Our Essential Media Today is Intertwined with Tech… Be Aware of Signs of Media Bias (Part 2)

Welcome to Tech Essentials’ 2^nd installment of our thought exercise on media bias. (This relates to “Tech Essentials” as many are viewing their “news” through online “opinion” blogs). If you recall from last week, we were outlining tactics (mentioned in this article) that leverage bias to get your attention through online media distribution, tactics which often translate to ad revenue growth.

This week, we cover mind reading, bias by omission, flawed logic and the lowest form of all: mudslinging. So here goes…

Tactic: Mind reading, which is fairly self-explanatory, is a bias that occurs when someone assumes they know what another person thinks or thinks that the way they see the world reflects the way the world really is.

• • RMail Example: “Every legal professional loves RMail because it is the simplest, most affordable email encryption software around. Everybody knows exactly just how great it really is.”

Tactic: Bias by omission is where you choose not to include certain datapoints or omit information that would support a potential differing viewpoint. By eliminating the proper context around data, there is potential for manipulation.

• • RSign Example: “RSign User Base Up Over 100% in 2021”. This looks great on its surface, but what if there was a trend of 1 million users in 2019, half a million in 2020, and then back to 1 million in 2021? While there would be a 100% increase, it would be flat growth over a 2-year window. The omission in this example is looking at a limited data set time window.

Know More:

Electronic Signature

Digital Signature

Tactic: Flawed logic or faulty reasoning is a way to misrepresent opinions or to arrive at conclusions that are not justified by the given evidence.

• • RMail Example: “RPost’s RMail Recommends™ how-to video was snubbed at the Oscars this year, clearly showing that the Academy holds a deep-seated bias towards short-form tech videos.” That such a video, great as it is, would be submitted for consideration or even eligible for an award is a great accolade; and is missing from the bigger picture here.

Tactic: Mudslinging needs no lengthy explanation because it’s the lowest common denominator of all of these biases. It is the low ground from where insults and unfair statements are lobbed.

• • RSign Example: “Anyone who tries to build a more user-friendly eSignature platform than RSign is a complete doofus and sniffs glue in their spare time.”

As stated before, objective and unbiased sources still matter, and that is why we at RPost back up our claims by pointing out our many accolades and awards including ones given from the Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers (CIAB) and the 100 customers, partners, and industry groups (source) who have explained why they’ve chosen RMail and RSign and how they have often saved the day.

And speaking of insurance agents and brokers, RPost and Steve Anderson (insurance tech guru) are teaming up next week to bring you the webinar, “Top Tech Tips for Insurance Professionals for 2021”. Hundreds of companies have enrolled their staff (this has been independently and objectively verified by our expert data analytics team), so don’t miss your chance to hear Steve and RPost discuss the latest work-from-home resources you need to know about ASAP.

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