Do readers demand biased news?

A recent paper published by INSEAD reports, ‘Bias in the market for news is a well-documented phenomenon. Starting from the assumption that consumers want unbiased information, traditional economic theory cannot explain the existence of media bias in free societies, as it suggests that competition forces the media to be impartial.’ It goes on to report that, ‘Recent research in economics proposes an alternative theory which assumes that consumers want to read (or watch) news that is consistent with their tastes or prejudices, rather than to know the truth.’ May be bias is too strong a word, but people have traditionally purchased newspapers that reflected and re-enforced their own political views. It seems to me this is where the competition works, in choosing a paper where you relate to the editorial mission and perspective, so why the assumption that everyone actually wants unbiased news? What has changed in terms of the UK government’s treatment of news is the so called ‘spin’ more realistically called propaganda that seems to owe much to the Dr. Goebels school of reporting and is recognized as such by most people. Also TV reporters seem to have changed from reporting news to providing the interview themselves by answering questions posed by the studio based anchorman. What we actually get is what the reporter thinks is happening and perhaps that is actually worse. Breaking stories skim across news tickers often based on the flimsiest information while ‘experts’ are quick to pontificate, all without the benefit of any actual facts. Then there’s the campaigns, stories that run and run, but suddenly get dropped – I thought we would all have died of bird flu by now, but despite such dire warnings and doom and gloom it is no longer news. In our world of b-2-b communication the trade press is full of PR derived and increasingly paid for content, that blatantly promotes the benefits of the client’s products. I cannot recall an editor ever enquiring to check any facts, typically for a small financial consideration - traditionally but inaccurately known as a colour separation charge - they seem happy enough to print anything that is vaguely relevant to the publication’s title. For b-2-b marketers getting client ‘news’ into the editorial space of a publication offers the appearance of greater credibility and anyway without the manufacturers buying advertising space most trade journals would fold, few are remarkable enough to exist on cover sales or subscription revenue. But then I suspect most readers know this and it is a convenient means of finding out what is going on in their industry. They can check the facts out for themselves if the product sounds interesting and that after all is the real point – to stimulate interest. Apart from the trade press there are web sites which are even lees fussy about what is published and of course thanks to Virtual News Office companies can be their own publishers free of any editorial intervention at all.