Sensationalist Bias

[Turtle]

The other day in another thread we were talking about bias. Well, it was mostly me, of course, but others chimed in. Everyone has a bias, usually many, manifested in different ways, just like everyone is prejudiced to one degree or another. We can't help it. Education, experience, beliefs, they all contribute to a bias. In the media there are many biases, and one of the more prevalent is the Sensationalist Bias, where the more sensational something is, the more viewers/readers there will be, and thus the more revenue they will realize. These are the merchants of doom and gloom.

Once you recognize bias, be it in media or in conversation, you will be able to separate yourself from it, to a degree, and step back and figure out what is really going on, and be less susceptible to being manipulated, intentionally or unintentionally.

The Discovery Channel is one of the most egregious participants in all things sensational. The more doom and OMG! gloom they can spread, the more people they can "convert", the more readers they will have at their Web site and viewers at their cable channel, and thus, the more money they get.

Climate Change is their meat and potatoes. They have some of the scariest headlines you can imagine, and they present story after story about this or that new study that confirms all kinds of our worst fears. But they do, at least, present it in a responsible manner, sort of. The headline and the first part of the story will scare the crap out of you, and then at the end os the story they finally admit that it's an early study, or just a theory, or that it's really not that big a deal. They do this in story after story, by the book, using the formula. They know that most people never click "Page 2" to continue reading, and that's there the story is softened.


Here is a perfect example of such a Sensationalist Bias. What the article is saying is that our atmosphere is rapidly being ripped away by the solar wind. Oh, My, God!

What it's REALLY saying is that researchers have finally discovered what has been going on all along since the Solar System and the Earth was formed, duh. What it says is that they didn't believe it was happening before (even though it was), and now they do. It doesn't mean anything bad, it just means they are now aware of it. But it sure sounds bad when you read the article, or at least Page 1 of the article.

Earth Losing Atmosphere Faster than Mars: Discovery News

June 2, 2009 -- Researchers were stunned to discover recently that Earth is losing more of its atmosphere than Venus and Mars, which have negligible magnetic fields.

This may mean our planet's magnetic shield may not be as solid a protective screen as once believed when it comes to guarding the atmosphere from an assault from the sun.

(Notice the qualifiers, "man mean" and "may not be" and wording of "guarding the atmosphere from an assault".)

"We often tell ourselves that we are very fortunate living on this planet because we have this strong magnetic shield that protects us from all sorts of things that the cosmos throws at us -- cosmic rays, solar flares and the pesky solar wind," said Christopher Russell, a professor of geophysics and space physics at the University of California, Los Angeles.

"It certainly does help in some of those areas but ... in the case of the atmosphere, this may not be true," he said.

Russel and others came to this realization while meeting at a comparative planetology conference last month.

"Three of us who work on Earth, Venus and Mars got together and compared notes," Russell told Discovery News. "We said, 'Oh my goodness -- what we've been telling people about the magnetic shield is not correct.'"

The perpetrators are streams of charged particles blasting off the sun in what is known as the solar wind.

"The interaction of solar wind with Venus and Mars is pretty simple," Russell said. "The wind comes in, carries a magnetic field, which wraps around the ionosphere of the planet. The ionosphere is basically dragged away."

Earth's magnetic field interacts with the solar wind, drawing out energy that gets funneled into the planet's atmosphere along its magnetic field lines.

"The wind has to flow around this large magnetic obstacle in its path," Russell said. "The two are not friction-free."

In addition to triggering aurorae, the process causes Earth's atmosphere to heat up to the point where atmospheric gases can escape along the field lines, where they are then picked up by the solar wind.

"The visible manifestation of geomagnetic activity is the aurora -- the sun interacts with magnetosphere and causes it to glow -- but there are other things that go on when the particles interact with the atmosphere," said Scott Bailey, with the Center for Space Science and Engineering at Virginia Polytechnic Institute.

That's the end of Page 1, and where most people stop reading. But, if you go to PAGE 2, you will find:

Despite the rather mind-boggling rate at which Earth is losing atmosphere -- 5×1025 molecules per second -- scientists say there is no cause for alarm. If the loss rate stays the same, the planet's atmosphere will last for several more billion years.


