ABSTRACT

Concerns about media bias and its potential consequences date roughly to the invention of mass media (Schramm, 1988). Not long after the invention of the printing press governmental efforts to control the content of printed materials started. For instance, Stevens (1982) quoted an (unnamed) colonial governor of Virginia claiming in 1671 "printing ... libels against the government. ... " (p. 29); because there was no printing press in Virginia in 1671, this may have been the first preemptive claim of media bias.