Types of Biases Identified
The research of Dominic Rushe’s article “Oil Company Profits Boom as Americans Reel From High Fuel Prices” (Rushe 1) revealed a strong narrative bias, focusing on the contrast between oil firms’ record profits and the economic hardship faced by consumers. This tendency reflects more significant media tendencies toward negativity bias, in which negative aspects of a story are prioritized over positive ones, as highlighted by Knobloch-Westerwick et al. (2017).
For example, Rushe emphasizes that ExxonMobil had quadrupled its profits from the previous year, highlighting the discrepancy between corporate gains and public pain (Rushe, 2022). This is consistent with narrative bias, which occurs when specific components of a tale are stressed to promote a particular point of view. The paper focuses on the journal’s details, demographics, and tone.
Filter Bubbles
The Guardian’s piece fits into the filter bubble phenomenon, in which material reinforces the audience’s pre-existing opinions or prejudices (Pariser, n.d.). By emphasizing oil firms’ profits amid a time of financial difficulty for many, the piece caters to a readership presumably concerned with economic injustice and corporate accountability, reinforcing their current beliefs without exposing them to alternative perspectives (Paul and Hansen, 2015). This deliberate focus sustains the filter bubble and discreetly promotes greater involvement and alignment with the publication’s broader editorial stance, reinforcing readers’ ideological echo chambers.
Intended Audience and Tone
The Guardian’s intended readership is presumably people with liberal, environmentally conscious beliefs who are skeptical of corporate behavior and concerned about economic inequality (Otis College LibGuides, n.d.). This demographic aligns with The Guardian’s regular audience, noted for its progressive stance on various issues (Paul and Hansen, 2015).
The critical tone of Rushe’s piece, stressing the oil firms’ profit margins amid widespread economic pressure, reflects these audience expectations and fits within the broader debate over media and its viewers, as articulated by Hänggli (2019). Using the AllSides “translator,” it can be seen how the story’s language reflects and reinforces The Guardian’s audience’s ideological leanings (“How AllSides Rates Media Bias”). The framing of corporate profits as excessive or unfair in the context of growing fuel prices and environmental deterioration directly addresses its readers’ concerns, demonstrating how content and tone are adapted to meet audience expectations.
Works Cited
“How AllSides Rates Media Bias.” AllSides, 2023.
Hänggli, Regula. The Origin of Dialogue in the News Media. Springer Nature, 2019.
Knobloch‐Westerwick, Silvia, et al. “Confirmation Bias, Ingroup Bias, and Negativity Bias in Selective Exposure to Political Information.” Communication Research, vol. 47, no. 1, 2017, pp. 104–24.
Otis College LibGuides: Types of Information: How to Determine Audience.
Paul, Kathleen A. Hansen, and Nora. “4.12 Who’s the Audience for News?” Pressbooks, 2015.
Rushe, Dominic. “Oil Company Profits Boom as Americans Reel From High Fuel Prices.” The Guardian, 2022.