In contemporary America and across the globe, there has been an increasing concern and widespread practice of bias in the media when discussing politics. The media has become an undeniable influence in current times thanks to easy use and convenient accessibility.

Throughout the media, politics is undergoing a complete transformation with the incorporation of media bias, which continues to infiltrate the sources that are accessed by the average American on a daily basis.

Therefore, elections and the assessment of political candidates on mass scales are heavily impacted when voters consider the information they are provided with via news outlets.

A NewsBiasExplored.com article discusses the most archetypal ways that media bias permeates through the news, which is due to the utilization of word choice, errors, the reduction of debate, story design, and the exclusion of select sources.

Scholars also recorded that due to the complexities of media bias and the media’s methods of expressing information, observers generally have difficulty determining the consistencies with fairness or unfairness that are attributed to certain candidates or political parties. 

According to a 2016 survey performed by Pew Research Center, over half of Twitter users receive news on the social platform itself. In comparison to Facebook, Twitter has a smaller conglomeration of users which has allowed Facebook to rein supreme as the most prominent social media base for accessing news.

Furthermore, the study documented that the majority of social media news consumers only read the news on one site. 

Without expanding their news sources, users are only putting themselves at a disadvantage because they are failing to compare sites to one another. 

With that said, using multiple sources increases the chances of creditability and prevents political bias. Understanding the political preferences of an audience can also be important for connecting information and what is included and excluded, which comes down to personalization of media apps.

Additionally, six media companies now control about 90% of what we, as viewers, read, watch and listen to. 

This solidification of control only further leads to the consolidation of media bias on a mass scale which magnifies the risk for intentional bias and the exposure of bias to viewers. 

Finally, over 40% of voters were recorded to be most-influenced by personal characteristics of political candidates, which seemingly held more significance than both their policies and governmental plans once elected into office.

Clearly, as we have entered the modern era, media bias has snowballed into an unstoppable phenomenon that continues to become entangled with politics and news as a whole.

Our founding fathers ardently believed that a literate and educated citizenry was necessary to the good functioning of democracy and that the news’ media is imperative to such.

As the 2020 presidential election approaches, I advise all voters, young people in particular, to be wary of the tactics used by the media to sway opinions and the implications that follow.

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