Examining Bias and Representation in the Media

This is the second lesson in a unit designed to help teachers have conversations with students about media literacy in a critical, reflective and constructive way. Use these lessons to help students reflect on the changing media and information landscape; understand how this landscape impacts individuals, communities and societies; and consider how they can thoughtfully and responsibly engage with content they encounter online and in print. This learning can also help them become conscientious content creators. Supporting students to develop as critical consumers and creators of information is vital for their well-being, their relationships and our democracy.

This two-part lesson is a means of helping students understand how biases can manifest in media content and consider the impact of media representation. In the first part of the lesson, students consider the difference between fact and opinion, explore how to detect bias in language, and reflect on the power of language. Then, in part two of the lesson, students consider media representation, exploring how stereotypes are used in the media and the consequences of this. They begin by considering how a group to which they belong has been depicted in the media. They then reflect on the impact that stereotypes can have on how people view themselves, and how they view and treat others. Following this, they are informed about the relationship between stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination: prejudice occurs when we form an opinion about an individual or a group based on a negative stereotype. When prejudice leads us to treat an individual or group negatively, discrimination occurs. With this understanding they consider media content examples that contain stereotypes and/or prejudicial attitudes, and consider the impact that such content can have on those who view it. They then reflect on what can be done to challenge stereotypes. 

We recommend that you revisit your classroom contract before teaching this lesson. If you do not have a class contract, you can use our contracting guidelines for creating a classroom contract or another procedure you have used in the past.

Before teaching this lesson, please review the following information to help guide your preparation process.

Activity 1 Understand the Difference Between Fact and Opinion

Begin by informing students that in this lesson they will be considering how people’s views can influence the information that they create. 

In preparation, they will reflect on the differences between fact and opinion. Explain that a fact is information that can be proven to be true with evidence, while an opinion is information that is debatable and connected to a person’s thoughts, beliefs or feelings.

Given that it is so easy to consume and share information, it is really important that students are able to tell the difference between facts and opinions, so that they consume information critically and avoid sharing content that is false or misleading. 

Ask them to independently decide whether the following statements are fact or opinion:

1. It rains a lot in the UK.
2. The moon is an average of 238,855 miles away from the earth.
3. Plants release distress signals when under stress.
4. Shakespeare was one of the world’s greatest playwrights. 
5. Cities should be more bike friendly. 
6. Humans need iron for growth and development. 

Then, ask students to vote on whether or not they think each sentence is a fact or opinion one by one, as you reveal the answers: 

1. Opinion: It rains a lot in the UK. This statement doesn’t quantify what ‘a lot’ is. What is ‘a lot’ to one person may not be much to another. Facts about rainfall that can be proven are:
   • It rains more in the UK than in Saudi Arabia. ¹
   • In the UK in 2022, there were 151.8 days in which 1 mm or more of rain fell. ²
2. Fact: The moon is an average of 238,855 miles away from the earth. The moon has an elliptical orbit, so it varies between 252,088 and 225,623 miles. ³
3. Fact: Plants release distress signals when under stress. The acacia tree, for example, releases ethylene gas when its leaves are being eaten by a herbivore to warn other trees; the trees down wind that detect the gas then put tannins in their leaves, which stops herbivores eating them as it can make them ill. ⁴ The smell of cut grass is also a distress signal, released to attract parasitic wasps that eat caterpillars that feast on grass (although, this evolutionary trait isn’t that useful when it is humans cutting grass with lawn mowers). The smell also contains hormones that help the grass heal itself. ⁵
4. Opinion: Shakespeare was one of the world’s greatest playwrights. The clue here is in the word ‘greatest’ which is a value or judgement word, suggesting a preference or bias. A factually correct statement could be ‘people still study Shakespeare’s plays today’. ⁶
5. Opinion: Cities should be more bike friendly. This is an opinion – some people might agree with it and some people might not. A factual statement on this topic would be ‘Amsterdam has more designated cycle lanes than London’ as this is something that can be measured.
6. Fact: Humans need iron for growth and development. Iron is important in making red blood cells, which carry oxygen around the body. A lack of iron can lead to anaemia. Those who menstruate need 14.8 mg a day; everyone else needs 8.7 mg. ⁷

After you have shared the answers, lead a short class discussion using the following questions: 

1. Why are facts important? 
2. When is it useful to engage with information that is rooted in fact? 
3. Why are opinions important?
4. Why is it useful to hear different opinions? 
5. Why is it important to be able to distinguish between facts and opinions? 

