False Balance Research Articles

Use of evidence and expertise in UK climate governance: The case of the Cumbrian Coal Mine

There is a clear scientific consensus that no new coal mines can be developed, if the Paris Agreement to limit global temperature rises is to be met. Yet in December 2022, following a lengthy Public Inquiry, the UK Government approved the development of Woodhouse Colliery in Cumbria. In doing so, it accepted the claim that the coal mine would be ‘zero carbon’, and could even result in lower global emissions overall. As this paper demonstrates, there is no independent evidence to support these claims, whilst a large body of independent evidence comes to the opposite conclusion. This paper uses the example of Woodhouse Colliery to examine the use of evidence and expertise in climate governance processes. It finds that the nature of expertise and evidence is not properly considered, and that there is ambiguity and confusion surrounding the implementation of the UK’s climate legislation, particularly the Climate Change Act. It also finds that the ways in which the decision-making process solicited and assessed evidence was flawed, promoting a ‘false balance’. This ambiguity and false balance provide scope for developers to argue the case for destructive developments, even while claiming adherence to climate ambitions. The paper concludes by suggesting reforms to governance processes, to provide a more transparent and credible implementation of policies to achieve the UK’s net zero target. Suggested reforms include clearer rules governing fossil fuel phase-out; greater transparency and better handling of conflicts of interest in decision-making; and devolution of climate responsibilities to local areas.

Using formulations to maximize differences of opinion during televised climate change panel interviews

This paper discusses climate journalistic issues of polarization and ‘false balance’ based upon a study of Danish public service television panel interviews in which participants debate climate change politics. More specifically, the study uses Conversation Analysis to examine the host’s use of formulations. Formulations refer to utterances designed to give the gist (or its ‘natural’ upshots) of a co-participant’s preceding account. Analysis reveals that the host recurrently formulates a panelist’s assertion a bit stronger (e.g. more controversial), and subsequently makes an opposing participant comment upon this augmented version. The host, thus, actively solicits disagreement and rhetorically maximizes participants’ (latent) differences of opinion. This finding adds a new perspective to our understanding of the rise of the panel interview format, which is sometimes said to marginalize the host’s substantive journalistic role into a launcher of topics. It also offers points to ponder in a time where climate change communication researchers warn us that polarization is highly counter-productive in achieving shared understanding about the climate crisis, which we need to promote conversion.

ЖУРНАЛІСТСЬКА НЕУПЕРЕДЖЕНІСТЬ: ЯК ПИСАТИ ПРО РЕЛІГІЙНІ СПІЛЬНОТИ

Existing journalistic standards are designed to prevent conflicts within society. In particular, this concerns the standard of balance of opinions, points of view, which implies the need to «give the floor to all parties to the conflict and reflect their positions, while the journalist himself must be as impartial as possible». Specifying of this standard, experts advise to avoid a false balance to consult with professional experts and to refuse altogether from writing material in case of lack of information. The standard of separation of facts from comments is also designed to convey the most unbiased information, where the position of the journalist himself, if any, is presented separately from the information presented. However, the journalist is a part of this culture of perception of the world that exists in this society. the consequence of the above is, in our opinion, that the journalist is not aware of the presence of his own prejudices, and therefore it is quite difficult for him to avoid them. Prejudice against Protestant religious communities has deep historical roots. Thus, in the Russian Empire, Protestants were forbidden to carry out missionary activities in relation to the Orthodox population. Both in imperial times and in Soviet times, the «struggle against sects» was relevant, which usually meant any deviations from the dominant religion/ideology. The Soviet authorities added to this active anti-religious propaganda with the help of cinematography. A vivid example of such propaganda is, in particular, the tape «Clouds over Borsk», where Pentecostal Protestants are presented as a group that makes human sacrifices. Conducted field studies prove the stability of such ideas. Thus, among the Orthodox, there is a widespread opinion about the «exorcism» of Pentecostals, not knowing the denominational affiliation of Protestants («probably not Christians») and even ideas about human sacrifices. The questions raised in this investigation relate, firstly, to the presence/absence of extrapolation of similar ideas to individual journalistic materials devoted to sensitive religious topics. Secondly, we are trying to find out in what way it is possible to create unbiased journalistic material on religious topics. For this purpose, an analysis of the material for compliance with journalistic standards and an interview with the journalist – the author of the material, were conducted.

