Bias in Headlines: Evidence from Newspaper Coverage of the 2012 Ghana Presidential Election Petition

Sarfo-Adu Kwasi; Amponsah Partey Faustina; Addo-Danquah Rosemary Gifty

doi:doi:10.11648/j.ijll.20150306.25

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Bias in Headlines: Evidence from Newspaper Coverage of the 2012 Ghana Presidential Election Petition

Sarfo-Adu Kwasi, Amponsah Partey Faustina, Addo-Danquah Rosemary Gifty

Published in International Journal of Language and Linguistics (Volume 3, Issue 6)

Received: 5 October 2015 Accepted: 23 October 2015 Published: 3 December 2015

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Abstract

A nagging concern that has emerged from media bias is its over-riding and manipulative power to influence public opinion and perception. When this bias is unleashed on consumers of news, it can have a devastating consequence on news production and consumption. Since most casual readers take their news from the headlines without reading the accompanying stories, it is more disturbing when newspapers, with their eyes on profit, tantalize the reading public with biased headlines. Against this background, a corpus of 80 headlines culled from four Ghanaian private newspapers was analysed to explore the infusion of bias in headlines in the coverage of the 2012 Ghana Presidential Election Petition. The results showed that a high percentage (81.5%) of the headlines was biased. It was also found out that influenced by which side of the petition the newspapers supported, they employed word choice as the main type of bias, using linguistic choices such as negative words, invectives and loaded words. The findings have implications for media objectivity and fair reportage devoid of ideological slant and judgmental opinions.

Published in	International Journal of Language and Linguistics (Volume 3, Issue 6)
DOI	10.11648/j.ijll.20150306.25
Page(s)	416-426
Creative Commons	This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright	Copyright © The Author(s), 2015. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Media Bias, Headline, Petitioners, Respondents, Cross Examination, Counsel

References

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APA Style

Sarfo-Adu Kwasi, Amponsah Partey Faustina, Addo-Danquah Rosemary Gifty. (2015). Bias in Headlines: Evidence from Newspaper Coverage of the 2012 Ghana Presidential Election Petition. International Journal of Language and Linguistics, 3(6), 416-426. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20150306.25

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ACS Style

Sarfo-Adu Kwasi; Amponsah Partey Faustina; Addo-Danquah Rosemary Gifty. Bias in Headlines: Evidence from Newspaper Coverage of the 2012 Ghana Presidential Election Petition. Int. J. Lang. Linguist. 2015, 3(6), 416-426. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20150306.25

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AMA Style

Sarfo-Adu Kwasi, Amponsah Partey Faustina, Addo-Danquah Rosemary Gifty. Bias in Headlines: Evidence from Newspaper Coverage of the 2012 Ghana Presidential Election Petition. Int J Lang Linguist. 2015;3(6):416-426. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20150306.25

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@article{10.11648/j.ijll.20150306.25,
  author = {Sarfo-Adu Kwasi and Amponsah Partey Faustina and Addo-Danquah Rosemary Gifty},
  title = {Bias in Headlines: Evidence from Newspaper Coverage of the 2012 Ghana Presidential Election Petition},
  journal = {International Journal of Language and Linguistics},
  volume = {3},
  number = {6},
  pages = {416-426},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ijll.20150306.25},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20150306.25},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijll.20150306.25},
  abstract = {A nagging concern that has emerged from media bias is its over-riding and manipulative power to influence public opinion and perception. When this bias is unleashed on consumers of news, it can have a devastating consequence on news production and consumption. Since most casual readers take their news from the headlines without reading the accompanying stories, it is more disturbing when newspapers, with their eyes on profit, tantalize the reading public with biased headlines. Against this background, a corpus of 80 headlines culled from four Ghanaian private newspapers was analysed to explore the infusion of bias in headlines in the coverage of the 2012 Ghana Presidential Election Petition. The results showed that a high percentage (81.5%) of the headlines was biased. It was also found out that influenced by which side of the petition the newspapers supported, they employed word choice as the main type of bias, using linguistic choices such as negative words, invectives and loaded words. The findings have implications for media objectivity and fair reportage devoid of ideological slant and judgmental opinions.},
 year = {2015}
}

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TY  - JOUR
T1  - Bias in Headlines: Evidence from Newspaper Coverage of the 2012 Ghana Presidential Election Petition
AU  - Sarfo-Adu Kwasi
AU  - Amponsah Partey Faustina
AU  - Addo-Danquah Rosemary Gifty
Y1  - 2015/12/03
PY  - 2015
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20150306.25
DO  - 10.11648/j.ijll.20150306.25
T2  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
JF  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
JO  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
SP  - 416
EP  - 426
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2330-0221
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20150306.25
AB  - A nagging concern that has emerged from media bias is its over-riding and manipulative power to influence public opinion and perception. When this bias is unleashed on consumers of news, it can have a devastating consequence on news production and consumption. Since most casual readers take their news from the headlines without reading the accompanying stories, it is more disturbing when newspapers, with their eyes on profit, tantalize the reading public with biased headlines. Against this background, a corpus of 80 headlines culled from four Ghanaian private newspapers was analysed to explore the infusion of bias in headlines in the coverage of the 2012 Ghana Presidential Election Petition. The results showed that a high percentage (81.5%) of the headlines was biased. It was also found out that influenced by which side of the petition the newspapers supported, they employed word choice as the main type of bias, using linguistic choices such as negative words, invectives and loaded words. The findings have implications for media objectivity and fair reportage devoid of ideological slant and judgmental opinions.
VL  - 3
IS  - 6
ER  -

