2. Should factual writing contain bias?
• What is bias?
• Bias is when you favour one side over
the other like in politics. Sometimes you
can favour something to the point of
being unfair. Bias can also generate slang
words like using word like “Broads” to
refer to women.
• Examples
• Jeremy Corbyn is the leader of the left
wing Labour party. The Sun is a right
wing newspaper and they HATE Corbyn
so to appeal to their readers they depict
Corbyn as a fool whereas Daily Mirror is
left wing and supports Corbyn and
depict him as the true Prime Minister.
3. Should factual writing contain bias?
• Examples:
• Another example is fracking. Fracking is a controversial subject because it gives the country energy, jobs and money however this is at the
expense of polluting country sides and causing minor tremors. The Guardian is against fracking and they recently made a news story about how
villagers who protested against fracking were arrested. They depicted the protesters as heroes protecting nature and the wildlife and gave
them interviews asking them why they protested. Meanwhile, the Daily Mail who supports fracking depict the protesters a criminals causing
taxpayers £4 million in damage. They even bring up personal history of some of the protesters such as one person assaulting his wife, one
person burning someone's face with a cigarette and one guy being registered as a sex offender. They do this to convince people that all the
protesters are full of criminals even though that this is irrelevant to the actual news story.
• Opinion
• Should factual writing contain bias? In my opinion it shouldn't but I can see why it is used. The reason why I think Factual Writing shouldn’t
contain bias is because I would like to hear both sides before I make a decision. Normally articles with bias tends to either lie, bring up things
that aren't necessary or not mention anything good about the other side because they get more money if they pick a side. You wont get a lot of
money if you want to be the middleman because there are more people who chose a side then there are who don’t. However, if all articles
were lying then who do you trust? I just think knowing the stories from both sides is important because there are more truths in articles that
supports this then there are that don’t.
• https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/feb/18/fracking-protest-kirby-misperton-north-yorkshire-third-energy-fossil-
fuels-environment
• http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5187241/Criminals-poisoned-anti-fracking-camp-protest.html