Constructive Journalism: Techniques for Improving the Practice of Objectivity

ABSTRACT Objectivity plays a central role in Western news media, being considered the cornerstone of professionalism and quality. However, as traditionally and passively practiced, critiques of objectivity include journalists overlooking inherent subjectivities in newsgathering, the impacts of journalists’ ideology on news representation, replication of existing power structures, and portrayals of false balance. These critiques have led to increasing scholarly and professional interest in alternative forms of journalism, including constructive journalism – an approach intended to improve the quality and usefulness of news content. We position constructive journalism as a series of techniques: solutions, future orientation, inclusiveness and diversity, empowerment, context, and co-creation, and consider the relationship of each to an active form of objectivity, clarifying the contested relation of constructive journalism to objective reporting. Further, we describe how constructive techniques help journalists ethically and transparently navigate subjectivity in news reporting, with an aim toward improving the accuracy and quality of news.

A tale about facts and opinions: The impact of a drama intervention on middle-school students´ information literacy

Today, huge amounts of data are produced, collected, and presented in all kinds of contexts. The ability to critically examine and evaluate information and arguments in relation to empirical evidence is often referred to as information literacy. It is of utmost importance that students are adequately scaffolded to develop this ability, to be able to become democratic citizens. The study presented combines learning science and drama to explore whether this approach can make 6 grade students more aware of certain aspects of information literacy, such as false balance, the burden of proof, and filter bubbles. Half of the students watched a play and participated in a pedagogical follow-up before answering a questionnaire. The other half answered the questionnaire before the intervention. Results show that students watching the play had grasped the core of the more tangible questions, writing more elaborated and relevant answers than students in the control group.

Government Eyewitness: Considering New Approaches to Political Coverage Through Local TV’s Greatest Strengths

In this monograph, we assess audience reactions to local TV news political coverage across an array of topics and research designs. First, we trace the development in local TV news of the now universally recognized reporter-driven emphasis: the local Eyewitness News model. That format’s role in establishing reporters as local elites is our basis for comparing how audiences respond to local reporters associated with the “eyewitness” brand versus reporters from national broadcast outlets. Using a combination of survey and field experiments, we investigate how audiences respond to eyewitness reporters. First, we vary audience exposure to partisan and policy frames sourced to these reporters. Across these experiments, audiences, and especially Republicans, respond more favorably to local than to national reporters and to the use of a policy than a partisan frame. Our second set of experiments test false balance and truth-telling in local TV stories about the 2020 presidential election. Again, the local reporter bests a national counterpart in terms of audience, especially Republican, reactions. In our third set of studies, we examine different combinations of human-interest content in the traditional thematic and episodic framing approaches in TV news for their effect on audiences’ climate change attitudes. We conclude by showing how these results inform an expansion of the topics and approaches local TV news affiliates should take to offer political coverage of value.

Trump Lies, Truth Dies? Epistemic Crisis and the Effect of False Balance Reporting on Beliefs About Voter Fraud

Media scholars have long recognized the potential for falsely balanced reporting to distort public opinion, but existing empirical evidence is inconclusive. In this study, we examine the effect of falsely balanced reporting and explicit journalistic intervention on perceptions of voter fraud in U.S. elections through original internet survey experiments conducted in the United States shortly before and after the 2020 U.S. presidential election held on November 3, 2020. The results show that exposure to falsely balanced reporting largely has a null effect on perceptions of voter fraud, though we also find evidence of partisan-based heterogeneity in its effect. The results of the study also show that explicit journalistic intervention equally decreases belief in voter fraud among both Democrats and Republicans before the election, but among Republicans the corrective effect of intervention disappears in the post-election period, suggesting that there are sharp contextual limits on the effect of explicit journalistic intervention.

A moral–theological analysis of unethical business practices in Warri through the lens of Proverbs 11:1–6

Few studies have examined unethical business practices in Nigeria, and no study has examined unethical business practices in Warri local government area of Delta State from the lens of Proverbs 11:1–6. A reading of Proverbs 11, beginning from verse one, reveals that a false balance is an abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is his delight. It further mentions how God hates dishonesty and lack of integrity in whatever form, which in this context is the business environment. The rate of fraudulent business activities in markets across Warri is alarming. Indeed, promoters and culprits of counterfeit goods, such as food, pharmaceuticals, electrical appliances and wire are boldly counting their profits and laughing all the way to the bank in amusement at those who have decided not to join them. This study explores the consequences that await these promoters and culprits of unethical business practices. Literary analysis was used through a phenomenological approach in this context. The recommendations given, as expected, will shed light for the promoters on how to escape the consequences of their actions, and it also encourages those who are determined to maintain their integrity by refusing to engage in these unethical business practices.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: Proverbs 11 warns that those who engage in unethical business practices will eventually face the wrath of God, which may be expressed through their exposure to law enforcement agencies and the loss of all the riches that will not deliver them when they are caught.

