pn576. Want to know which of our media is the most biased? Three Thinkers try but need to rethink their methodologies

I've just finished reading three articles which aim to measure media bias in New Zealand:  David Farrar's 2019 poll survey  in Kiwiblog, an ultra-statistical  Mediabias.co.nz which analysed thousands of media articles over a year, and Brian Easton in The Pundit, who converted Mediabias's scores into z-scores, with somewhat different results. All made an attempt to scientifically measure media bias. 

I  tabulated, ranked and compared their results and considered their respective methodologies and personal biases where I could, and I'm really no wiser.

 The consensus seems to be that the mainstream media is reasonably balanced, but there were marked differences between them about the bias of individual media. (Blogs are another issue with biases usually strong and acknowledged.)   

Brian Easton infers that if we think the media unbalanced, it is due to our own personal biases, not media bias. 

This led me to ask myself what is media bias, and how might it be otherwise measured.  Is a media source balanced, for instance,  if most of its articles are unbiased, with only a  weekly or periodic obviously biased article? 

I think of the NZ Herald which could fit.  David Farrar's analysis has the NZ Herald about average of the 15 media he examined, but left-wing voters said it was extremely right wing while right-wing voters thought it only moderately so. Brian Easton found it right-wing (but less than the Kiwiblog and BFD blogs), and Mediabias surprisingly said it was the second least biased of the 15 sites he examined, quite a different conclusion..   

Think now of NewstalkZB. David Farrar found left and right wing voters agreed that Newstalk ZB was right-wing, Brian Easton found it average. And MediaBias, I'm sorry to say, needs to go back to his methodology. It found Newstalk ZB the third least biased, just after the NZ Herald.

Now, forget for now the media sources and think instead of the journalists who create the stories. 

The Herald and Newstalk are media sites that regularly publish the ultra-right meanderings of Mike Hosking and his wife Kate Hawkesby, and the decidedly right of centre writings of the other husband-wife right-wing team Matthew Hooten and Helen du Plessis.

I think our analysts need to reconsider their methodologies. Instead of attempting to measure media bias by media outlets,  they  would be better advised to focus on the journalists, WHO writes WHAT, and only then on WHERE it is published.

-- ACW  

The data: 

             Farrar                                                                       Easton

Media Sources 

The most unbelievable results. All but 
BDF (Cameron Slater's rejuvenated blog) and David Farrar's Kiwiblog, he had leaning to the left!  

Brian, Why did you waste time re-measuring these obviously erroneous results? 

A comment from a friend:

Oh good grief, Brian Easton. I agree with you Croz, about the NZ Herald. Overall,. Easton's approach is such an antiquated way of labelling /discussing the media, and its role.  

 That said, it was amusing to see Scoop being considered as a possible candidate for being labelled extremist, and more to the left than the Daily Blog. I'm sure Martyn Bradbury would hate to think that Scoop (or anyone else) had  out-lefted him.