Finally, give students the following definitions, explaining that facts are objective, while opinions are subjective, and that sometimes opinions can contain views that are biased.

• Objective (adjective): Based on real facts and not influenced by personal beliefs or feelings. ⁸
• Subjective (adjective): Influenced by or based on personal beliefs or feelings, rather than based on facts. ⁹
• Bias (noun): The action of supporting or opposing a particular person or thing in an unfair way, because of allowing personal opinions to influence your judgement. ¹⁰

Activity 2 Analyse Text for Bias

Explain to students that everyone has biases; having biases does not make someone a bad person. It is, however, important to be aware of how biases manifest so students can be careful in how they express themselves and can be critical of information they encounter. Bias encountered in mass media can be problematic as it can exclude groups of people and/or influence people’s opinions on a big scale. 

Inform students that they will now be analysing different texts to identify bias, while also thinking about whether or not the texts contain any facts and opinions. Divide students into groups and distribute the handout Facts, Opinions and Bias. You might choose to assign students a text choice suitable for their level and ask them to annotate the text in pairs. Or, do the first example collectively and ask students to do the second example in pairs.

Field student responses from the class before leading a short class discussion using the following questions:

1. How can biased content shape people’s views?
   • What might be the consequences of this? 
2. Have you ever had your view shaped by content you have encountered? 
   • If so, what was the content?
   • How did it shape your view/understanding of a topic? 
3. What do you think can be done to counter the impact of consuming biased content?

Activity 3 Express Bias

Inform students that they will now explore what it means to be subjective and biased by expressing some of their own views. Ask them to respond to the following prompts: 

1. Think about something that you find really boring or don’t like doing.
   • What is it? 
   • Why do you find it boring? 
   • Write a sentence using adjectives and descriptive devices to persuade others to avoid doing this thing. Use the following example to help you:
     • Scrolling on Instagram is the most pointless activity on earth – why waste your life watching scenes of plastic, manicured lives? 
2. Think about something that you find fascinating or really enjoy doing.
   • What is it?
   • Why do you like it? 
   • Write a sentence using adjectives and descriptive devices to persuade others to engage with it. Use the following example to help you:
     • Gazing up at the sky on a clear night is incredible; you see countless twinkling diamond stars. 

Invite students to share their descriptive sentences in pairs, before asking for some volunteers to share one of their descriptions with the class. 

Then lead a short class discussion, asking students to reflect on the following questions:

1. How were people's biases evident in the words they used?
2. What impact did their word choices have on how you viewed the topic?

Activity 4 Reflect on the Power of Language

Finally, if there is time, invite students to reflect on the power of language by responding to the following prompt: 

Words—so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them.

Nathaniel Hawthorne, nineteenth-century American novelist

1. What does Hawthorne’s quotation suggest about the power of language? 
2. How far do you agree with Hawthorne’s statement? Explain your view.
3. How is this statement relevant to what you have learnt about bias? 
4. What, if any, impact will this lesson have on how you use and engage with language in the future?  

• 1‘Precipitation Country Rankings’, The Global Economy (accessed 19 October 2023).
• 2Ibid.
• 3‘How Far Away Is the Moon?’, NASA Space Place (accessed 19 October 2023).
• 4Upamanyu Acharya, ‘What Causes That “Fresh-Cut Grass” Smell?’, Science ABC, 16 January 2022 (accessed 19 October 2023).
• 5Richard Grant, ‘Do Trees Talk to Each Other?’, Smithsonian Magazine, March 2018 (accessed 19 October 2023).
• 6‘Differences between Amsterdam And London Cycling Culture’, Craft Cadence, 13 February 2019 (accessed 3 November 2023).
• 7‘Iron’, NHS (accessed 19 October 2023).
• 8‘Objective’, The Cambridge Dictionary (accessed 30 October 2023).
• 9‘Subjective’, The Cambridge Dictionary (accessed 30 October 2023).
• 10‘Bias’, The Cambridge Dictionary (accessed 30 October 2023).