A New Approach for Solving the False Balance of a Closed-Loop Fluxgate Current Transducer

The closed-loop fluxgate current transducer (CFCT) is the only current sensor whose measurement accuracy can reach a level of the parts per million (ppm) at present. However, the false balance, which makes the CFCT unable to work, caused by an excessive offset current is the inherent flaw of the CFCT. The high <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">di/dt</i> (rate of current change) of the primary current is the main factor resulting in the offset current overload. Therefore, the CFCT is currently only applied for steady-state direct-current measurements. In this article, an approach is proposed to eliminate the false balance of the CFCT in the dynamic process by adding a feedforward branch, which provides a follow-up bias point for the CFCT to make the CFCT always work in a small-signal range, where a risk of magnetic saturation does not arise. The zero-flux state of the CFCT still only depends on the feedback branch, so its high measurement accuracy is maintained. The experiments prove that the CFCT can measure a flat-top pulsed current with an accuracy of the ppm level by this method.

Analyzing natural herd immunity media discourse in the United Kingdom and the United States.

Natural herd immunity, where community-acquired infections in low-risk populations are used to protect high risk populations from infection-has seen high profile support in some quarters, including through the Great Barrington Declaration. However, this approach has been widely criticized as ineffective and misinformed. In this study, we examine media discourse around natural herd immunity in the United States (US) and United Kingdom (UK) to better understand how this approach was promoted. Country-specific news media publications between March 11, 2020 and January 31, 2021 were searched for references to herd immunity. News articles focused on herd immunity and including a stakeholder quote about herd immunity were collected, resulting in 400 UK and 144 US articles. Stakeholder comments were then coded by name, organization, organization type, and concept agreement or disagreement. Government figures and a small but vocal coalition of academics played a central role in promoting natural herd immunity in the news media whereas critics were largely drawn from academia and public health. These groups clashed on whether: natural herd immunity is an appropriate and effective pandemic response; the consequences of a lockdown are worse than those of promoting herd immunity; high-risk populations could be adequately protected; and if healthcare resources would be adequate under a herd immunity strategy. False balance in news media coverage of natural herd immunity as a pandemic response legitimized this approach and potentially undermined more widely accepted mitigation approaches. The ability to protect high risk populations while building herd immunity was a central but poorly supported pillar of this approach. The presentation of herd immunity in news media underscores the need for greater appreciation of potential harm of media representations that contain false balance.

When Fairness is Flawed: Effects of False Balance Reporting and Weight-of-Evidence Statements on Beliefs and Perceptions of Climate Change

Presenting both sides of an issue is considered a feature of good journalism. However, false balance can result when equal platform is given to opposing views despite one view holding expert and evidentiary support. In three experiments, we examined whether exposure to non-consensus contrarian views, on their own and in falsely balanced presentations, would affect perceptions of expert consensus and personal belief in climate change. Exposure to contrarian views reduced perceived expert consensus, even when paired with a consensus view, and regardless of the expertise of the contrarian source. However, participants who subsequently read a weight-of-evidence statement, despite reading contrarian arguments, showed no such reductions and even beneficial increases in their beliefs and perceptions. Although contrarian claims problematically inform people’s understandings of issues by making them seem more contentious than they actually are, statements about the broader consensus of experts can encourage perceptions and understandings in line with empirical evidence.

“The Negative Effects of False Balance in Media Coverage. Influencing the Public's Attitude Towards COVID-19 Vaccination”

Abstract Lack of trust in science and official information, misinformation and conspiracy theories play an important role in increasing vaccine hesitancy and disseminating the solely scientific evidence is not enough to influence people's attitudes when faced with contradictory information. The media plays an important role in disseminating information about vaccination, but journalists can negatively influence the public's attitude towards COVID-19 vaccination when they inadequate balances the coverage of this topic. The false balance occurs when in case of a strong consensus among experts about a subject, based on solid scientific evidence, an equal importance is given to a minority of experts who argue otherwise, creating a false impression that there are some uncertainties about the subject or that the evidence is not strong enough.

Histrionics of Autism in the Media and the Dangers of False Balance and False Identity on Neurotypical Viewers

Abstract Contemporary US media increasingly portray autism “positively.” Based on critical realism and guided by the Disability Studies in Education (dse) framework, three television shows—Atypical, Touch, and The Good Doctor—with fictitious Autism Spectrum Disorder (asd) character(s) are qualitatively analyzed to understand the impact of the media’s portrayal of autism on the perceptions of neurotypical educators from the perspective of a disabled teacher educator. Autism in the three comedydrama series is portrayed as a savant syndrome of White heterosexual male experience affecting middle-class families. These portrayals of asd are less representative of the autism community and therefore lead to two prominent television strategies of misleading information—false balance and false identity. Since media are not neutral informers, entertainers, educators, and persuaders, it is vital for consumers especially educators to engage in dse informed critical literacy to ensure the consumption of meaningful information about autism.

