When News Outlets Use Language to Steer Readers

These critics might also draw attention to the slightly more undertheradar issue of storyselection bias which refers to how news outlets vary the amount of airtime or lack thereof they give to a particular story in the first place There are the news outlets for example that have faced criticism for failing to report on some 2020 Democratic candidates in proportion to their polling numbers amp8212 particularly when it comes to Andrew Yang and Tulsi GabbardHowever the more insidious type of bias as Guinn asserts plays out in language Although often subtle many journalists amp8212 or more accurately quotopinion journalistsquot amp8212 use words and phrases though seemingly innocuous steer their readers This language encourages readers to either follow the same thought process as the author or nudges them to accept the author39s value judgements This is particularly troubling when it takes place in publications that purport to be objective truthtellers rather than commentators or editorialistsGuinn39s objective in the true spirit of a quant is to work through this hypothesis with data As such in preparing quotThe Fiat News Indexquot Guinn collected data from 12 monthsworth of stories from 20 major publications and ranked them based on how frequently they used three categories of fiat news language These three categories were quotCasual Expressionsquot which aim to tell readers how to interpret the relationships between facts in a story eg quotneverthelessquot or quoteven thoughquot quotCommon Knowledge Expressionsquot which seek to make readers quotthink less critically about an assertion or argumentquot eg quotobviouslyquot or quotclearlyquot and quotValue Expressionsquot which communicate clear value or moral judgements eg quotfortunatelyquot or quotunfortunatelyquotComing in first were publications that explicitly make clear amp8212 at the outset amp8212 that they are in the business of interpreting or analyzing news As such Vox took the first spot which is hardly surprising given the publication39s stated mission to quotExplain the Newsquot Following closely with Vox are other publications that center around interpretive journalism including The Atlantic National Review and The New Yorker Guinn does not see this as particularly problematic given that these publications make no bones about blending analysis and reporting in fact that39s precisely why they are readInstead his primary concern is publications that claim only to report facts but then masquerade opinions as factual analysis Guinn39s data collection placed The Washington Post andThe New York Times very close to The Atlantic and National Review despite the fact that the reporting arms of these two newspapers have historically been widely considered fact finders rather than opinionmakers But for anyone paying attention to The Washington Post39s headlines as of late this is hardly a surpriseAt the other end of the Guinn39s spectrum are the publications that most avoid this type of priming and leading prose these include The San Francisco Chronicle Chicago Tribune and as would be expected Bloomberg and Reuters The breakdown is not a matter of a typical LeftRight divide with both MSNBC and the New York Post finding themselves closer to the Reuters side of things amp8212 and The Washington Times and CNN placing closer to Vox But all of the publications closer to Vox share a preference for employing language that subtly leads the reader in a particular authordesired directionEmploying strategic language is a longstanding political tool and Newt Gingrich was perhaps the field39s best tactician For instance Gingrich39s political committee GOPAC distributed a paper to newlyelected freshman Republicans following the quotRepublican Revolutionquot of 1994 In it Gingrich provided a list of words he recommended these new members of Congress use along with words they ought to use to refer to their opponents His suggested quotOptimistic Positive Governing Wordsquot included quotshare change opportunity reformquot These were a far cry from the quotContrasting Wordsquot which he recommended members use to define Democrats these included for instance quotdecay shallow radical threaten devour and obsoletequotAnother key feature of Gingrich39s rhetoric was using language that suggested that Washington was corrupt and it was the role of individual members of Congress to save their constituents from corrupt DC insiders Interestingly enough this type of rhetoric has now permeated both parties and our entire political discourse This was strikingly on display in August when I attended a town hall given by Representative Andy Kim a freshman Democrat There I watched a 37yearold KoreanAmerican Democratic member of Congress stand onstage in Forked River NJ and suggest to his constituents that he was more or less their best hope against a Washington that cared little about their interests It was rhetoric straight out of Gingrich39s playbookThis is all to say that language and politics run handinhand and given the increasing partisanship of many news outlets it39s far from shocking to see them using language in much the same way as politicians do News outlets at various other points in American history were not necessarily in the business of seeking to appear objective or impartial However since the middle of the 20th century this has largely been the expectation for news media So if news organizations do indeed plan to play in the objectivity business amp8212 and if they are to be believed amp8212 they must pay greater attention to the language choices their authors makeAnd for anyone concerned about bias in reporting it39s important to remember that bias plays out more prevalently and most insidiously in the subtle use of leading languagePhoto credit Bruce Mars UnsplashClick the social buttons to share this story with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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When News Outlets Use Language to Steer Readers

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Erich J. Prince

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When News Outlets Use Language to Steer Readers

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