Last night I briefly discussed with Megan and Jenn the seemingly widely held view that many media outlets had a liberal bias.
They both seemed to think that it was almost a given that they had a libreal bias. Also, they're both self-proclaimed liberals so they don't mind the bias all that much, and I'd even wager that they think it's pretty cool. They were able to point out that there are "more conservative" media outlets available as well, but that they are generally smaller and less famous.
I also posed the question that went something like -- Why are people interested in the differing forms of media typically liberal?
They didn't really have an answer for me, but they did agree that it was probably the case that people who work in this field are generally more liberal.
Well, not having an answer is never fun, so I've been thinking about this today and I've come up with an answer for myself. It's really just an intuition based on some of my beliefs about businesses, people and such, but here goes...
What sells media? I felt that entertaining or interesting and relevent content is what sells it. From there I thought about the types of things that are interesting, and I was reflecting on the differences between views which are generally considered liberal and views which are generally considered conservative.
I feel that liberal views are often about changing the status quo, pushing the envelope, etc whereas conservative vies are about maintaining the status quo, protecting and preserving cultural values, etc. Just from that I can see why news media would have a liberal bias to it. Change is interesting. Who would want to read something on a regular basis that reported in on what hasn't changed, what has been protected, and what is still true. I'd venture to say almost no one. This is a pretty satisfying explanation for me, because there is no agenda and no conspiracy and it answers the question as well as I can expect it to be answered. It uses just the nature of many people to explain what brings about a behavior of an entire society.
Posted by David at February 25, 2004 07:19 PM