Erik Bean is going to put us all to work — but we should be thankful; it’s for our own good.
Bean knows that people let biases affect their interpretation of what they read and how they process information — nothing new or shocking, but certainly a perilous situation that has dangerous consequences.
That’s why he wrote Bias Is All Around You: A Handbook for Inspecting Social Media & News Stories. A journalist by trade, Bean understands the problems with misreading the intent of a document or not fully understanding the sources of information and how their personal prejudices influence their words, ideas and messages.
So, Bean is putting us to work in the name of truth and accuracy. “When assessing any piece of information, you should strive to not let it outsmart you,” he writes. “Instead, be wise and properly vet it for fallacies it might contain and employ your best critical thinking and detective work to understand the biases associated with it.”
Never in our history, Bean believes, has this exercise been so crucial, having recently come face to face with masses and masses of information about a presidential election, civil unrest, the pandemic and a crushing global economy. He notes that people have grown accustomed to reading filtered news from various search engines as well as the news media, which used to be more balanced and impartial but, in recent times, have identified themselves with a particular side or perspective.
“If the public understands how the information they experience can be manipulated by algorithms, and if they can take the time to properly inspect information, then civil discourse stands a chance at surviving an otherwise tumultuous period in technology, corporate greed, and the battle to squash a worldwide pandemic.”
Bean carefully defines and explains the seven sources of potential bias — academic, hidden agenda, for-profit, non-profit, watchdog groups, government and individuals — and offers his KLEMP Test to help assess any piece of information. KLEMP involves evaluations including timeliness, statistics, rhetorical styles, assumptions and beliefs, and emotions. Readers can score their own findings on Bean’s Bias Assessment Form.
Readers may not want to hear what happens if they do not properly vet a document, draw wrong conclusions, and use those conclusions in their own work: lead them to follow a false cause, leave them feeling foolish, tarnish credibility, attract the wrong people, create undue stress, compromise values and harm their mental health.
Bias Is All Around You is a short, succinct, valuable work with good ideas to help people make good decisions and spare them the anguish of making inaccurate assumptions. It is enhanced with the attractive illustrations of Gail Gorske.
In the book’s Foreword, Tim Vos, Ph.D., Director of Michigan State University’s School of Journalism, says we must be more attuned to the biases that are “baked into the information we encounter nearly every moment of every day.” Much like physical exercise, he says good mental health also requires regular exercise, and Bean’s book will put readers on a “healthy mental exercise routine to better assess information bias, strengthen your media literacy, and allow you to contribute to a more meaningful civil discourse.”
Whoever said don’t believe everything you read? As Bean’s work attests, it’s time to question everything. Bias Is All Around You is designed to chart a course that “uses information more wisely, with prudence and goodwill.”
“So let’s get started.”
You can purchase Bias Is All Around You: A Handbook for Inspecting Social Media & News Stories on Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Learn more about the author on his BookTrib Author Profile Page.
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About Erik Bean:
Erik Bean holds a master’s degree in journalism from Michigan State University and also a doctorate of education with sanctioned research interests in cultural competence, leadership and mental health. A section editor of The Journal of Leadership Studies, John Wiley & Sons, he also is founder of the Ethan Bean Mental Wellness Foundation, a Michigan 501(c)3 public charity. Other recent book projects include the award-winning Ethan’s Healthy Mind Express: A Children’s First Mental Health Primer and co-author of the self-help series 20/20 Prudent Leadership.
