Folk Theories of News Bias: How Audiences Perceive, Interpret, and Experience It

Although audience complaints about bias in news are longstanding, their persistence indicates that scholars need a deeper understanding of how news consumers perceive, experience, and interpret bias. This study explores bias from the audience’s bottom-up perspective, rather than relying on researcher-driven categories. Through in-depth interviews with 52 U.S. news consumers, and guided by the concept of “folk theories,” we find that audiences define bias across three interconnected domains: (1) perceptions, viewing bias as rooted in journalists’ personal backgrounds; (2) processes, identifying bias in editorial choices such as framing and selective omission of context; and (3) motivations, attributing bias to profit-driven media agendas. Participants generally accept bias as an inevitable human trait but critique systemic pressures, particularly economic imperatives that drive sensationalism. By situating bias within journalism’s broader cultural, economic, and institutional contexts, this study underscores the gap between normative ideals of neutrality and the everyday experiences of news audiences.