Not Red or Blue, but Green: The Political Economy of Media Bias for Librarians and Educators

Authors

Becka Cooling

Files

Description

This capstone was completed in fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Arts in Sociology.

Publication Date

Spring 2025

Publisher

University of Alabama at Birmingham

City

Birmingham, AL

Keywords

Media bias, Information literacy, News trust

Disciplines

Library and Information Science

Comments

This paper examines media bias and perceptions of it to support librarians and educators teaching information literacy in a college setting. Drawing on over 90 sources across the disciplines of library and information science, journalism, communication, and sociology, it provides evidence that media bias is often less about political ideology and more about structural issues like media ownership, advertising pressures, and the role of digital platforms. It asks how we can apply a political economy lens to move beyond simplistic ideas of news bias to one that teaches students to place sources within their broader social, economic, and political contexts.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Recommended Citation

Cooling, Becka, "Not Red or Blue, but Green: The Political Economy of Media Bias for Librarians and Educators" (2025). All Student Capstones. 1.
https://digitalcommons.library.uab.edu/all-capstones/1