Assessing the media

So how do we keep the media from being as unbiased as possible? One way I propose to do that is to state, in clear and specific terms, what an unbiased media information is. In other words, we should create a set of criteria for judging if a media information is biased or not. It’s preety much like a criteria for judging in beauty contests, the only difference is in this case, we are not judging beauty contestants but media entities and the specific media outputs (information) that they are releasing in public. This set of criteria should come from people in every sphere of the society; every social entity should be represented- government, media and communication experts, different members of the civil society, etc. In this way, everyone will have a consensus on a set of criteria that every media information should be assessed upon. This will serve as a guide for the audience to gauge whether what they get from the media is biased or not. While some people intentionally choose to be in the Dominant-Hegemonic position that Stuart Hall (1993) is talking about, I believe that for most people, the reason why they are in the Dominant-Hegemonic position is because they don’t have the necessary “know-how” about media “assessment,” so to speak. So informing them and giving them the right tools to assess the media is the right way to go, and establishing a set of criteria; “ground rules” in doing media will be the first big step towards its realization.