US National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden. © REUTERS/ Courtesy of The Guardian/Glenn Greenwald/Laura Poitras
On The NSA, The Media May Tilt Right -- Colombia Journalism Review
An inquiry finds a pro-surveillance bias in the language.
Since June 6, the world has been roiled by an ongoing series of disclosures based on Edward Snowden’s document leaks, with coverage led by the Guardian and the Washington Post, about clandestine mass surveillance conducted, with little oversight, by the NSA and its international partners.
Public perceptions of these surveillance revelations are affected not only by the NSA’s actual actions, but also by the news coverage of the government’s spying programs. Previous studies have shown that the latter factor can have a profound effect on public opinion. Given the importance of this issue, we decided to analyze major US newspapers’ “post-Snowden” coverage of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) to determine if there was an overall bias in either a pro- (traditionally conservative) or anti-surveillance (traditionally liberal) direction.
The results were unexpected, and quite remarkable.
Read more ....
Update #1: US Newspapers Biased Towards NSA in Snowden Coverage – Study -- RIA Novosti
Update #2: Big Newspapers Tilted In Favor Of The NSA, Study Finds -- Huffington Post
My Comment: Using terms like "left" and "right" are (in my opinion) not helpful terms in this case. Both political parties in Washington are in support of the NSA surveillance program .... and the press is channeling this bias. I would prefer using terms like pro-state and/or classical liberal .... but these are terms that most in the media no longer use. As for the NSA story itself .... the European press have been far ahead on this story than anyone else, and their coverage has been basically fair.
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