Transcript
Recognizing Bias from Buzzfeed
Buzzfeed is on the top when it comes to the world of independent digital media companies. The Buzzfeed media company manages to reach hundreds of millions of people with its various types of media, such as articles and videos. The topics covered in Buzzfeed’s can range anywhere from articles covering political events to videos on how to make a delicious dinner for your whole family. Most people who use social media platforms have likely seen a video or article that was published by Buzzfeed. A lot of Buzzfeed’s posts are intended as entertainment for average people, rather than informative articles like political debate reviews. Like almost every other media company, Buzzfeed has a basic political bias in its published media. Although Buzzfeed’s bias is more subtle and downplayed than similar media companies’ biases, it still has a hidden left-leaning bias in most of its articles.
In 2006, Jonah Peretti and John S. Johnson decided to create an internet-based media company. Peretti and Johnson created Buzzfeed Laboratories, which later shortened its name to Buzzfeed. The intent of founding Buzzfeed was to have a media company that tracked viral content on the internet. Rather than hire writers and editors, Buzzfeed’s primary source of material was an algorithm that detected potential viral content on the internet. Links to any content the algorithm chose was then sent to Buzzfeed subscribers through an instant messaging client call Buzzbot. Soon Buzzfeed’s popularity outgrew the capabilities of the Buzzbot, so Buzzfeed hired curators to provide brief descriptions of the links that were being brought forward by the algorithm (Hansen, Meritxell, Keegan, and King 11-12). The company continued to develop and expand its areas of content. In 2011, Buzzfeed hired its first political blogger, Ben Smith, to branch out and began creating political news articles. These political news articles also grew in popularity, so Buzzfeed decided to split its media into two separate platforms. One of these newly created platforms was Buzzfeed Entertainment Group, which covers a plethora of entertaining topics including skits, food programs, and product revies. The other newly created platform was Buzzfeed News, which covers a variety of news topics from all around the world. Buzzfeed is now a widely known media company with just under 1800 employees located around the world. Buzzfeed’s popularity is largely linked to the fact that the company provides content for readers and viewers of all ages.
By creating content that is appropriate for all ages, Buzzfeed can maintain a large amount of consumers every year. The reason why Buzzfeed was able to gain so many consumers so fast is that, unlike other media companies, Buzzfeed has countless varieties to choose from when it comes to media topics. Additionally, Buzzfeed writers have stated that they are much more attentive to their audience than other news outlets are (Tadoc & Foo 41-57). Buzzfeed’s consumers tend to be younger people from the age of 18-34, who have a grasp on how to navigate the internet and free time to spend viewing its content. Peretti shared in an interview that the original target audience for Buzzfeed was people who were sitting behind computers at work with nothing to do. However, Buzzfeed has recently been struggling to prove its credibility in the news media industry (Stringer 1991-2000). For a company that started out as a viral content link-sharing platform, it can be difficult for people to take any information posted by Buzzfeed as a reliable source of news. Since Buzzfeed is popular with people from the younger generations, its publications are more likely to skew left.
Biases are prevalent in most news stories published by major news companies. In fact, it is nearly impossible to find a completely unbiased news article. Buzzfeed’s publications are less biased than most other companies, but still show some subtle signs of leaning towards the liberal side of politics. The most likely factor that Buzzfeed tends to lean more towards the left is that the younger generation overall tends to lean more towards the left. Since Buzzfeed is written and viewed by a younger audience, its articles are likely being subjected to the liberal trend in the younger generations. Not only are the writers more likely to have a left-wing opinion from the start, but the company also likely wants its articles to be more left-wing because it will be more popular amongst the target audience. There are a few factors that can be used to determine if a media article is biased. The main factors include the sources of information, the point of view of the article, and which topics are being covered. The sources of information used by news companies are typically biased, so when a company uses these sources, their content will reflect the sources’ biases. The point of view in a news article will also reveal a news company’s bias as well. For example, news articles can be told from the point of view of the creators of a product or the consumers of the product. Another way to determine if a media company is biased is to see what topics are getting coverage. If a news company is avoiding topics or focusing heavily on some topics, chances are that the company is biased in some way. Buzzfeed has a few articles that show signs of these factors.