"Ultimately we're trying to understand why Venus, Mars and Earth atmospheres behave so different when initially the planets were pretty much the same," Russell said.


Russell presented his research at the American Geophysical Union conference in Toronto last week. He and his colleagues are working on paper that details the comparative atmospheric losses of Earth, Venus and Mars.

The first paragraph of Page 2 should have been about the fifth or sixth paragraph on Page 1, but that wouldn't be sensational.



Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, I'm the only one who finds this stuff interesting.

 

[davekc]

They need to replace that with another episode of "Deadliest Catch"

 

[greg334]

Well here is another case of bias,

We had three events take place in the country that are and are not major news;

some doctor got killed in church

A Muslim convert killed a US soldier and wounded another

Baron Cohan sticks his butt in Eminem's face at the MTV awards


OK FOX of all networks had talked about the last one, they seemed to be more American Idol fans but MTV seems to be their style.

CNN, all the former credible networks, NPR and even BBC talked only about the doctor who was killed

But the lack of coverage about the US soldier being killed seemed to be absent from the scene.

You do know that it happened in Little Rock?

 

[Turtle]

El retén más mortal - parte dos

The Deadly Adventures of the US Customs and Border Protection in the brush country of rural Texas.

"Are you a US citizen, sir?

"Yes"

"Anyone in there with you?"

"No"

"OK, you can go."

 

[Turtle]

The shooting at the Recruiting Station in Little Rock is out there, but it's unclear what to make of the story at this point, since his motives are not yet fully known. I read the story first at the CNN Web site, and it is being reported basically the same as the abortion clinic doctor's death is being reported, that it's a case of one lone nut.

But that was on the Web, not on the television news. Reporting an abortion doctor getting gunned down in church isn't likely to foster widespread hate or anger at churches or doctors, but reporting that a Muslim fired 15 shots at a military recruiting office, killing one and wounding one, might unleash the hate against Muslims that's riding there under the surface of many, as well as embolden other likewise wacko Muslims to copy the events (much like bin Laden got the idea for 9/11 when that Egyptian pilot who was flying around NY talking suicide to air traffic controllers). They'll probably wait and see what, if anything, the FBI uncovers before they get too wrapped up in this one. It's definitely a bias though, on several fronts - mainly the need to be sensationalist, balanced with being politically correct, balanced with ratings and <cough> community responsibility.

 

[Pilgrim]

Fox News had an interview this afternoon with a Little Rock deputy involved in the investigation. Needless to say, the deputy was pretty tight-lipped about the whole thing, but it was brought out that the shooter had converted to islam while in prison. On the surface, it sounds like an independant act of terrorism mimicking the shootings at police and military stations in Iraq. Keeping that in mind, would anyone be surprised if these attacks on military and police stations become more commonplace in the US? In the meantime the boy president goes on another apology tour of the muslim nations of the Mideast, bypassing Israel in the process.

 

[Tennesseahawk]

In the meantime the boy president goes on another apology tour of the muslim nations of the Mideast, bypassing Israel in the process.

That's because he can profess his being Muslim, now that the election is over, and it's too late to do anything about it.

 

[greg334]

But the really funny thing is Hillary did it right, she went to the most populated Muslim country to have her speech - Indonesia.

See he is not speaking to the world's Muslims, he is speaking to the people who he is bowing down to - the Middle Eastern Muslims. There is a lot to be said just on the apology trip along but his ineffectiveness with Israel will bit him on the a** soon when they refuse to play nice. There is only a quarter or maybe less than a third of the Muslim world population in the Middle East. The Asians are wondering what is going on here if he wants to bridge that divide, he is doing all the wrong things.

The press corp has more rules to deal with than normal on this trip because the Saudis didn't issue travel Visas for them and they are restricted, I don't know if it is true but they may be restricted in what they can write about.

 

[aristotle]

That's because he can profess his being Muslim, now that the election is over, and it's too late to do anything about it.

By playing up his Muslim heritage and getting kissey-face with the Saudis, Obama's re-election coffers will fill up with donations from strange and diverse places. Obama traveled, and groveled, to Saudi Arabia because it is in his personal interest to do so. Altruism is not in his makeup. It is all about the pursuit and consolidation of power.