news reporting bias

[AdamM]

I've twice heard the story reported about the two guys in court for stabbing someone in Dewsbury and both contained my pet hate.

"An 18 year old man and 17 year old youth stabbed and killed a 17 year old boy"

and

"Two men in court accused of stabbing a teenager..."

The three guys were effectively the same age but the victims are always boys or teenagers and assailants are always youths or men. Drives me screwy. It's like we need some help in figuring out who the bad guys and good guys are.

[Acidmouse]

It was a sad event, group of pissed up thugs attacked an Asian person on a station and killed him

[AdamM]

nasty crime indeed, but I beg to differ about the terminology. If a 16-19 year old is a victim of crime they tend to be referred to as a teenager, or even a boy. If they perpetrate a crime they tend to be a youth or if the crime is serious enough a man.

[Dingdell]

it's the same with adoption - when they are reporting about an incident  - they refer to them as Tom Sawyer, the adopted son of Eric sawyer etc etc

What has the fact they are adopted got to do with anything?

Very slanted reporting imho.

[kinboshi]

Also terrible when they prefix the perpetrator  of a crime by their colour or nationality - the black youth, white youth, Asian youth, Polish man, etc., when it has no bearing on the story.

Particularly prominent in the daily mail.

[Acidmouse]

Yep instead of a group of lads attacking someone the labels were placed on everyone at the scene.


On a side not i was shocked to see the Mail has so many readers, 2nd most popular paper in the country behind the S** if i remember correctly.

[AdamM]

Don't get me started on the Daily Mail.

[TightEnd]

Many many many people in this country share the views expressed by thew Mail

Instead of blaming this section of the media for this reporting we should instead be looking at the wider cultural and social issues that mean these views are so mainstream

[AdamM]

Many many many people in this country share the views expressed by thew Mail

Instead of blaming this section of the media for this reporting we should instead be looking at the wider cultural and social issues that mean these views are so mainstream

agreed

another thing that always strikes me as odd is, say a bomb goes off, its "100 people were killed including 40 women and children." Is that saying there's a difference between the loss of life between those three distinct groups?

[AndrewT]

Also terrible when they prefix the perpetrator  of a crime by their colour or nationality - the black youth, white youth, Asian youth, Polish man, etc., when it has no bearing on the story.

Particularly prominent in the daily mail.

I don't actually think they're allowed to do this any more - the race is not supposed to be mentioned unless it has a direct bearing (like in a police description identifying a suspect).

In fact, you can see this very prominently in the descriptions of the news stories concerning the 25 teenagers who have been stabbed or shot in London this year. From reading the reports, you would think the murders have been equally affecting a cross-section of London teenagers, from all backgrounds. It's only when if you recognise the implied meaning of the phrase 'Officers from the Met Police's Operation Trident are investigating' at the end of the story that you realise that, in the majority of cases (at least 20 of the 25) only one particular community is affected.

[CelticGeezeer]

The daily mail is mellowing in its old age

"Support for Nazism and Fascism

In early 1934 Rothermere and the Mail were sympathetic to Oswald Mosley and the British Union of Fascists. Rothermere wrote an article, "Hurrah for the Blackshirts", in January 1934, in which he praised Mosley for his "sound, commonsense, Conservative doctrine", though after the violence of the 1934 Olympia meeting involving the BUF, the Mail withdrew its support for Mosley.

Rothermere was a friend and supporter of both Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler, which influenced the Mail's political stance towards them up to 1939. During this period it was the only British newspaper consistently to support the German Nazi Party.[2][3] Rothermere visited and corresponded with Hitler on many occasions. On 1 October 1938, Rothermere sent Hitler a telegram in support of Germany's invasion of the Sudetenland, and expressing the hope that 'Adolf the Great' would become a popular figure in Britain.

In 1937, the Mail's chief war correspondent, George Ward Price, to whom Mussolini once personally wrote in support of him and the newspaper, published a book, I Know These Dictators, in defence of Hitler and Mussolini.

Rothermere and the Mail supported Neville Chamberlain's policy of appeasement, particularly during the events leading up to the Munich Agreement. However, after the Nazi invasion of Prague in 1939, the Mail changed position and urged Chamberlain to prepare for war, not least, perhaps, because on account of its stance it had been threatened with closure by the British Government.[citation needed]

The paper continued to be referred to on occasion by critics as the Daily Heil, referring to its conservative stance and its past support for Mosley."

[TightEnd]

Please source this article, thank you

[AndrewT]

Please source this article, thank you

It's copied from Wikipedia.

[TightEnd]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daily_Mail

the full monty then, to give the context

[bobby1]

This is a great point and is getting more and more widespread in all forms of journalism. The problem is that news is a 24 hour business now so anything that TV stations or printed press can get a headline from is turned into a story. The one thing that disgusts me more than anything is the constant 3 times a week'sensational new twist' 'shocking new evidence'  etc etc in the Madelaine McCann case.

About 2 months ago almost every red top led with the front page'Madelaine pic sensation' which was quite simply a blonde haired girl being carried by her mother in Morocco, the papers blew this out of all proportion until 2 days later when it was proven that the girl was in fact wait for it... a blonde haired girl being carried by her mother in Morocco. With absolutely no shame they then had 2 days of 'Madelaine hopes dashed' and 'Parents hopes dashed' when in fact nothing at all relevent to the case had happened but they had managed to turn a no news piece into 4 days of 'sensational' front page headlines.

It isn't just news that is going down the pan either, sports news channels are now inventing 'events' and 'stories' to fill time and sell events. Think 'Grand Slam Sunday'  what an embarrassment that was, after 5 Min's of constant grand slam references they showed a 'Grand Slam' league as if that was actually a real league when it is simply a marketing phrase that they have invented to get bigger headlines for 2 football matches. I turned over and watched it in Spanish just to avoid the whole ridiculous Sky coverage.