Social Media Bias Analysis

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With immediate access to a wide range of news and information sources throughout the Internet today, there are undoubtedly a variety of perspectives on important issues. Although Baran suggests that the Internet does not enable citizens to create their own biases, I believe that the variation among multifarious news and information sources allows citizens to seek multiple viewpoints on important issues in order to make informed choices. Social media, television and the Internet are just a few of the ways that we are exposed to contrasting viewpoints. The assortment of news sources and ways in which we receive important information allow citizens to discover their own biases and assumptions, as well as understand the diversity that takes place …show more content…
The most recent example of this is when Editor in Chief of Buzzfeed, Ben Smith, discovered an audio recording of Donald Trump stating he supported the Iraq invasion in 2002. This rose as an issue because NBC, CBS, CNN, Fox and Bloomberg all continued to print information about Trump’s opposition to the Iraq invasion in 2002, and did not question the consistency between his two statements. The information regarding Trump’s standpoint on Iraq was presented on NBC’s television series Today (http://mediamatters.org/research/2016/04/21/nbcs-today-allows-trump-rewrite-his-own-record-during-town-hall/210027), as well as CBS News online (http://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-trump-defends-2003-interview-calling-iraq-invasion-a-success/). Buzzfeed provided the opposing viewpoint via Snapchat and their website, showing the range of perspectives and biases in just three news stations.

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