Skewed: A Critical Thinker's Guide to Media Bias - Hardcover

by Larry Atkins (Author)

In a media landscape dominated by advocacy news networks pushing competing points of view, how can the average person uncover the truth about any particular issue? This book will show you how to separate the facts from the agenda-driven spin and selective presentation often used by such news sources as Fox and MSNBC. The author describes the goals of advocacy journalism-i.e., journalism that transparently advocates a biased worldview-and shows that it has been a part of our history since the 1700s. He assesses the role of talk radio, cable news networks, and the more recent phenomena of special-interest blogs, websites, and citizen journalists in creating the current media climate. While conceding that advocacy journalism is undoubtedly popular and has some positive aspects, the author also points out its many negative features. Perhaps the most important of these is its polarizing effect on society. Skewed will give readers the tools to critique the media, to see both sides of any issue, and to become better informed citizens and voters.

Author Biography

Larry Atkins is a journalist, a lawyer, and a university journalism professor. He is an adjunct professor of journalism at Temple University, Arcadia University, and Montgomery County Community College. He has written more than four hundred articles, op-eds, and essays for many publications, including the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Baltimore Sun, the Chicago Tribune, the Christian Science Monitor, the Plain Dealer (Cleveland), the Dallas Morning News, the Detroit News, Huffingtonpost.com, the Los Angeles Daily News, Newsday, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Washington Post, and many others. He has been interviewed by many media outlets, including National Public Radio. He is the author of Larry the Liberal Lawyer Lashes Out and contributed a chapter to The ASJA Guide to Freelance Writing.