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Author Information

Sarfo-Adu Kwasi

Department of Liberal Studies, Kumasi Polytechnic, Kumasi, Ghana
Amponsah Partey Faustina

Department of Liberal Studies, Kumasi Polytechnic, Kumasi, Ghana
Addo-Danquah Rosemary Gifty

Department of Liberal Studies, Kumasi Polytechnic, Kumasi, Ghana

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Plain Text BibTeX RIS

APA Style

Sarfo-Adu Kwasi, Amponsah Partey Faustina, Addo-Danquah Rosemary Gifty. (2015). Bias in Headlines: Evidence from Newspaper Coverage of the 2012 Ghana Presidential Election Petition. International Journal of Language and Linguistics, 3(6), 416-426. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20150306.25

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ACS Style

Sarfo-Adu Kwasi; Amponsah Partey Faustina; Addo-Danquah Rosemary Gifty. Bias in Headlines: Evidence from Newspaper Coverage of the 2012 Ghana Presidential Election Petition. Int. J. Lang. Linguist. 2015, 3(6), 416-426. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20150306.25

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AMA Style

Sarfo-Adu Kwasi, Amponsah Partey Faustina, Addo-Danquah Rosemary Gifty. Bias in Headlines: Evidence from Newspaper Coverage of the 2012 Ghana Presidential Election Petition. Int J Lang Linguist. 2015;3(6):416-426. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20150306.25

Copy | Download

@article{10.11648/j.ijll.20150306.25,
  author = {Sarfo-Adu Kwasi and Amponsah Partey Faustina and Addo-Danquah Rosemary Gifty},
  title = {Bias in Headlines: Evidence from Newspaper Coverage of the 2012 Ghana Presidential Election Petition},
  journal = {International Journal of Language and Linguistics},
  volume = {3},
  number = {6},
  pages = {416-426},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ijll.20150306.25},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20150306.25},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijll.20150306.25},
  abstract = {A nagging concern that has emerged from media bias is its over-riding and manipulative power to influence public opinion and perception. When this bias is unleashed on consumers of news, it can have a devastating consequence on news production and consumption. Since most casual readers take their news from the headlines without reading the accompanying stories, it is more disturbing when newspapers, with their eyes on profit, tantalize the reading public with biased headlines. Against this background, a corpus of 80 headlines culled from four Ghanaian private newspapers was analysed to explore the infusion of bias in headlines in the coverage of the 2012 Ghana Presidential Election Petition. The results showed that a high percentage (81.5%) of the headlines was biased. It was also found out that influenced by which side of the petition the newspapers supported, they employed word choice as the main type of bias, using linguistic choices such as negative words, invectives and loaded words. The findings have implications for media objectivity and fair reportage devoid of ideological slant and judgmental opinions.},
 year = {2015}
}

Copy | Download

TY  - JOUR
T1  - Bias in Headlines: Evidence from Newspaper Coverage of the 2012 Ghana Presidential Election Petition
AU  - Sarfo-Adu Kwasi
AU  - Amponsah Partey Faustina
AU  - Addo-Danquah Rosemary Gifty
Y1  - 2015/12/03
PY  - 2015
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20150306.25
DO  - 10.11648/j.ijll.20150306.25
T2  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
JF  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
JO  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
SP  - 416
EP  - 426
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2330-0221
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20150306.25
AB  - A nagging concern that has emerged from media bias is its over-riding and manipulative power to influence public opinion and perception. When this bias is unleashed on consumers of news, it can have a devastating consequence on news production and consumption. Since most casual readers take their news from the headlines without reading the accompanying stories, it is more disturbing when newspapers, with their eyes on profit, tantalize the reading public with biased headlines. Against this background, a corpus of 80 headlines culled from four Ghanaian private newspapers was analysed to explore the infusion of bias in headlines in the coverage of the 2012 Ghana Presidential Election Petition. The results showed that a high percentage (81.5%) of the headlines was biased. It was also found out that influenced by which side of the petition the newspapers supported, they employed word choice as the main type of bias, using linguistic choices such as negative words, invectives and loaded words. The findings have implications for media objectivity and fair reportage devoid of ideological slant and judgmental opinions.
VL  - 3
IS  - 6
ER  -

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