Gathering Sources
To frame the sample for this cross-sectional content analysis research project I began by deciding to what extent of bias I wanted to include. Using AllSides.com, a media bias and misinformation site, to find sources represented in the spectrum of far left to far right. This allowed me to use quota non probability sampling to choose ten sites that the public agreed were correctly labeled in their biases. Ten sites were chosen, two from each category of far left, left, center, right, and far right in order to gather a widely representative sample of how different news sources were describing Critical Race Theory. To choose the ten sites, I looked at what sites were well known and used, as well as how much the public agreed with AllSides.com media bias rating. After choosing CNN, New York Times Opinion, Associated Press, The Guardian, Reuters, Forbes, Washington Times, Wall Street Journal Opinion, National Review, and The Federalist, for my news sources I began to gather articles for my data points.
I began this search by using an incognito web browser and deleted all of my search history and data; a step that was repeated before each new media source search. Using Google’s advanced search, I used the key words ‘Critical Race Theory’ as well as the site’s domain. Once results were shown I changed ‘all results’ to ‘verbatim’ in order to show the data source first. From the results given I chose the first five, as these had been deemed most relevant by Google. These steps were repeated identically for all ten data sources in order to keep consistency in what articles are most relevant. It is important to note, that while I did use an incognito web browser and deleted all search history before and after each search, there is still a possibility of bias in the search engine. Using this method, however, allows for the majority of the bias to be excluded from this research project. The fifty articles were coded according to language used, quotes, imagery, use of external links or sources, and informative versus opinion.
Variables
This project will explore the question: What is the effect of political bias on media portrayal of Critical Race Theory in online written news sources from the years 2020 to 2022? In order to research this question, I will be using the independent variable of political bias and the dependent variable of media portrayal of Critical Race Theory. Political bias used as the independent variable can be defined as the way in which a story is altered in order to make one side of an argument seem more appealing and reasonable to the intended audience. In the context of this research project, political bias is used to help readers relate to the topic of CRT and be swayed into agreement with the ideals of each particular news resource. The dependent variable, media portrayal of CRT in news sources can be defined as the language, frames, structure and perspectives used to discuss CRT. Media portrayal in CRT news resources will be used to persuade readers to the political views of each source. To test how political bias alters media portrayals of Critical Race Theory, I will use online written news sources. These sources will include CNN, New York Times Opinion, Associated Press, The Guardian, Reuters, Forbes, Washington Times, Wall Street Journal Opinion, National Review, and The Federalist. These variables will be especially useful in the wake of increased ‘misleading’ news. ‘Misleading’ or ‘fake’ news is explained as news or information that purposely leads readers to believe incorrect information through using misleading stories or examples. Taking a deeper look at both left-leaning and right-leaning news articles will allow for a better understanding of media bias and how political polarization has impacted and produced false or misleading information.