Media Bias- A Case Study of Coronavirus (COVID 19)

Media Bias- A Case Study of Coronavirus (COVID 19)

Media biascan be defined as the bias by news producers and journalists in the selection of media stories to cover, or the contents of the news reported. The emerge of the novel Coronavirus in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, has seen a protracted battle between western media and the Chinese authorities on the content aired, especially on the extent of fatalities and the efforts by the Chinese government to manage the new disease. Typically, media bias implies a widespread and pervasive bias that contravenes the standards of ethical journalism, rather than the perspective of individual journalists (Boyd-Barrett and  Mirrlees,2020). However, just like the perceived media bias that has been associated with the reporting on the Coronavirus outbreak, the degree and direction of media bias in different countries are highly disputed.

Reporting on the Coronavirus outbreak in China has seen the world witness contradicting reports on the origin of the virus, the response of the Chinese government to it and the containment measures taken to quarantine potential carriers of the deadly virus(Xiaoxiang,2020). Ideally, media bias is a controversial topic, and there are many practical limitationsto absolute media neutrality. Despite this, the Chinese government and the Chinese media have advanced a notion that western media have not accurately reported on the outbreak of the Coronavirus. In fact, there have been claims that western governments have colluded with some segmentsof the media to advance a conspiracy theory that the Coronavirus was actually created in a Science laboratory in Wuhan, as part of the Chinese government’s biological warfare program. This shows clearly that there is a huge divide on how news about the novel Coronavirus, COVID-19 has been reported globally.

To understand the reasons behind the claims of the so-called media imperialism on the global Coronavirus epidemic, there is a need to understand why absolute neutrality in media channels and news reporting is difficult to achieve. First of all, is the issue of government control and censorship in different countries. In some countries, for example, North Korea, most of the media is censored by the government, meaning that independent journalism cannot be achieved. Also, in countries where censorship by governments is minimal or non existent, issues of ideology come into play, and the journalists themselves have a predetermined opinion about certain countries. This has played out in the Coronavirus issue. A brief look at the headlines in the news media can give a glimpse of the accusations of media bias by the Chinese government. While most Chinese media report on the positive steps taken by the government to contain the outbreak, other media houses in western countries have been focusing on the inadequacies of the Chinese authorities on handling the outbreak. In addition, western media have reported on the speculations that the Chinese government has been giving incorrect information on the extent of the fatalities and the quarantine issues about the Coronavirus..

Chinese media have frequently pointed out that there exists media imperialism in today’s world order. While some people can argue that it actually exists, there is no absolute evidence that it does exist. In fact, the same Chinese media has been accused of cooperation with the Chinese government to facilitate a propaganda campaign, especially on the response of the Chinese government to the outbreak. This gives validity to the counter-accusations by the western media that the Chinese government has not been honest on the extent of the impacts of the Coronavirus, in terms of fatalities and the number of confirmed cases. While there is no denying that media personnel are likely to show alienation to certain beliefs, the ability of them to act absolutely independently is affected by governments and the nature of the society they operate in. For instance, the social and political issues that have embroiled the United States since the outbreak of the deadly COVID 19 show that media bias exists everywhere in the world. Media channels with close connections with the democrats in the United States have used the Coronavirus as a political tool to show the inefficiency of President Donald Trump’s policies in enhancing the safety of the American people from the deadly Coronavirus.

A look at the history of the Coronavirus and how it has impacted the world can give a clear picture as to why Chinese authorities and their state media feel aggrieved by the perceived bias by other media platforms, especially western media. When it emerged firs, the Coronavirus disease was first called Wuhan pneumonia, due to the tendency of critically ill patients to show pneumonia symptoms. At that time, the disease was unknown and medics did not have definitive training on how to handle patients. Additionally, many medics were not aware of how contagious the virus was and how it could potentially be a threat to their ability to discharge duties. People did not pay much attention to it. When the number of patients with this viral pneumonia of unknown cause increased to 100 by the middle of January 2020, relevant information in the media still felt that this was a controllable virus, changing from no visible human-to-human transmission to the possibility of human-to-human transmission. Then on January 12, 2020, it was named “Novel coronavirus” by the  World Health Organization. At the beginning of the outbreak, the media did not play an important role. However, when the virus broke out, the media became the source of powerful signals to society and the continuous reports also show the ugly side of society. Most of the western media reported on a new disease in China, that the authorities there did not want to share information on.

Private and public media can be a source of media imperialism or bias. This is evidenced by the way the Coronavirus outbreak has been reported. Most Chinese media have reported on the positive efforts of the Chinese government to address the menace while the public and private western media have focused on criticism of the response of the Chinese government to contain the outbreak. There have been articles by leading global media channels to criticize the lockdown of entire cities by the Chinese government to control the Coronavirus outbreak and minimize human-to-human transmissions. This can be explained by the fact that many people in western countries, let alone the journalists, believe that the Chinese government is authoritarian in nature and it has always curtailed the rights of its citizens (Gruzd., Lannigan, and  Quigley, 2016). This perception has spiraled out into the Coronavirus issue, despite the threat it poses to health systems in the world. Instead of focusing on the pertinent facts about the virus and how the efforts of the Chinese government to control the spread of the virus, we find ourselves in a game of ideological and political supremacy between the western countries and China.

While the media bias has largely been blamed on state governments and certain media houses, it is clear that social media has also played a major role in the perceived media imperialism towards the reporting on the Coronavirus outbreak. In today’s world, social media is a vital source of news and also a tool of enlightening society(Friesem,2016). Despite the positives associated with social media, there are also some negatives. For example, there has been a lot of misinformation on the Coronavirus outbreak, with a lot of myths and unproven ideas on the Coronavirus outbreak. In platforms such as Twitter and Instagram, which are popular with western countries’ citizens, there has been a lot of incorrect tales about the Chinese people and the Coronavirus outbreak. This has sometimes taken a racist turn, with videos or images of people of Chinese descent depicted as carries of the deadly virus and hence isolated in western communities. This shows the deep-rooted bias in news reporting, and the hatred between different races and communities, mostly due to political ideologies. Studies have shown that the citi3of a particular country are likely to subscribe to a particular ideology as long as their leadership supports it, and the media also focuses on it. This forms the basis of media bias in social media platforms as people of a certain origin already have a pre-determined opinion on the citizens of a certain country and their government (Graham, Avery, and Park, 2015). Despite these deep-rooted divisions between different countries, it is salient that the mainstream a d social media focus on the facts and not spread lies on global issues such as the Coronavirus outbreak.

Conclusively, the media can play a vital role in monitoring the situation on the emerging threat of the Coronavirus. Instead of biased reporting on the outbreak, they can provide the public with facts and figures on the deadly virus. Additionally, they should commitmore of their airtime and online presence to educate the public on the control measures, steps taken by governments, and the threat it poses to the globe. This will help in the development of independent and accountable media across the world.  Although this is not likely to be achieved easily, media houses and key players in the social media industry should be encouraged to act independently of government control and ideological differences.

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