“Everyone is biased — and that’s okay. There’s no such thing as unbiased news. But hidden media bias misleads, manipulates and divides us.” – AllSides
It is widely being covered by both liberal and conservative leaning news outlets that Meta’s (Facebook) Mark Zuckerberg admitted to the company’s teams being repeatedly pressured by White House officials to “censor certain COVID-19 content, including humor and satire.” He admits to taking content down and writes: “I believe the government pressure was wrong and I regret that we were not more outspoken about it” and they are “ready to push back if something like this happens again.” The August 26 letter is posted on Facebook and X.
We understand the dire consequences when making decisions based on misleading and censured information, but we still struggle with how best to address the issue. There are two previous posts I have written for business researchers and procurement professionals (and all consumers of information) that are hopefully helpful. New insights have been added.
Be Aware of the Biases of Both the Searcher and the Information Source
This is from A New Proactive Approach to Evaluating Information.
In an article entitled, “Dismantling the Evaluation Framework,” the authors promote a proactive approach that allows “for the information to have agency, i.e. acknowledging information as active, targeted, and capable of influencing action.” In other words researchers need to “go beyond evaluating individual information objects and understand the systems that intervene during the search processes, sending results with the agency to nudge, if not shove, users in certain directions.” This is counterpoint to reactive approaches where “the individual is an agent, acting upon information objects they find.”
As business professionals who perform research, this is an interesting way to look at how we connect to the information we consume. We as searchers must be both self-aware of our own biases and of the biases of the sources we find and use. Researching the source material as diligently as the actual information topic itself is an advised best practice. If a high quality, but biased source that leans strongly politically in one way or another is used, provide a succinct endnote documenting a bias statement. To check the bias of a source, refer to any “About” or “Methodology” statements that are provided. Most reputable sources make this available. Also refer to media bias rating sites such as AllSides or Ad Fontes.
ESIG – Ethically Sourced Intelligence Gathering
This is from ESIG – Ethically Sourced Intelligence Gathering.
Being vigilant in evaluating information that is misleading or biased is one way to counter something that is beyond our control. (We cannot control the fact that biased media is and will continue to be published.) Based on our evaluation we can choose not to use the particular piece of information, or use it and document its bias for the decision maker to decide on its value for consideration.
There is something however, we can control and that is the way we source and disseminate the information we use in research efforts. As companies address their own ESG initiatives, and specifically in the world of procurement and supply chain, there is even a greater need to source services and products in a highly transparent and ethical manner. Information and intelligence gathering is no different. I refer to this as ESIG – Ethically Sourced Intelligence Gathering. Here are actions to consider:
- Check and acknowledge your own self-bias in approaching and representing your research and findings.
- Be constantly mindful about where and how you get the information and data you use for intelligence gathering.
- Respect other’s research and work by citing and giving credit for any thoughts used, regardless of type of media.
- Only use sources that can be traced back to the original content and cite and/or provide a link.
- Use research from third party resources where there is a clearly defined methodology for how the information was gathered and/or a sources cited listing.
- Use resources that are responsibly priced and utilize fair subscription practices. Be leery of resources that are priced so high that you are limited by budget constraints in being able to use other resources to get differing viewpoints, to triangulate, and to see emerging patterns.
- Respect and comply with all copyright licensing. This is not just for data, but for all types of media.
Image by This_is_Engineering from Pixabay
