“Everything is in the way the material is composed.”- Joseph O’Connor

Human nature forces people to see through the lens which they make for themselves. While we must accept that every human has bias, the mass media has too much power to let bias purge its reports to the public. Our society must objectively monitor today’s media for bias reporting, due to its overwhelming influence and power in our relationship with government.
It is most important to understand the problem that the country faces pertaining to media bias. In the advent of the professional news media, stories were reported on without any questionable injection of heavily one-sided views or calls to action. They would simply report facts and information for the viewer to decide themselves. As the media grew more relied upon, the individual views of the reporter, the show, or even the entire network, began to seep into their teleprompters and talk panels. If this goes on, the media could decide elections by feeding the public their preferred side of the story, a dangerous middle man who would threat our beloved balance between the people and the government.

This problem does exist, and it is imperative that the country fix it. Professor of Political Science at UCLA, Tim Groseclose, spent years evaluating the view of national reporters, and in a poll of Washington correspondents, most voted ninety-three to seven, Democrat; “If you kind of look to mainstream journalists, a big fraction are liberal.” With such an overwhelming ratio, overreaching of the media would alter the balance of power in government. The lack of a two sided argument would, over time, convince whole generations of people of one mindset, an almost immediate threat to American government. But it is not just liberals, a small sliver of the mass media focusses conservative views, although claims “Fair and Balanced”. “Four out of five readers notice some sort of media bias, liberal or conservative” (The Liberal Media Exposed). Popularly known liberal stations such as MSNBC and CNN, including the well-known conservative FOX News Channel, control the majority of prime time. The point though that people can see that media bias exists is an optimal truth, for now it proves that people are capable with identifying a bias station and move to make it more equal.
The definition of mass media is diversified media technologies that are intended to reach a large audience by mass communication. Reaching this massive amount of people must have a diverse and intense effect on the way they think and act as a society. One such instance was demonstrated with the creation of Fox News Channel. After the creation of the conservative news giant, the Republican Party gained 0.4 to 0.7 approval points in towns that aired the channel, and it was projected that Fox News was able to convince 3 to 28 percent of their visitors to vote Republican (Della Vigna and Kaplan). With this influence to alter the power of political powers is an influence that must be checked. The most optimal way to check this is for society to recognize and boycott biased news shows, for the sake of an equal footing for the government as the Founding Fathers intended it to be. According to some, the media have so much power it is considered a “fourth branch of government”, its influence to directly contact the public is unprecedented, and the media is free to say what it pleases due to the First Amendment (Oswald 390-391). To effectively pass legislation and pressure politicians is an unprecedented amount of power reporters hold in their hands. Also to pose the question, where is their check and balance? A social change must be made to create a check on the media.

It could be possible to say, considering the fall of bias newspapers, magazines, and TV news, that the mass media is dying. Perhaps mass media over the TV and papers are dying, but the rise of internet news will create a wider spectrum of biases, because they will not be required to cater to all audiences. This will create a multitude of unbiased programs due to demand, but it is important to also consider the fact that even more extreme sides will be able to sprout and gather followers. Mass media will take a new form based on what the masses of smaller media groups are saying. Whatever message they send collectively to Americans is where they will gain their strength as powerful as media giants today.

Some would say the government has the power to properly censor it. It is exactly because of the First Amendment and their influence on the American populous that can wipe any possible censorship placed on by the government. The media giants are not voicing anything now because the censorship the United States has placed does not hinder their ratings or intake of money and power.

In retrospect, the power and influence exerted by today’s mass media must be objectively monitored by our society. It is not possible to censor and bias through political means due to the First Amendment, and it is possible for Americans to take an objective responsibility into their own hands and make this country a fairer place to live in.