Activity 1 Reflect on Media Representations

Begin by giving students a few minutes to write in their journals in response to the questions below. Inform them that they will not be required to share their responses with the class.

While students complete the activity, consider thinking about your own example to share. 

• Think about a piece of media that you have consumed recently which featured an individual with whom you share an identity trait. This could be a video game, a TV show, a film, a radio show, a book, an article, an advert – anything that comes to mind.
  • Which identity trait(s) did you share with the individual?
    You might wish to think about identity categories such as age, ethnicity, sexuality, gender, religion, etc.
  • Did you find the depiction empowering, disempowering or neither? Explain your view. 
  • Was how the individual depicted connected to societal expectations about how someone from this group might behave? 
    • If so, what were they?
• How, if at all, could this depiction impact someone’s view of people who share that identity trait? 

Next, lead a short class discussion sharing your own response, inviting any individuals who feel comfortable doing so to share their responses, and then discuss the following question:

• How can the way people are represented in the media impact how others view them and/or how they view themselves?

Activity 2 Discuss the Impact of Stereotypes in the Media

Next, inform students that they will be reflecting on representation in the media, focusing on how stereotypes in the media can impact people’s views and behaviour.

Introduce the term ‘stereotype’, sharing the following definition with students and explaining that stereotypes are used in mass media to shape an audience’s knowledge, understanding and response to a topic:

Stereotype (noun): A belief about an individual or group based on the real or imagined characteristics of a group to which that individual belongs.

Next, distribute the handout The Impact of Stereotypes in the Media and read it using one of the Read Aloud strategies. 

Next, divide students into groups to discuss the following connection questions before leading a short class discussion:

1. How does the media people consume impact them?
2. How can consuming media that promotes stereotypes impact people and their views of others? 
   • How can it impact their view of themselves? 
3. What can stereotypes lead to? 
4. What is ‘stereotype threat’? What causes it? What are its consequences?
5. What can be done to counter the impact of societal stereotypes? 
6. How, if at all, has reading this text impacted your view about your media consumption habits? 

Activity 3 Explore Representation in the Media

Explain to students that exposure to stereotypes can lead to prejudice and discrimination. Prejudice occurs when we form an opinion about an individual or a group based on a negative stereotype. When prejudice leads us to treat an individual or group negatively, discrimination occurs.

Share the following definitions with students:

• Prejudice (noun): A negative opinion of a person or a thing that is not based on actual experience.
• Discrimination (noun): The practice of unfairly treating another person or group of people differently to other people or groups of people.

Inform students that they will now reflect on representation in the media, reflecting on stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination. 

Divide students into groups and distribute the handout Media Representation, giving each group a different type of prejudice and discrimination to focus on. Alternatively, you might show students some of the content from the following articles: 

• ‘An Artist Reversed The Gender Roles In Sexist Vintage Ads To Point Out How Absurd They Really Are’ (Crystal Ro, BuzzFeed)
• ‘Iconic Movie Posters With An International Women’s Day Twist Shows Gender Inequality In Top Films’ (Leading Ladies, Bored Panda)

Then, ask students to review the content they have been given and respond to the following questions in their groups:

1. How are the individuals presented in the media examples?
2. How are stereotypes being enforced or challenged? 
3. How, if at all, is prejudice evident in the examples?
4. How do you think these examples impact those who view them? 
   • How might they shape their worldview?
   • What emotional responses might they trigger? 
   • How might they impact their treatment of others? 
5. What do these examples teach you about the power of representation? 

Lead a short class discussion, inviting students to share their reflections. 

Activity 4 Reflecting on Challenging Stereotypes 

To end the lesson, ask student to reflect on the following questions in their journals:

1. How might stereotypes affect how we think about ourselves?
2. How can you become more aware of the labels you place on others and the consequences that those labels may have?
3. How can understanding stereotypes help you become media literate? 
4. What do you think can be done to counter the impact of the stereotypes you are exposed to?