Media Bias and How it Affects Us

I posted my final exam essay a few days ago, so now I’ve decided to post one of the best papers (I think) that I have ever written. I got an A+ on it, so obviously the teacher thought it was good too. For some reason when I closed it on the last edit, I forgot to save my edits. Thus, a few corrections were not included, so some stuff may not be perfect (I’ve attached an updated version). This was a documented essay, so I site my sources at the end. Here’s an excerpt:

The media affects our daily lives in numerous ways – from television to radio to print. Sometimes these media avenues persuade our opinions on certain issues – such as abortion, homosexuality, racism, and political. Numerous times throughout history the media has downplayed bias, which simply means prejudiced*.

Media bias dates back to the early days of the newspaper and continues to this present day*. There are many examples throughout history showing biased media. Benjamin Franklin wrote a great example of early media bias in 1728 when he wrote an article in favor of printing paper money. Franklin did not specify he would be one of the beneficiaries, in terms of business, in printing the money*. Sometimes such bias pushed the political leaders of the time to limit the freedom of press, as did Abraham Lincoln when he ordered many newspapers, in favor of the South during the American Civil War era, to shutdown operation*. There are countless times in history where the media has been bias towards one particular point of view.

Click here to download the PDF version of this document (rough draft). I’d love to see some comments on what others think about this! Documented areas in the excerpt was indicated with an asterisk (*).

I decided to go back and redo my corrections, so here is the final version (there may be some I overlooked, though): Media Bias and How it Affects Us (Final).