How biases can be conveyed through text and how it impacts its readers

Bias is something that every writer fears of and constantly threads the needle with it. Often times writers unbeknownst to them become biased in their written pieces. There are a couple of ways biases can occur in writing, the first way is that the writer may subconsciously have a specific opinion about a person or group he/she is writing about. The second way is if the writer has a prejudice towards a person or group that he/she is writing about. In any case bias in writing can negatively influence those who read the written piece thus why it is important that writer always strive to be unbiased when they are no written opinion pieces. As we continue on I will share how biases can be conveyed through text and how it impacts its readers.

To understand how biases occur in writing we first must understand what a bias is. Bias is when a person shows favoritism towards something whether that be an object, person or groups or having a prejudice towards a person or group. Take a leafs fan, if you ever talk to a leaf fan about anything hockey they will always find a way to interject the leafs into the conversation and in a positive manner which is a show of favoritism and thus a bias. When a writer biased there a few traits that stand out, the first thing is a trend of either positive or negative words towards a person or group. The second thing is passion. If the writer is using very strong and passionate words about a specific person or group that could indicate bias. Finally, the omission of selects information could show bias.

Now that you have a better understanding of bias and it works let’s divulge how it occurs in writing. The first way I mentioned in the opening paragraph was that if a writer was unconsciously biased that it could influence their writing unbeknownst to them. The way this could occur based on the attitude of the writer and their unconscious beliefs and view of a person or group. An example of this could be a political journalist writing a column for a neutral news outlet on a political spat between the Progressive Conservatives and the New Democratic Party. The journalist would, of course, have their own views and beliefs on the matter at hand and how each side is handling it, which that alone could open the door the unconscious bias. Let’s move onto the second way bias can occur in writing, and that is by way of prejudice. This form of bias is considered Conscious bias meaning that the writer is fully aware of their own bias. This form of bias is normally motivated by race, occupations, and religion. An example of conscious bias is a black lies matter activist who is writing a piece on a negative police interaction i. e shooting, an allegation of assault etc. between an officer and an African American. The writer would have a prejudice against the police in this matter and their writing would be affected by this via very strong passionate language and the omission of certain facts.

In conclusion, there is more than one-way bias writing could occur and many different motivating factors. It is important that writers are aware of these risks and take steps to prevent bias from infiltrating their work. As bias writing can paint the wrong picture and mislead its readers and that’s certainly something we don’t want to see in our society.