias’ to persuade the viewers, which in this case are Americans, to one particular viewpoint or another. He found that people perceive bias based on a particular slant in the news. For example, people might view Fox news as bias for Republicans, since they have a majority of conservative opinions on their primetime news shows (Smith 34). Glen states that people’s perceptions on particular subjects are not very easily persuaded with bias if they already have a strong perception on a subject. Once people have been exposed to one form of bias for a very long time, it can be very difficult for other forms of media to persuade that individual to change his or her perception to another. This shows how bias’ in the media can strongly affect a person’s ideology for a very long period of time.

The second source I chose was a book titled, ‘Where do you draw the line?’, by Victor Cline. The book delves into the topic of pornography and violence in the media and the media censorship of the two topics. The book states that, “censorship limits the student’s education. It leaves him with a distorted and jaundiced view of society. It suggests that we do not trust his judgment.” (Cline 6) But where do you draw the line with censorship versus freedom of speech, taking into effect the various laws concerning pornography and violence in the media? Cline suggests that we development “an independent monitoring agency to provide regular reports on the level of violence in television entertainment” (Cline 289). While this would likely serve as a decent tool for parents to scope out the television programs which have the most violence and thereby block their children from watching the high level of inappropriate content, it would not totally solve the problem depending on how well the government agency could detect and notify people of potential violent programs. I think the current television rating system and television rating blockers are good enough tools for parents to monitor the content their children can view on the television.

Works Cited:

Cline, Victor. Where do you draw the line?. Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 1974. 358. Print.

Smith, Glen. "Are perceptions of media bias an effective shortcut?." (2009): 144. Web. 12 Apr 2010.