(Un)resolving digital technology paradoxes through the rhetoric of balance

The organizational benefits of digital technologies are increasingly contrasted with negative societal consequences. Such tensions are contradictory, persistent and interrelated, suggesting paradoxes. Yet, we lack insight into how such apparent paradoxes are constructed and to what effect. This empirical paper draws upon interviews with thirty-nine responsibility managers to unpack how paradoxes are discursively (re)constructed and resolved as a rhetoric of ‘balance’ that ensures identification with organizational, familial and societal interests. We also reveal how such ‘false balance’ sustains and legitimizes organizational activity by displacing responsibilities onto distant ‘others’ through temporal (futurizing), spatial (externalizing) and level (magnifying / individualizing) rhetorical devices. In revealing the process of paradox construction and resolution as ‘balance’ in the context of digitalization and its unanticipated outcomes, we join conversations into new organizational responsibilities in the digital economy, with implications for theory and practice.

Weight-of-Evidence Strategies to Mitigate the Influence of Messages of Science Denialism in Public Discussions.

In mass media, the positions of science deniers and scientific-consensus advocates are repeatedly presented in a balanced manner. This false balance increases the spread of misinformation under the guise of objectivity. Weight-of-evidence strategies are an alternative, in which journalists lend weight to each position that is equivalent to the amount of evidence that supports the position. In public discussions, journalists can invite more advocates of scientific consensuses than science deniers (outnumbering) or they can employ warnings about the false-balance effect prior to the discussions (forewarning). In three pre-registered laboratory experiments, we tested the efficacy of outnumbering and forewarning as weight-of-evidence strategies to mitigate science deniers’ influence on individuals’ attitudes towards vaccination and their intention to vaccinate. We explored whether advocates’ responses to science deniers (rebuttal) and audiences’ issue involvement moderate the efficacy of these strategies. A total of N = 887 individuals indicated their attitudes towards vaccination and their intention to vaccinate before and after watching a television (TV) discussion. The presence and absence of forewarning, outnumbering and rebuttal were manipulated between subjects; participants also indicated their individual issue involvement. We obtained no evidence that outnumbering mitigates damage from denialism, even when advocates served as multiple sources. However, forewarning about the false-balance effect mitigated deniers’ negative effects. Moreover, the protective effect was independent of rebuttal and issue involvement. Thus, forewarnings can serve as an effective, economic and theory-driven strategy to counter science denialism in public discussions, at least for highly educated individuals such as university students.

The Prevalence and Rationale for Presenting an Opposing Viewpoint in Climate Change Reporting: Findings from a U.S. National Survey of TV Weathercasters

AbstractThe journalistic norm of balance has been described as the practice of giving equal weight to different sides of a story; false balance is balanced reporting when the weight of evidence strongly favors one side over others—for example, the reality of human-caused climate change. False balance is problematic because it skews public perception of expert agreement. Through formative interviews and a survey of American weathercasters about climate change reporting, we found that objectivity and balance—topics that have frequently been studied with environmental journalists—are also relevant to understanding climate change reporting among weathercasters. Questions about the practice of and reasons for presenting an opposing viewpoint when reporting on climate change were included in a 2017 census survey of weathercasters working in the United States (N = 480; response rate = 22%). When reporting on climate change, 35% of weathercasters present an opposing viewpoint “always” or “most of the time.” Their rationale for reporting opposing viewpoints included the journalistic norms of objectivity and balanced reporting (53%), their perceived uncertainty of climate science (21%), to acknowledge differences of opinion (17%), to maintain credibility (14%), and to strengthen the story (7%). These findings show that climate change reporting from weathercasters sometimes includes opposing viewpoints, and possibly a false balance, but further research is necessary. Moreover, prior research has shown that the climate reporting practices among weathercasters are evolving rapidly and so the problem of false-balance reporting may already be self-correcting.

Viral suspicions: Vaccine hesitancy in the Web 2.0.

