Wednesday, September 22, 2010
What Is Bias?
BIAS vs. PERSPECTIVE / POINT OF VIEW
A wise history teacher (whom I don’t know, but I like what she said) once wrote in an e-mail: “I’d like to make a big plea for teaching students to look for Point of View, and not bias. They misuse ‘bias’ so much that it hurts to read. In most minds, ‘bias’ is BAD; and they get in the habit of writing the phrase ‘it is biased because’ – which, of course, makes the reader start grinding her teeth.” So, the moral of the story is: DON’T BE THAT STUDENT. Become familiar with the following terms and their definitions, and then get in the habit of using “point of view” OR “perspective” when discussing documents.
These terms have a NEGATIVE value attached to them:
bias (n.): a mental leaning or inclination; partiality; prejudice
biased (vb.): to cause to have a bias; influence; prejudice
These terms have a NEUTRAL value attached to them:
perspective (n.): the relationship or proportion of the parts of a whole, regarded from a particular stand or point in time; the interrelation in which a subject and its parts are mentally viewed
point of view (n.): the place from which, or way in which, something is viewed or considered; standpoint; a mental attitude or opinion
A wise history teacher (whom I don’t know, but I like what she said) once wrote in an e-mail: “I’d like to make a big plea for teaching students to look for Point of View, and not bias. They misuse ‘bias’ so much that it hurts to read. In most minds, ‘bias’ is BAD; and they get in the habit of writing the phrase ‘it is biased because’ – which, of course, makes the reader start grinding her teeth.” So, the moral of the story is: DON’T BE THAT STUDENT. Become familiar with the following terms and their definitions, and then get in the habit of using “point of view” OR “perspective” when discussing documents.
These terms have a NEGATIVE value attached to them:
bias (n.): a mental leaning or inclination; partiality; prejudice
biased (vb.): to cause to have a bias; influence; prejudice
These terms have a NEUTRAL value attached to them:
perspective (n.): the relationship or proportion of the parts of a whole, regarded from a particular stand or point in time; the interrelation in which a subject and its parts are mentally viewed
point of view (n.): the place from which, or way in which, something is viewed or considered; standpoint; a mental attitude or opinion
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Monday, July 26, 2010
The Death and Life of American Journalism
Those speaking in these short videos are discussing journalistic history and models that, in their opinion are broken. They also provide, in part two, their opinions on how to fix modern journalism. These two men provide two opinions on the history of American journalism and its present condition; thus, watch this with an open mind. That stated, it does raise a concern for modern day journalists about the role they play in present day journalism.
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