Media bias in the United States

Claims of media bias in the United States generally focus on the idea of media outlets reporting news in a way that seems partisan. Other claims argue that outlets sometimes sacrifice objectivity in pursuit of growth or profits.

Some academics in fields like media studies, journalism, communication, political science and economics have looked at bias of the news media in the United States as a component of their research.[1] In addition to bias, academics and others also evaluate factors like media reliability and overall press freedom.

Historically, American newspapers were highly partisan and often served as organs for political parties.[2] In the 19th century to early 20th century, newspapers were highly partisan, but became less partisan from 1880 to 1980.[3]

  1. ^ Lichter, S. Robert; Rolfe-Redding, Justin (August 31, 2015). "Media Bias". Communication. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/obo/9780199756841-0111. ISBN 9780199756841. While the fields of communication and political science have traditionally hosted investigations of media bias, economics has become a relatively recent addition to the scholarly conversation, generating work on new measures of bias and the role that audience preferences may play in producing slanted news.
  2. ^ "Party press era". Britannica. 2024.
  3. ^ Hirano, Shigeo; Snyder Jr, James M. (2024). "Measuring the Partisan Behavior of U.S. Newspapers, 1880 to 1980". The Journal of Economic History. 84 (2): 554–592. doi:10.1017/S0022050724000123. ISSN 0022-0507.