Facing the facts: political biases cause upheaval in online media

Alana M. Carroll

Art Director 

If you watch presidential debates from just a decade ago, you will be amazed by the respect and amity that the candidates shared with one another. In the Oct. 2012 presidential debate, Barack Obama and Republican candidate Mitt Romney offered one another genuine smiles, a firm handshake and even an embrace. Ten years later, during the 2024 debates, we watched as Donald Trump and Joe Biden hurled insults at one another over policy, beliefs, intelligence and moral standing.

It is not only politicians who behave like this, but everyday Americans as well. I am hardly able to discuss anything mildly political with my grandfather without it turning into an argument followed by several hours of silence between us. My family often asks me why I bother to bring them up and I think back to my childhood when political parties were nowhere near as polarized as they are today. During Obama and Romney’s debate, there were several topics the candidates even agreed on and praised one another for emphasizing.

Is there a cause for the ever-increasing hostility between both sides on the political spectrum? If I could attribute polarization to one source, it would be our current social media platforms.

Image by Olivia Barone

“In most countries we find traditional news media struggling to connect with much of the public, with declining engagement,” stated Reuters in their 2025 Digital News Report. Reuters emphasized further that this neglect of media such as newspapers or television is coinciding with a boom in news consumed via social media sites, particularly Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), YouTube, Instagram and Tiktok.  

The Pew Research Center shared similar statistics for 2024, sharing that “adults who say they regularly get news from TikTok” has increased dramatically since the mass influx of new users during 2020. The amount has multiplied over five times in the past four years, leaping from 3% in 2020 to 17% in 2024.

“These algorithmic and content-driven features, by shaping what users see and engage with over time, may reinforce selective exposure and contribute to the formation of political echo chambers on TikTok,” states a paper from research journal New Media and Society. 

Polarization is not only promoted but enabled by TikTok and other short-form news media. By watching only brief, oversimplified coverage of situations that are often not representative of the entire situation, many of us neglect the full picture for the more engaging narrative. Similarly, by engaging with these biased videos with likes, shares and comments, we both propel this type of content towards our friends and family as well as receive more of it on our “recommended” feeds.

The recent shift to short-term content consumption among youth in America has resulted in teens and young adults rarely looking for more accurate coverage that they cannot consume in seconds. A Statista report from 2022 shared that almost half of Gen Z stated that they “never” consumed news from cable news stations or network news. A third reported “never” consuming news from “online-only” news sites.

Are there ways to identify media bias and combat polarization? Thankfully, yes. 

To be clear, I am not attempting to demonize checking the news on social media completely. Social media can be a powerful tool for spreading news quickly and efficiently. Breaking news often appears on social media before being reported on TV or in articles online. It is important, however, to fact check the claims you see or watch online. Even if a story seems to be fully covered, consuming the story from multiple sources helps to paint a broader picture of the issue and to avoid one-sided narratives.

It is not only social media pushing biased perspectives as the full truth, but more mainstream and “reputable” sources as well. A helpful resource for evaluating the bias of more well-known networks is the Media Bias Chart by Ad Fontes Media. The chart provides a simple view on both the political leanings and accuracy of over 4,000 different news sources. 

According to the chart, news website USAFacts was both the most accurate and the least partisan on the chart. Heavily towards the right sat Fox News, and positioned in “strong left” was MSNBC. If you regularly consume news from a network that leans to one side, it could be beneficial to also look at the same story through a centrist lens or even hear it from the “other” side.

Most of all, I encourage readers to assume good intentions from family or friends who have differing views on a situation. The majority of people, despite what media influencers, politicians or talk show hosts might claim, are not malicious or evil. Instead, we are all receiving information faster and from more sources than ever before. Politics and world events are rarely as simple as TikTok might make them seem; an entire story can almost never fit into a five minute news segment on TV. 

In this day and age of misinformation and bias, the ability to analyze biases belonging to both ourselves and the media is a mandatory skill that Americans should have. There is discomfort in adjusting our own perspectives, but what should make us even more uncomfortable is not thinking critically about the narratives fed to us on a daily basis.