Media Bias Influence on Readers: NYT vs Guardian

To what extent do The New York Times and The Guardian use bias to influence its readers on The Trump Administration Family Separation Policy?

Introduction

Nowadays, News is increasingly and ironically omitting the actual news. Since the publishers have relatively easy means of control, they dictate, and disseminate news to promote certain events. In this regard, it is essential for us to determine what is biased and what is not in the information we receive. I believe reading only one newspaper article places us in a bubble where, we only learn about what editors of one publication choose to report and get carried away with the bias involved in it . Even though it is impossible to avoid bias in media, it is still possible for us to find out which part of information is biased and which is not through analysing the information received, or by comparing it with other sources of information. This leads me to my research question - To what extent do The New York Times and The Guardian use bias to influence its readers on The Trump Administration Family Separation Policy?

Although the newspapers - The New York Times & The Guardian are well established and trustworthy, there is sometimes bias involved in these newspaper articles as well. In this essay, I will focus on the textual bias adapted by the two sources mentioned above by doing a thorough comparative analysis of both the texts. This will be achieved by referring to similar context articles, that is, articles on Trump Administration Family Separation Policy, widely referred to as 'Zero Tolerance Policy' published through The New York Times and The Guardian. Through this analysis I will know how I am being persuaded into believing things which are not true and be a discerning reader. In order to achieve this, we need to know what bias means. 'Bias is the inclination or prejudice for or against one person or group, especially in a way considered to be unfair'.

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The articles primarily deliver information about the Trump Organisation Family partition arrangement portrayed by the Trump Administration as part of its 'Zero Tolerance Policy', was a part of U.S. President Donald Trump's movement strategy. Under this zero tolerance policy, government experts isolated children from their parents, relatives, or other adults who accompanied them while crossing the U.S. - Mexico border. The policy was to prosecute all adults arrested in the U.S. - Mexico border, and sending the guardians to government prisons, and setting children and newborns under the supervision of the U.S. Division of Health and Human Services.

Table - Comparison of basic information of news articles published in The New York Times and The Guardian

News - Migrant families being separated at the U.S border[image: ]

The New York Times - Published on June 16, 2018

The Guardian - Published on June 18, 2018

The New York Times dedicated the maximum number of paragraphs - 42 (forty two), to this news story while The Guardian covered it in 21 (twenty one) paragraphs. The New York Times carried four pictures to support its story while The Guardian used only one picture. The New York Times has had the maximum word count of about 2040 words were as The Guardian only had 830 words.

The news story was contributed mainly by the staff members of each of the two newspapers Julie Hirschfeld Davis and Michael D.Shear for The New York Times, and Amanda Holpuch and Lauren Gambino for The Guardian. With respect to the pictures The New York Times obtained these from John Moore, Tom Brenner and Jennifer Whitney, while The Guardian only obtained one picture from Leila Macor.

The analysis I have made below shows that both the newspapers gave almost equal importance to this news story. However, The Guardian delivered most of the information in fewer paragraphs, pictures, and words when compared to The New York Times.

Analysis

On the 16th of June 2018, Julie Hirschfeld Davis and Michael D.Shear wrote an article titled 'How Trump came to Enforce a Practice of Separating Migrant Families'

The New York Times delivers news in the form of short paragraphs contributing to an insightful reading and not missing out on important points. In general, The introductory lines of an article play a prominent role in shaping the readers thoughts. In this specific article, The first few lines give away most important information that is 'Trump discouraging immigrants from unlawfully entering the united states'. This allows the reader to have a comprehensive understanding of the article and creates intrigue thus motivating the reader to read further. Although there is no lead for this news article, most of the paragr