NPR Blogger Explains Biased Writing to American University Students

                                                NPR's Gene Demby talks to American University students about biased
                                                writing in the media last Thursday.  Demby gave students advice on how
                                                to avoid biases and challenge assumptions.  (Photo by Kirsten Klohr)

Gene Demby, the lead blogger for NPR's Code Switch team, spoke with American University students about bias in the media last Thursday.  Demby became interested in biased writing after he wondered why there weren't more Asian American basketball players in the NBA.  He watched Jeremy Lin shock the world when Lin won multiple games for the Knicks.  People assume Asian Americans are too busy studying to play sports, which shows bias.  Demby explains bias as “a prejudice in favor or against a thing, person, group, or idea.” Demby's job is to challenge assumptions about society with “hard facts proving against them.”  Demby considers the side of the story that most people wouldn't.  His advice is to not accept what everyone thinks is true.

One example of biased writing is NPR Writer Leila Fadel's piece about ISIS captives being abducted and raped by the radical group.  The article explains the “unknown numbers of men, women, and children” who are currently under ISIS's control. The article highlights the women's struggles, but never mentions what the other captives go through.  Her assumption is women are suffering the most, but she doesn't include evidence.   Fadel writes with a lens that doesn't consider the details she missed, like the abducted men and children's suffering.  

However, it's impossible to be 100 percent accurate.  Demby says, "Everyone has biases.  It's all about providing additional narrative to the reader."  Rather than saying rescuers are "Connecting through cellphones that some of the women manage to keep hidden from their captors", Fadel should've said "Captives are using hidden cell phones to connect with rescuers."  That way Fadel doesn't claim only women have cell phones or only women are being helped by rescuers.  

There are different types of biases.  The Oct. 11, 2014 ABC News article about a football team's hazing ending in the season being cancelled showed how many assumptions are made about gender roles.  The writers assume the football team is all male.  It's never said if the team is exclusively male or female, but the writers assume the reader believes football players are only male.  A better way to avoid confusion is to clarify the important details of the article.  The article says "Six defendants were arrested Friday and the seventh surrendered Saturday."  The defendants are male, but the writers do not openly write that.  There's no sentence that mentions the players' gender, so adding a sentence like "Seven young men are being charged with sexual assault after hazing fellow teammates." is necessary.    

The writers also attach personal biases to the story.  They write about the "disorienting prospect" of a season without football.  The writers show they are affected by the season being cancelled.  They say the team is a "point of pride" in the community, making it clear that they have opinions on the ruling to stop all games.  An unbiased way of reporting about the community's unhappiness is by saying "Sayreville now faces the likelihood of an autumn without its football team."  The sentence has the important details without any biases.  

Bias is difficult to avoid.  Demby reminds students that "Objectivity is sort of a lie. Everyone has biases no matter how hard they try."  Writers can be more objective by avoiding unsupported claims and assumptions.  Fact has a lot more credibility than opinion.