Political Bias on BBC, CNN, and Fox News - Doria

When considering the way the law is referred to in Theme position, an additional
suggestion of bias is revealed. While CNN modifies the noun using the adjective
new, Fox News uses the word contentious (i.e. controversial). A referential identity
chain analysis of the entities used to refer to the law reveals that the same pattern
holds even beyond the entities in Theme position: BBC and CNN only modify the
law using new, whereas Fox News only modifies it using contentious. This suggests
at least slight right-leaning bias on the part of Fox News. However, with only one
instance in each article, it is impossible to draw any clear conclusions. The analysis
of the Rheme in this instance also does not reveal any patterns indicative of bias.
Moving away from thematic structure analysis, it is revealing of bias to examine how
much the articles report about the positive and negative effects and reception of the
law. For example, quotes and descriptions of the views of supporters are considered
in this thesis to be positive descriptions, whereas negative descriptions include the
views of the opponents. The most balanced article based on this method is that of
BBC, which has two positive and two negative instances (i.e. paragraphs) of such
descriptions. In comparison, the CNN and Fox News articles both are much less
balanced. Firstly, the CNN article includes four instances of positive descriptions and
quotes and zero negative ones. That is to say, the CNN article does not feature any
comments from critics of the new legislation or any mentions of its potential adverse
affects, such as that it may encourage illegal immigration to the state. Secondly, the
Fox News article includes four positive instances (e.g. the expansion of educational
opportunities for all qualified students) and six negative instances (e.g. the law is an
insult to people who have worked and played by the rules). Based on this analysis, it
appears that CNN is most clearly supportive of the legislation and thus takes the
most Democratic stance on the issue, whereas Fox News veers slightly to the
Republican side of the political continuum - in concurrence with the hypothesis.
An additional interesting aspect is the order in which facts are presented in the three
articles due to the prioritizing of information by the journalist. Considering the lead,
or the first paragraph, of the articles, all three contain a mention of Governor Brown
of California, who signed the legislation into law, as well as a mention of what the
67