¶ … Fox News
Please revise/edit the submitted research paper rough draft and add 4 additional pages of content.
The paper organization is as follows:
FULL literature review and an extended discussion of the actual findings, briefly compared to those previously predicted and indicated in rough draft.
In a stunningly short period of time, Fox News went from being the potentially disastrous offshoot of America's "fourth network" to literally the most watched news network in the country (Nielsen, 2012; Sterling, 2004, p. 654). The network bills itself as "Fair and balanced," but there are times when this tagline seems less than an actual description of the network and more of a cruel joke. Regardless of one's political leanings, even a cursory glance at Fox News' products, whether on television or the Internet, suggests that contrary to its tagline, the network is anything but balanced. Instead, Fox News demonstrates a conservative bias, and because this bias is so contrary to the stated position of the network, it positively demands analysis and discussion. By examining Fox News' output in conjunction with relevant research on the topic, it becomes clear that not only is Fox News conservatively biased in its editorial and manifest content, but also that this bias has actually produced tangibly negative results for its viewers.
Literature Review
It is important to examine previous work on this subject, because earlier researchers have provided useful starting points for an examination of Fox News. Perhaps the most crucial pieces of prior research, at least in terms of demonstrating the importance of social science research into media organizations, are those studies which have examined the correlation between cable news viewers and...
Five different studies have attempted to examine any possible
connection between a viewer's news station of choice and his or her level of knowledge, and each have produced stunning results concerning Fox News.
In particular, these studies revealed that in areas as diverse as the 2003
Iraq War, anthropogenic climate change,
health care, the so-called "Ground Zero
mosque," and the 2010 election, Fox News viewers were far more likely to hold untrue or inaccurate beliefs than regular viewers of any other major news station (Mooney, 2011). Of course, one must be careful to point out that correlation does not equal causation, so one cannot definitively say that watching Fox News is what made these viewers less informed, but the fact remains that this correlation is troubling, particularly if one believes that the point of the news media is to inform and educate. Moreover, some have argued that less-informed viewers deliberately choose to watch Fox News. Put simply, if a particular news audience is consistently misinformed on topics pertaining to political persuasion, then it seems reasonable to presume that this audience's news of choice is likely tainted with political positions, rather than factual ones.
The studies mentioned above are evidence enough to warrant an
investigation into Fox News' potential bias, because the fact that Fox News viewers are consistently less well-informed, and specifically on the topics most vociferously debated by partisans, suggests that the network's bias is strong enough to influence the factual content of the media it produces. Prior research validates this presumption. For example, a
content analysis of news channels' coverage of the run-up to the Iraq War found that Fox News outdid CNN, ABC, CBS, and NBC in its use of "pro-war" terminology while mentioning casualties or
death far less frequently (Harmon & Muenchen, 2009, p. 25-26). While most of American…
