Bias often occurs when one point of view is given favoured treatment or else is left out. It can be seen in the reporting of political, legal, religious, sporting and personal news stories.
A simple example is the apparent preference for one sporting team over another. Another area in which bias manifests itself is in the coverage of industrial disputes.
At the group level, bias is also shown where the activities of one group are given little or no coverage and lesser achievements by more favoured groups given large amounts of coverage. For example AFL teams generally receive more coverage than the Australian Netball team who are world champions.
Voters have only two sources of information when making up their minds about an election. (Party canvassers and media) Therefore the media have much influence at election time, to redress this a media band now comes into operation two days before an election. Unless all parties are given equal coverage, unless all issues are covered impartially a distorted picture results.
Furthermore because the media tends to concentrate on the government and major opposition the smaller parties tend to receive only marginal coverage.
Bias can be also be shown by simple personal matters such as:
*unflattering photographs (you can often tell when a politician is out of favour as we start seeing unflattering photographs)
*quoting comments out of context, so that for example a joke is reported as a strongly-held opinion or a serious statement.
*a public person is reported as having no sense of humour.
*a public person is alternatively shown as never making a serious comment.
*giving full coverage to a person's mistakes and their achievements none. This is called differential reporting.