Some articles can prove to be very tough to write about without letting some sort of bias prevail. Additionally, some biases are less intense as others, but even subtle factors can prove to be bias. One example of bias Buzzfeed articles is “These Veterans Have Endured Not Having Their Gender-Affirming Surgeries Covered. That’s About to Change.”. The title of the article alone takes a more liberal stance on the topic at hand. This article is about a United States Air Force veteran who is hoping to undergo gender-affirming surgery and the military’s health coverage for those surgeries. Typically, a right-leaning media source will either avoid covering this topic or use a dictation in its coverage that provides a negative connotation towards veterans receiving gender-affirming surgeries at the expense of the government. Another Buzzfeed article that shows bias is “Fentanyl Is Spreading Nationwide and Will Lead to A “Fourth Wave” Of Overdose Deaths”. This article is one of Buzzfeed’s more liberal publications, which is prevalent from a quote at the top of the page. The page starts off by saying “Trump opposed safe injection sites and other controversial measures to help stop overdose deaths.”. While it is a fact being stated, the blame is being placed on Donald Trump from the beginning. These are just some examples of the left-leaning bias that can be found in Buzzfeed’s media.
As previously mentioned, Buzzfeed’s bias is relatively unapparent unless the articles are reviewed very critically. Buzzfeed tends to do a decent job at remaining as neutral as possible. In fact, a large portion of Buzzfeed’s articles is almost perfectly neutral when rated by an analyst team at Ad Fontes Media. Ad Fontes Media rates media websites on a scale of -42 to 42, -42 being all the way left-wing and 42 being completely rightwing. Buzzfeed received a -8 on the bias scale, which means that it is a “moderately left-leaning” company. The two aforementioned articles are some of the most left-leaning articles that Buzzfeed has produced. The acceptable social language has been changing quite drastically over the last few years and Buzzfeed has also managed to adapt with modern times successfully.
Buzzfeed has been around since 2006, and it will likely remain on top of the independent media industry for the foreseeable future. The sheer volume of media published by Buzzfeed allows it to grab all different types of viewers attention. Buzzfeed makes great use of catchy headlines to hook readers into viewing its publications. Due to its early history of being a viral content platform, Buzzfeed struggles with being viewed as a credible news source. Buzzfeed has the potential to be the largest news outlet in the world if it can overcome that obstacle. Although Buzzfeed tries its best to maintain a neutral stance on its publications, there is still an underlying left-wing bias that shines through on many of the articles published by the company. That being said, Buzzfeed is leaps and bounds ahead of its competition when it comes to adapting to modern times and remaining as close to neutral as possible. Overall, Buzzfeed provides happiness through entertainment to hundreds of millions of people around the world, and that’s what really matters.
Works Cited
Buzzfeed. "About BuzzFeed." About BuzzFeed. 2021. Web. 03 July 2021.
Hansen, Mark, Meritxell Roca-Sales, Jonathan M. Keegan, and George King. "Policy Exchange Forum I." Artificial Intelligence: Practice and Implications for Journalism (2017): 11-12. Print.
Tandoc, Edson C., and Cassie Yuan Foo. "Here’s What BuzzFeed Journalists Think of Their Journalism." Digital Journalism 6.1 (2017): 41-57. Print.
Stringer, Paul. "Finding a Place in the Journalistic Field." Journalism Studies 19.13 (2018): 1991-2000. Print.
Riddle, Lilly. "Are Younger Generations Actually More Liberal?" Civic Issues Blog. Penn State University, 20 Feb. 2020. Web. 03 July 2021. https://sites.psu.edu/lillyriddlecivicissues/2020/02/20/are-younger-generations- actually-more-liberal/
Fallert, Nicole. "These Veterans Have Endured Not Having Their Gender-Affirming Surgeries Covered. That's About To Change." BuzzFeed News. BuzzFeed News, 26 June 2021. Web. 03 July 2021.
Vergano, Dan. "Fentanyl Is Spreading Nationwide And Will Lead To A "Fourth Wave" Of Overdose Deaths." BuzzFeed News. BuzzFeed News, 28 May 2021. Web. 03 July 2021.
AFM. "BuzzFeed News Bias and Reliability." Ad Fontes Media. Ad Fontes Media, 21 May 2021. Web. 03 July 2021.
