Chapter 16

The title of Chapter 16 is "Thinking Critically about Mass Media." The title explains a great deal about the chapter. In this chapter, Lazere discusses something that everyone should be aware of: bias is everywhere, especially in the media. We need to be able to recognize this bias (if it is not told to us) and analyze what is said or shown, based on the bias. If we just accept everything that we hear or read from newspapers, magazines, journals, radio, television, ect, then we are straying from independent thinking. In order to form our own opinions, views, and beliefs, we must question and analyze everything that is given to us.

I found it interesting that Lazere stated there is a more conservative bias in the media. For some reason, I thought that media would be more liberal. It might be because I'm thinking of media being "free speech" "free press" and just painting a liberal picture in my mind. I just was surprised to see that most newspapers, local TV, and radio are conservative.

This chapter also discussed objectivity and subjectivity in the news media. We discussed these terms in class regarding our Convention Analysis. When giving information it is important to be objective and let the reader or listener form their own opinion but this does not always happen in the news media. Lazere states that "the directors of news media often insist they are committed to objectivity in their news pages or newscasts and that they limit subjective viewpoints to their editorial and opinion pages or broadcast commentaries" (396). This has often been proven false, though. People of news media often report subjectively. I believe this is just human nature, though. It is possible to relay information objectively but everyone has their own opinions and many people feel the need to let other people know what their opinion is. This is why we must learn to detect bias and analyze everything we read or hear.