Should factual writing contain bias?

The argument of having bias included in factual and all types of writing is one
that has been happening for many years now. Some say that there is no place for
it, while others believe it helps to get to a rounded conclusion. Both sides have
valid points, which I am going to analyse to try and get a better understanding on
the matter of bias within factual writing and try and make an informed
conclusion on my findings.
Obviously, peoples ideologies and ideas are different about whether newspapers
should be treated differently from people, who, according to this group, all have
bias toward something. While this can be seen as relatively true, it doesnt
account for a newspapers job to report factual news and inform the consumer of
the facts and not their own beliefs or opinions.
Bias can be a good thing because, on top of other things, it can help the consumer
come to a conclusion faster and help to formulate their opinions on a matter that
they may not feel initially strongly about. An example of this type of bias can be
seen on a May 2011 edition of The Times newspaper. While many people will
have strong opinions and ideologies on the matter and definitely have a bias, you
have to remember the other end of the spectrum and account for the people that
feel the opposite on the matter. The UK newspaper decided to go with the
headline Justice is done days after the killing of Osama Bin Laden. In doing so,
the media distributor showed bias towards a certain opinion. While many
consumers will have made up their own mind about the man in question and
created a bias towards him, the paper is for people in doubt or maybe backing
the other side of the argument. This type of bias, in my opinion, is justified but to
others say it was a breach of ethics by the newspaper, even though many neigh
Sayers of the newspaper were backing the justice is done message that it
conveyed to the consumer on that particular day.

Bias is a bad thing in factual writing and in factual journalism particularly. A

popular part of bias in the UK media production industry is the backing of a
particular political party. Every newspaper in the UK has a political agenda and
backs a certain group, which will help or hinder that particular political party at
elections. A famous example of this type of political bias is The Sun pledging their
allegiance for labour and Tony Blair in the 1997, 2001 and 2005 electoral

campaigns. In doing this, the newspaper were effectively printing positive stories
on the labour party and printing negative ones on opposition parties, the
conservatives in particular. During this campaign, one of the most bias and
politically motivated messages found its way onto The Suns front page during
an election campaign in 2001, which read; The Sun backs Blair. This highly
political message looked to have swayed the vote a bit, as Blair won the 2001
election. In my opinion, this type of bias is wrong and doesnt need to happen in
factual journalism or factual writing; politicians should rely on their ethos and
plans to win an election campaign. Even though all newspapers back a different
political party and its about even on which ones back the labour and
conservatives, I believe consumers should be able to make their own minds up
about politics and not have opinions forced on them. Consumers could have
easily avoided the newspapers at this time but the generalisation is that if you
read a particular news producer, you have that political view too. This isnt
always true and for this and the reasons stated above, I believe newspapers
shouldnt have bias in them.

With newspapers been covered, other factual writing pieces are now the focus
because bias is sometimes included in these pieces and perhaps shouldnt be.
Instruction manuals and how to guides, factual writing pieces that are created
with a purpose to inform and instruct the consumer. While other factual writing,
including journalism, can afford to add opinions and be occasionally bias, these
are two types that cant put any biased whatsoever in them, which I think is
correct. Putting opinions and bias in instruction manuals and how to guides
would confuse the consumer and leave them with a product that they believed
was completed but werent completely sure. Definite phrases like put part A
into part B and assemble as shown on the diagram, instead of When we made
it at the furniture store it looked about right and its a really nice piece for your
house. For these reasons, bias has no place in these two factual writing pieces
and will be beneficial if they are kept to just facts. An example of bias in
instruction manuals is not too common but has occasionally happened. There
was an instance in October 2014 for Nikon and their D3300 camera. The
technology producer stated in the instructions that the camera was better on a
certain setting and that the camera took more effective images on this particular
camera. While I believe Nikon acted in a way that was trying to save the
consumer some time, I think opinions in an instruction manual shouldnt exist

and the user of the camera, not the producer, should decide those sorts of
preferences. Shortly after, they amended it and changed it to a piece of factual
information instead. This alone is proof that instruction manuals, when subject
to opinions, dont work. In terms of how to guides, Im more lenient because
some how to guides are created for the purpose of humour and do in fact use
opinions. However, I have not yet found a published how to guide that is subject
to opinions, which I think is right. On the net though, opinions on how to guides
is very common but doesnt breach any ethical or legal restraint because the
products and producers arent subject to any kind of code from regulatory
bodies. I therefore conclude that how to guides and instruction manuals
shouldnt be subject to bias and opinions in their contents.

Having already decided that instruction manuals and how to guides shouldnt be
subject to bias and accepting arguments for both journalism been biased and
unbiased, I only have a few forms of factual writing pieces to analyse.
Leaflets, another piece of factual writing that aims to inform and educate the
consumer, can be looked at as both bias and unbiased. There are so many leaflet
types and genres out there that a fair few have a bias nature to the leaflet. For
example, charities and appeal groups have to be opinionated and add a bias view
into their leaflets because there isnt another side to the argument; you cant
state why saving someone is a bad thing or how a certain disease is a good thing,
they must argue for the appeal. This is a reason why I believe that leaflets should
feature opinions and parts of bias in, to help raise awareness and money for
certain diseases and illnesses.

While some use leaflets to raise awareness for great causes, others take
advantage of this factual writing piece to advertise products and try and make a
profit off the back of it. While companies need this kind of publicity to be
financially stable, I think they can do it without putting in their own opinion and
trying to persuade the consumer about the product through unethical means.
Persuading the audience has always been part of a companys ideology, however,
I think some use overly strong opinions to do this. Instead of doing this,
companies could rely on their initial product and truthful facts about the product
to sell the products. Even though all companies dont do it, some do and these
producers shouldnt be allowed to do this, but it will be very difficult to allow
charities to use opinions and bias and ban other companies from doing so. For
this very reason, I believe opinions should be kept to charity leaflets only. While I
realise they are also making money from consumers, I believe they are doing it
for the right reasons.

After analysing and stating both sides to the argument, I can say that I agree with
ideas from both sides on different aspects and context must be judged before
deciding whether a certain factual writing type should have bias and another
should not. I believe that bias in leaflets should be kept to charities only, while
profit only companies should stick to factual information, due to the good nature
that charities are aiming for, instead of a quick profit for certain other
companies. Instruction manuals and how to guides, two more factual writing
pieces, should be free of bias. This is due to the fact that these factual pieces
should inform and instruct an audience, instead of persuade or advertise. While
my decision on leaflets was marginal, the one for manuals and how to guides
didnt take much swaying, due to this view been already held by me from the
first task.
Factual journalism was more of a balanced argument and views for both sides
could be understood and agreed by me. However, after thinking about it more
extensively, I have decided that journalism should be fact based and shouldnt
have a bias nature to it. While some consumers of media need their minds made
up for them, it is not the job of the media producer to do this. Instead, their job is

to report the news in a factual manner, where the consumer can then formulate
their own opinion on the story. Therefore, in conclusion, there are many good
sides to both boas and unbiased natured factual writing, with some types been
more beneficial when having opinions or facts on, which means that an overall
conclusion cant be made. Factual writing is divided by types that should be bias
and ones that shouldnt, so any type of definite conclusion cant be made.