Identifying BiasCreated by Kathryn Reilly

Defining Bias• Bias occurs when a writer or speaker presents only

one side of an issue to the audience.

• Bias occurs when a writer or speaker presents only a partial view of an idea or subject, instead of a full picture.

• Bias occurs when a writer or speaker presents only the positive aspects of an idea or subject, and withholds the negative aspects to sway the audience.

Why Identify Bias?

• Identifying bias

– Alerts the audience they may not be receiving all the information.

– Alerts the audience that the information they hear may be manipulated to achieve a specific purpose.

– Alerts the audience to know that the writer or speaker has a persuasive agenda.

Bias Basics• Any text may contain bias.

• However, certain texts are inherently bias as they are created with the purpose of persuading the reader or listener.

• Four examples include:– Opinion Editorials – Advertisements– Propaganda materials– Political Speeches

Identifying Bias• Questions the audience should consider:

– What is the text’s purpose?– Does the text present only one side?– Is the language overly persuasive for or against the topic?– Who paid for the article?

• A special interest group?• A company?• An advertising or lobbying agency?

– Does the text contain personal opinions?– Has the author purposefully left information out?

Identifying Bias: Titles

• A text’s title may give the reader important clues as to whether or not it will be biased.

• Slavery Ordained of God by F. A. Ross

• The Duty of Disobedience to the Fugitive Slave Act by Lydia Maria Child

– Both these texts present the topic of slavery, however both possess biased viewpoints.

Identifying Bias Within a Text

From Slavery Ordained by God• In this excerpt, the Reverend

argues for slavery.

• This text contains bias for several reasons:– It professes the Reverend’s

personal viewpoint.– It presents only one side of

the argument.– It attempts to persuade the

audience.– It contains logical fallacies.

"Let us then, North and South, bring our minds to comprehend _two ideas_, and submit to their irresistible power. Let the Northern philanthropist learn from the Bible that the relation of master and slave is not sin _per se_. Let him learn that God says nowhere it is sin. Let him learn that sin is the transgression of the law; and where there is no law there is no sin, and that _the Golden Rule_ may exist in the relations of slavery. Let him learn that slavery is simply an evil _in certain circumstances_. Let him learn that _equality_ is only the highest form of social life; that _subjection_ to authority, even _slavery_, may, in _given conditions_, be _for a time_ better than freedom to the slave of any complexion. Let him learn that _slavery_, like _all evils_, has its _corresponding_ and _greater good_; that the Southern slave, though degraded _compared with his master, is elevated and ennobled compared with his brethren in Africa_.

Ross, F.A. Slavery Ordained by God. Project Gutenberg. Web. 1 March 2012.

Identifying Bias Within a TextFrom The Duty of Disobedience…

One thousand five hundred years ago, Gregory, a Bishop in Asia Minor, preached a sermon in which he rebuked the sin of slaveholding. Indignantly he asked, "Who can be the possessor of human beings save God? Those men that you say belong to you, did not God create them free? Command the brute creation; that is well. Bend the beasts of the field beneath your yoke. But are your fellow-men to be bought and sold, like herds of cattle? Who can pay the value of a being created in the image of God? The whole world itself bears no proportion to the value of a soul, on which the Most High has set the seal his likeness. This world will perish, but the soul of man is immortal. Show me, then, your titles of possession. Tell me whence you derive this strange claim. Is not your own nature the same with that of those you call your slaves? Have they not the same origin with yourselves? Are they not born to the same immortal destinies?”

Child, Lydia Maria. The Duty of Disobedience to the Fugitive Slave Act. Project Gutenberg. Web. 1 March 2012.

• Ms. Child’s text also contains bias.

• This text contains bias for several reasons:– She presents her personal

opinion.– She presents only a single

side.

Identifying Bias Review• Many texts contain bias.

• A reader should question the author’s purpose for creating the text and decide if the text is informative or persuasive.

• The reader should look for bias indicators such as personal viewpoints, the presentation of only one side and the manipulation or omission of information.