THE POWER OF THE SPOKEN

WORDBias and “Baloney”

With all due respect to the lunch meat, the spoken word is as susceptible to bias and complete untruths (also known as “baloney”) as any other means of communication. In order to use the power of the spoken word in positive ways, listeners must be able detect bias and “baloney”.

“Baloney”… There are, for example, websites which

may appear real that have been created to mislead, amuse, or manipulate.

ExampleThe following website claims to be a place

where dogs can retire. This is an example of a very professional looking website. It is slick and appears close to credible. Clicking on the disclaimer at the bottom of the

page, however, reveals the truth: the page was created in jest.

http://www.thedogisland.com/

Even more common is something you may already have studied and have probably experienced on some level in your own life: bias.

Bias… Example In Geography, for example, bias can influence

how a three-dimensional item, like the planet, is depicted in a two-dimensional form, like a map. Consider the following two world maps

People in Medieval Times were biased in their belief that the world was chiefly covered in land.

• This medieval map is clearly incomplete. Despite there being more water than land on Earth, the map demonstrates a bias towards land. • As human beings live on land, this is a bias of

perspective. This is unintentional bias, since people at this time had limited understanding in this regard.

This second map is probably closer to the way you picture the world; however, it too, is biased.

This map also represents places in politically biased ways. For example, some lands are in dispute

between groups of people, such as Tibet. A map which includes Tibet would be biased towards Tibet; a map which shows Tibet as part of China would display bias towards the Republic of China.

Political World Map.

The map also cuts out places to the extreme North and South, showing a bias towards lands that are more densely populated by humans.

This may seem insignificant, but consider another element: the map also places North and South America to the left, Africa and Europe in the middle and Asia and Australia to the right. Why?

…

Consider the following example of two photographs taken after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans that were published by Yahoo! News. What is biased?

See handout.

Another type of bias involves leaving important details out of the picture. This is called…

For example, if a student wanted parental permission to go to a party at a friend’s house, and he/she chose to leave out the detail that the party will be unsupervised, he/she would be presenting the case to the parents with a bias of omission.