Year 13 Work - Information Bias

Until it becomes clearer how teachers will be asked to provide grades for the current Year 13s, here's an activity for those of you trying to keep your students engaged - useful for those with places to read economics, politics or sociology at university in the Autumn, and needing to keep their brains ticking over! This "information bias" activity should keep your Year 13s busy for a week.

Being aware of the different political biases and views of various UK media outlets (whether print newspapers, online or TV content, or social media) is important in helping us to understand the issues that are reported.

Task 1: Consider which concepts from behavioural economics might explain why consistently reading news from the same information source might lead us to behave "irrationally".

(if you need an overview reminder of behavioural economic principles, then take a look at the tutor2u introduction here)

Media outlets usually have a preferred 'political perspective' on news stories.

Task 2: Carry out your own research and produce an infographic which depicts the different political perspectives of media that is commonly accessed in the UK. This could be done as a "spectrum" from right to left, or something more imaginative.

You might find some of the these sources helpful (although of course there are many other to choose from):

• A YouGov survey of the political perspective of UK newspapers
• This (rather large!) report from Reuters on Digital News
• An article from The Guardian considering how people got their news during the 2019 general election

Task 3: Think about the announcements from Rishi Sunak (Chancellor of the Exchequer) and the UK Government regarding their huge promises of spending on the UK economy in light of the impact that COVID-19 will have.

1. Make a note of the key features of the planned UK Government spending
2. Find reports from 5 different media outlets, from different points in your infographic from Task 2. How did they report the news differently to each other? Were there any similarities?

Task 4: Note down 2 reasons why you think it doesn't matter if there is bias in the news, and 2 reasons why you think it does matter if there is bias in the news.

Task 5: Next, take a look at these two articles and consider the extent to which you agree / disagree with their arguments:

1. Media Bias is OK if its Honest (Nathan Robinson in the Guardian)
2. Biased News Media or Biased Readers? (Jonathan Rothwell in the New York Times)

Task 6: Write your own journalistic piece of around 500 words (or produce a blog, podcast or other media form) on the following title: "Discuss the extent to which the UK Government should control the media in order to reduce market failure."