2020 Election News Bias
With the close 2020 election going on between Biden and Trump racing for the presidency, many news sources will cover the topic. It is not a mystery that news sources can be biased to the side they favor which can cause the consumer's views to possibly sway their beliefs about the topic they’re covering. On November 5th, I watched NBC’s nightly news and they mostly talked about the election. Although they weren’t actively supporting one side, the things they were covering can sway people’s opinions about Biden and Trump.
Within three minutes of their coverage about the election, they begin to talk about Trump criticizing the tally that has been taking place in Pennsylvania and then includes pictures of Trump taken from a lower angle which makes him look like a condescending power. They also state that Trump’s allies even said they haven’t seen any voter fraud, yet Trump seems very ignorant to believe them which ended up with him Tweeting “Stop the fraud” and “Stop the count”. NBC also states that Trump is inconsistent with which states have committed fraud in voting which primarily stated that he was losing in. The types of bias used in this section were lede when they opened up with Trump acting ignorant that there is fraud amongst the voters, and placement when they included pictures of Trump taken from a lower angle. This can sway the viewers in a way where they now view Trump who’s supposed to act like a “President” as a paranoid and ignorant person who can’t accept the fact he’s losing in the election.
After covering Trump criticizing the tally count and demanding them to stop the count and fraud, NBC proceeds to talk about Biden and how he’s very confident that he’ll win. In the section where they talked about Biden, they used many quotes that Biden and his team used. One official said “Victory is imminent”, Biden said “There is no doubt that the senator and I will be declared winners” and an Advisor responded to Trump’s allegations about fraud amongst the voters by saying, “It’s desperate, baseless, and a sure sign that he’s losing”. Although it may not feel like it, this is also a type of bias called “Stacking” where they arranged the facts to make Biden look good. Another type of bias used is “Sourcing” when they quoted only Biden and his campaign team. This can stacking and sourcing can make viewers believe that Biden will really win the election and that Trump is just trying to do anything to win.
Near the ending of their talk about the election, they talk about how Trump narrowed Biden’s lead in Arizona, but in the process of doing so, they used a bias called “Diction” where their choice of words can affect someone’s views about something. NBC proceeds to show pictures of republican protesters standing in front of buildings where they count ballots and saying how “It’s getting heated up here”, “The protesters are getting angry”, and “Poll workers had to be escorted by police to their cars”. Although the NBC reporter said this, the protesters seemed relatively calm and showed no hostility to other people. The wording about the situation can affect the viewer's thoughts negatively about Trump and his supporters.
Through NBC’s coverage about the election on November 5th, the biases they used were: Diction, Lede, Stacking, Sourcing, and Placement. Although the normal media consumer may not realize it or doesn’t care to think about it, these types of bias (especially when it’s subtle) can influence one’s thoughts on the topic the broadcasters are talking about. This just shows that the media can change your opinion on any topic if you don’t actively listen and do some research on your own to confirm that it’s true.
