Conducting academic research is a task that requires the adherence to the standards of academic research writing and have the understanding of principles of informational literacy. The researchers needs to understand which sources are credible and suitable for research, and which can be misleading or contain biased data, which would distort the credibility of the whole research. Generally, the academic code of conduct requires authors to use peer-reviewed academic sources that were published within 5 years. However, media sources are not recommended for the use in academic paper due to the lack of credibility.
Just as the media has some power to influence the public towards current issues, it possesses the same power to drive them away. For example, the authors of media sources may have different types of biases, which distort the truth. Bias by placement is a situation where the author or editor develops a particular pattern to support a specific idea in a story. Bias by spin takes place when the author of an article uses one interpretation of a policy or an event and exclude other possible explanations. Most authors manufacture these biases in their work to sell a particular idea to the public. Hence, the preferences are intentional and are intended to support or counter a specific perspective. Therefore, not all information shared by the media is accurate due to these biases.
While watching the news, it is necessary to balance between the conservative and liberal sources before making any crucial decision on which side to support. Some individuals tend to make up stories to win the public and hence relying on such news can lead to harmful consequences. Therefore, people should develop the habit of fact-checking to verify if the statistics or information provided in the media is accurate. Most of the social media platforms are not reliable because they are known to spread rumors for individual gains. Therefore media sources cannot be considered credible for the use in academic research, and should be properly analysed in everyday use.
Reference
Baly, R., Karadzhov, G., Alexandrov, D., Glass, J., & Nakov, P. (2018). Predicting factuality of reporting and bias of news media sources. arXiv preprint arXiv:1810.01765.