Propaganda and Bias Opinions.

Documentaries, although factual, are often biased towards a certain opinion or another. It normally makes the documentary rather one-sided, and doesn't show the other side of arguments. During the Bowling For Columbine documentary, although he showed people telling the camera that they feel safer with a loaded gun in the house although they had never been attacked, the same person probably had enough security in and around their house to stop the threat of being attacked, yet they never asked people in the streets whether they had been attacked or not.

Most news programmes try not to be biased, as they are giving factual information that should not have an opinion. However, certain news companies - such as FOX News - appears to be extremely right-wing, and even goes to far to refuse to allow anyone to speak on the show if they do not follow their ideals.

When something is propaganda, however, instead of it being simply one side of an opinion, it is trying to get others to agree and influence their views on the subject. For example, once again, FOX News will only show stories that makes the right wing side of politics look better than the left, and they seem to be trying to make the population believe in their views and agree with them, without showing them the other side of things.

When being a journalist, however, things are supposed to remain completely unbiased and only show the facts in a way that doesn't support one side of debates and arguments, and also doesn't convince people to agree/disagree with something simply because of the reporter's own views.

Bias can be created within the news by selecting certain stories to broadcast. By doing this, something can be made to seem better, or worse, depending on how much positive/negative press one broadcasting station gives a certain thing - such as FOX News making the right-wing parties seem glorious compared to other political parties.

Headlines and captions can give a different light on a story, clearly showing an opinion on the story. For example, when most news stations reported on Nelson Mandela meeting the First Lady, Michelle Obama, they used headlines such as:

‘Mandela asks to meet Michelle Obama.’

However, FOX News clearly shows their views on Obama's political party, and clearly wants to put them in a bad light by using the headline:

‘Michelle Obama Snubbed in Africa, But Looking Forward to Private Safari.’

Anyone who only reads FOX News would think something completely different about the story than what is happening, and it is a form of propaganda because it is trying to get people to agree with their views.