Media Literacy Teaches Skillful Bias Detection

February 6, 2001

University Park, Pa. --- For young people, being media literate is more than enjoying and learning from popular TV programs, music or Internet sites. A major component of multimedia literacy is the ability to detect even the most subtle bias in print and electronic media, says a Penn State educator.

"Most students, having been raised with `Sesame Street' and having seen 5,000 hours of TV programming before they ever come to school, are reluctant to accept the fact that the media contains prejudices of all kinds -- racial, economic, gender, political and moral," says Dr. Ladislaus M, Semali, associate professor of education.

"They need to be aware that, while not all bias is deliberate, it is nonetheless insidious because the belief in journalistic objectivity is so well entrenched. In reality, every news story is influenced by the attitudes and background of its interviewers, writers, photographers and editors," notes Semali, author of a new book, "Literacy in Multimedia America: Integrating Media Education Across the Curriculum" (Falmer Press).

Bias results automatically from the very process of selection as well as the placement of the story; the headline; photos, captions and camera angles; the use of names and titles; statistics and crowd counts; source control; and word choice and tone. Bias in a story is produced as much by what is left out as what is put in, he says.

"The media are not neutral conduits of messages, but rather they actively create notions of what constitutes truth, values, racial relations, bias, stereotypes and representations of people," he adds.

As an illustration, Semali asked his students to dissect a London-based 1994 Associated Press story. The story recounted an experimental malaria vaccine, SPf66, used on a sample of 586 Tanzanian children between ages 1 and 5 in the village of Idete. Unidentified "scientists" administered 3 doses of the vaccine to 274 children, while giving the rest placebos. A year later, "investigators" determined that 31 percent of the children vaccinated were less likely to suffer from malaria, thus providing, in the writer's words, " ... a glimmer of hope that doctors may one day conquer the global killer." The reporter added that " ... malaria ... kills one million to three million children every year, the vast majority in Africa." He later noted two other times the virulence of malaria in Africa compared to South America.

The Associated Press reporter concluded that, while the results were encouraging, more work was needed to improve the vaccine, using as a source Nicholas J. White, a "researcher" at the Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Programme in Bangkok, Thailand.

On the surface, the story seemed a straightforward account of medical research. After a close perusal of the article, the Penn State students began to see an overall pattern of bias. They asked a number of questions, beginning with how can an experiment having a 31 percent success rate be claimed to be successful? They questioned that the principal investigator of this malaria experiment was not named specifically -- it may or may not have been Dr. White. They also pondered the connection between the dateline (London), the research program where Dr. White was located (Bangkok), and the Idete village in Tanzania. They asked other questions such as: Were there no doctors in Tanzania to comment on the results? Why are African doctors silent in this article? Wouldn't these doctors be more knowledgeable, as they work in the countries where this fatal disease is prevalent? Why is a doctor in Bangkok being employed as a spokesperson?

"As the students observed, the reader of this story is not told who invented the vaccine and is led to believe that the inventor must be found at the Oxford Tropical Medical Center in Bangkok or in a European or North American lab," Semali says. "The inventor was, in point of fact, a physician from Colombia, like Tanzania, a `developing country.' "

The handling of the story, with its threefold emphasis on malaria as the particular scourge of Africa, appeared to accentuate the stereotype of Africa as "the Dark Continent," says Semali. This in turn confirms the view held by many media executives that Americans are little interested in news from such a "backward region," he adds.

The Penn State education researcher says, "All this testifies to the power of language in manipulating myths, stereotypes and values. New technologies and new literacies such as the information superhighway only make it easier to disseminate biases. Neither are school textbooks free from bias because they mirror the society that published them and thus are rarely, if ever, neutral."

Students, fortunately, can be taught the critical viewing, reading and thinking skills that allow them to resist manipulation and find alternatives to the explanations given by the media, he adds. This involves acquiring a kind of healthy, inquiring skepticism that is to be distinguished from cynicism. By being aware of biases imbedded in texts and imagery, students can sort out truths from half-truths, accuracies from inaccuracies, fact from fiction, and reality from myth.

"Because of long ingrained habits of processing media messages, students do not master these interpretative skills overnight. However, the rewards of media literacy are well worth the effort, since students can use this knowledge to become both better citizens and better people." Semali says.

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Contacts:

Paul Blaum (814) 865-9481 (o) pab15@psu.edu

Vicki Fong (814) 865-9481 (o)/ (814) 238-1221 (h) vfong@psu.edu

EDITORS: Dr. Semali can be contacted at (814) 865-2246 or at lms11@psu.edu by email.