Media coverage of domestic affairs tend to have different perspectives and less nationalistic rhetoric.
When it comes to media literacy among college students, most of what is popular are large papers such as USA Today, Time and The New York Times, but those outlets have historically been biased when covering foreign affairs and even domestic politics.
To be clear, the bias that is apparent is not so much overt as it is subtly presented by word choice and rhetoric.
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So this semester, rather than commenting on hard politics, I’ll be looking at contrasting coverage and discrepancies among major news stories. Unfortunately with the recent shutdown of Al Jazeera America, there will be a loss of one of the best outside voices, but there are many others to discuss.
Limiting one’s exposure to domestic news sources can be dangerous for critical thought on politics. It is necessary not only to frequent several different outlets, but also to read stories from all around the world. Of course, the Associated Press has correspondents in every corner of the globe, but they are still limited by the policies and interests of the AP.
An example of recent coverage comes from The New York Times, USA Today and BBC News. The recent incident involving the so-called accidental crossing of Iranian waters by U.S. ships has been quickly covered, but differently. The two major domestic outlets clearly site that U.S. officials have denied that there needed to be an apology, and that is the main focus of the article. The BBC, on the other hand, focuses on the reaction from the presidential hopefuls.
It isn’t obvious why those stories take different angles, but what is important is that people are exposed to many different perspectives for any given story. That may be a lot to ask of people for every single piece they read. So for the sake of being well-informed and not misinformed, it is necessary for the public to learn all sides of breaking, front-page news.
Relying on one outlet can be restrictive, and relying on the major news sites can be just as stunting. For someone to truly have a complete understanding of the news, there must be variety and change in sources.
Read Fox News every once in a while. Take a look at the Russian newspapers, or the Hong Kong Free Press. Read The New Republic. But just don’t read one. The problem with politics today is not the lack of knowledge, but a lack willingness to access all arguments or perspectives.
Brian Fogel is a freshman studying journalism and a photographer for The Post. Do you ever read international newspapers? Tweet him @FrianBogel or email him at bf111514@ohio.edu.
