Fair and balanced political journalism is an important contributor to the healthy functioning of society. But national media in Canada is frequently beset by accusations of bias, whether it be regional concentration or political leanings or otherwise.
Public sentiments are reflective of a lack of trust in the media: only 12 percent of respondents to a recent Public Square and Maru/Blue poll expressed a great deal of respect for the institution, and 36 percent said they had little to no respect at all.
University of Windsor political science professor Lydia Miljan explores the issue with Daniel Proussalidis on the latest episode of the The Long Way podcast. They discuss her 1996 study analyzing the topic, how the landscape has changed and the difficulty in capturing a representative picture of the problem in the age of social media, the persistent bias towards negativity in news reporting, the underrepresentation of faith communities in media, and much else.
One contributing factor to this problem is the lack of resources in the industry, she says. Bias is knowingly or unknowingly fostered when the media rely too heavily in their reporting on certain experts who act as “authorized knowers” and who narrowly define an acceptable consensus that is often out of step with public opinion, she says.
Drawing on a diversity of voices that better represents the broader makeup of this country is one way to get better coverage, Miljan argues.
“I would hope that [journalists] would do that with a broader section of society. Not necessarily just us pointy-headed academics, but get people from the faith community or people from other groups and with differing points of view. Don’t always go to the same person time after time. Find other sources.”
