This is a critical paper on “The Political Affiliations and Biases of the Philippine News Media”. The article discusses the inherent bias present in the Philippine media and supports its claim by answering three questions about the behavior and effects of Philippine Media. The purpose of this critical essay is to analyze this paper and determine whether or not the article follows the universal intellectual standards of writing. It was found that although the article exhibits clarity, it fails to cite statistical data to support its conclusions and apply fairness and breadth in the given examples.
Throughout the article, the author makes use of different historical events to illustrate certain terms or support his claims. To illustrate, the author cited instances wherein media bias in other countries was apparent. Other events were also used to prove his argument true and elaborate on his claims. These uphold the standard of clarity because they aid the reader in further understanding the topic at hand.
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Although the article uses these examples as support for some of the claims stated, these references are based on papers by a small number of individuals. The article fails to utilize numerical data and statistics to support its claims and conclusions. Additionally, these conclusions are quite exact and do not leave much room for interpretation.
For instance, when discussing the sensationalization of news headlines, the author fails to give data on how this concretely affected the public’s views on the BBL. The references used simply state conclusions drawn by individuals and not the larger population. Although the insights of researchers on media bias are important, this information may be useless if not compared with the bias’ actual effect on the masses. This is mainly because it may not accurately be correlated that these conclusions affect public opinion without proper statistics to back it up.
Furthermore, some arguments are worded with certainty despite the lack of objective quantitative data to support them. These claims are not hedged despite the lack of evidence to treat them as fact. As a result, some arguments generalize the current state of the Philippine media and violate the universal intellectual standard of accuracy.
In addition to this, the author only cites events wherein his argument is proven to be true. He does not cite instances wherein his claims are not supported. Although the goal of the article is to persuade the audience, the lack of perspective is a violation of the universal intellectual standard of breadth. In proving that there is bias in Philippine media, the author makes use of events wherein bias was shown to be apparent. These events, while proof that bias may occur in the reporting of news, may not be indicative of the entire Philippine media. However, these examples are the only ones cited and only seem to favor his argument.
This is evident in the examples in his second body division, mainly the reporting of the scandals surrounding former President Arroyo and the scandal surrounding the PDAF. These two are the only examples used in proving that bias is prevalent in Philippine media and only further support his argument. However, these two sources alone may not be sufficient to assume that his argument is accurate and true. Additionally, these sources only shed light on certain issues and fail to provide the reader with contrasting perspectives.
Despite the author’s intention to expose bias, the lack of breadth and hedging may indicate a lack of fairness in the paper. The article’s use of examples is somewhat similar to the lack of perspective and negative framing found in some of the news reports cited by the author. This may, in turn, affect the opinions of the readers of the article in the same way he claims that news articles do. Although it is expected for news reporting to be unbiased, the same standards of fairness and breadth should applied in the writing of papers, persuasive or not.
In conclusion, the article was clear yet failed to exhibit accuracy, precision, fairness, and breadth. The lack of statistical data results in claims without a very solid basis. Furthermore, the use of specific events with a narrow perspective leads to a violation of breadth and consequently fairness. Despite this, the paper serves its purpose which is to prove the existence of bias in Philippine media.
The aforementioned issues may compromise the integrity and quality of writing in the paper however, steps may be taken to solve them.
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