A huge and diverse amount of information is available online. In 4 studies, we provided complementary evidence about the psychosocial processes involved in online information gathering about vaccinations and the associated relation with trust in their safety. Study 1 investigated the relation between Italian Google inquiries and vaccine coverage for 0- to 2-year-old Italian children from 2000 and 2015, showing a correlation that turned negative over time. In Study 2, participants randomly assigned to a message providing a dual perspective (false balance condition) endorsed more conspiracy beliefs, which, in turn, reduced trust in vaccines compared with provaccine, antivaccine, and control messages. In Study 3, participants actively selected Google outputs that were in line with their opinion, and this confirmatory bias was particularly strong among participants distrusting vaccination. This association was disrupted by the exposure to provaccine messages, but only if antivaccine alternatives were absent. In Study 4, exposure to online comments questioning the human papilloma virus vaccination influenced attitudes toward the vaccination in a sample of not-yet-vaccinated young women. Practical implications for the way that media cover vaccination topics and for interventions addressing vaccine hesitancy are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Sense and Nonsense: Teaching Journalism and Science Students to Be Advocates for Science and Information Literacy

Long before “fake news” became a catchphrase, misguided beliefs about scientific truths undermined the free exercise of democracy and personal decision-making. Journalistic norms such as providing false balance in the name of “objectivity,” deliberate manipulation by vested interests, and the human tendency toward confirmation bias combined to enable the dissemination of damaging misinformation about tobacco, climate change, vaccines, nuclear power, genetically modified foods, and other topics critical to the health and welfare of the modern world. This article examines an innovative new course designed to teach a mixed group of journalism and science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) majors to evaluate expertise and bias, examine data and misrepresentation, and develop evidence-based communication on complex scientific topics. The course covered concepts such as fact-checking, validation, fraud, the “backfire effect,” confirmation bias, limitations of the scientific method, conspiracy theories, misuse of statistics, and the role of journalists and scientists as truth-tellers in society. Journalism and science students learned to communicate with each other and with their respective audiences. A series of critical thinking assignments culminated in a final project where students, working in mixed teams, developed an interactive multimedia project communicating a controversial science topic to the public. This interdisciplinary course is offered as one model for teaching science literacy and information literacy to journalism and STEM students.

On the relative value of data resampling approaches for software defect prediction

Software defect data sets are typically characterized by an unbalanced class distribution where the defective modules are fewer than the non-defective modules. Prediction performances of defect prediction models are detrimentally affected by the skewed distribution of the faulty minority modules in the data set since most algorithms assume both classes in the data set to be equally balanced. Resampling approaches address this concern by modifying the class distribution to balance the minority and majority class distribution. However, very little is known about the best distribution for attaining high performance especially in a more practical scenario. There are still inconclusive results pertaining to the suitable ratio of defect and clean instances (Pfp), the statistical and practical impacts of resampling approaches on prediction performance and the more stable resampling approach across several performance measures. To assess the impact of resampling approaches, we investigated the bias and effect of commonly used resampling approaches on prediction accuracy in software defect prediction. Analyzes of six resampling approaches on 40 releases of 20 open-source projects across five performance measures and five imbalance rates were performed. The experimental results obtained indicate that there were statistical differences between the prediction results with and without resampling methods when evaluated with the geometric-mean, recall(pd), probability of false alarms(pf ) and balance performance measures. However, resampling methods could not improve the AUC values across all prediction models implying that resampling methods can help in defect classification but not defect prioritization. A stable Pfp rate was dependent on the performance measure used. Lower Pfp rates are required for lower pf values while higher Pfp values are required for higher pd values. Random Under-Sampling and Borderline-SMOTE proved to be the more stable resampling method across several performance measures among the studied resampling methods. Performance of resampling methods are dependent on the imbalance ratio, evaluation measure and to some extent the prediction model. Newer oversampling methods should aim at generating relevant and informative data samples and not just increasing the minority samples.

United States news media and climate change in the era of US President Trump.

The Donald J Trump administration's strategy to disengage and downplay the Paris Climate Agreement will likely result in a slight decrease in the already low levels of US news media global warming coverage. This is because significant limitations with the news media's ability to adequately cover climate change predated the administration. First, studies indicate that advertising interests and editors have always challenged journalists' abilities to adequately report on climate change issues. Instead of climate change stories, editors often prefer more sensational topics that garner higher ratings and approval with advertisers. Second, the journalistic norm of balance and the role of sourcing give climate skeptics exceptional media exposure, which creates a "false balance" or equivalency between skeptics and scientists. Third, the massive power and influence of the fossil fuel industry's public relations arm has also had a tremendous impact on public (mis)understanding of climate change. Fourth, a trend toward declining climate change coverage and "climate silence" in US media is developing. Media corporations have substantially eliminated the number of environmental journalists that cover climate change. The overall effect of these limitations distorts public understanding of climate change and delays potential government action. Moving away from a predominantly commercial media system to one with a substantial noncommercial component can improve US journalism, whereas using advertising to increase rates for environmentally unsound products and services may also help mitigate global warming. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2018;14:202-204. © 2018 SETAC.