Bias is often apparent when it comes to sports, because journalists tend to favour the "home team." This is perhaps most obvious now during the Vancouver Olympics as every country seems to be backing their athletes more firmly then those of other countries. That is not to say that these journalists are blind to the talent in other countries, only that perhaps they favour athletes from their own countries a little bit more.
Take, for example the different outlooks surrounding the men's 1000 meter short track speed skating event. On the New York Times' website, is more focused on what Ohno accomplished in his 1000 meter race, where as on CTV's olympic website, the story briefly mentions the American athlete before focusing more on the two Canadian athletes, Charles and Francois Hamelin, who missed out on the podium. The title of the article itself shows a bit of bias that the article is directed more for a North American perspective ("Ohno Makes History while Hamelins Falter"). The title doesn't even mention the Koreans who came out on top in the race. Finally, a Korean Newspaper website called the Korea Times has a story about the same event, same race, in which the focus is on the two Korean athletes, Lee Jung-su and Lee Ho-suk who finished first and second respectively.
This is just one of many examples of bias shown in sports stories, with each of these newspapers writing with a bit of patriotic bias despite all using the same event to write their stories.
"Bias is often apparent when it comes to sports, because journalists tend to favour the 'home' team." This is too true, but somewhat inevitable, don't you think? I'm sure a small amount of bias would tend to show up in your writing, being the big ol' hockey fan you are! Very good point though, Steven.
ReplyDeleteNice piece!
ReplyDeleteThe correction nazi has spotted a typo in paragraph one: "more firmly then those of other countries." I assume it should have been 'than' instead of 'then'.