Reasons abound as to why news media outlets tend to engage in propaganda, which is very common in the country especially when we are nearing national elections such as the one coming our way next year.
One such common roots of biased media is said to be state sponsorship. China’s Xinhua News Agency, and Iran’s Islamic Republic News Agency, are classic examples for this. In our country, we know what they are. Owned and controlled by the state, these media entities exercise an inherent bias towards favoring the government, like becoming apologists for the state. In nations where democracy is vibrant, such a news agency is deemed a conflict of interest.
Unfortunately, even non-state-owned news media agencies are similarly prone to bias. It is because private media conglomerates are owned by individuals with ideologies or political bias. Moreover, they are sustained by corporations through commercials and other advertising revenues. Corporations funding some news organizations may have biases towards a political ideology themselves.
To some extent, biases, political perspectives, and ideological nepotism form part of the news outlets’ brand. For example, some news outlets are blatantly right-leaning, while the rest are considered left-wing. In said cases, the news outlet tends to dwell more on increasing viewership, on entertaining the viewers instead of adhering to objective journalism.
These we are likely to expect come the months ahead. In fact, as early as now, they are already swaggering around.
