Voice of America is a news agency that mainly reports on United States domestic and international policy issues. The United States government, which funds and allows Voice of America to operate, significantly impacts the publication. Although there are protections in place that ensure the freedom of the authors to produce the content they desire, the funding and appointed leadership of the institution’s parent agency (U.S. Agency for Global Media) varies in different administrations, which may affect the content that Voice of America can produce. For example, the Trump administration appointed a new CEO for the agency, Michael Pack, who, according to some of the agency staffers, had attempted to fire left-leaning employees.
Some have questioned the integrity of the content of Voice of America, claiming that the United States government impacts the content they produce. Considering these concerns, it is important to discern whether the content Voice of America produces is reliable. Within this article, we will seek to understand if the publication is trustworthy, or if any bias leads to lackluster evidence regarding the claims they make.
Does Reliability Matter?
Reliability, in general, refers to how trustworthy or accurate information, or in this case, a news source is. If we consider this definition, it quickly becomes clear why reliability is important in media sources. If we can’t trust the things we read then there isn’t much of a point in continuing to consume content from that source, after all. So how exactly can we gauge the reliability of a news source anyways?
There are several potential measures of reliability to look out for when trying to determine whether a media source is reliable or not. Red flags for an unreliable article can include the presence of wild unsubstantiated claims, facts dependent on other unreliable sources, heavy use of opinionated language, and more. Some indicators of a reliable news source, on the other hand, include things like:
- Absence of subjective/opinionated language in articles
- Credible sources cited (e.g., neutral sources, .gov, .edu websites)
- Facts and statistics backed by multiple relevant outside sources
- Use of primary sources when possible (e.g., interviews, quotes)
- Information that remains consistent across news sources
How Does Voice of America Fare in its Reliability?
The political reliability index developed by Biasly objectively assesses news organizations’ accuracy and trustworthiness. Voice of America’s overall Reliability Score has been rated as ‘Fair’ by Biasly.
Voice of America’s Source Analysis Score is ‘Fair,’ which suggests readers can trust some of the sources, links, and quotes provided by the news source. This score, which is based on A.I., focuses on assessing the quality of sources and quotes used including their number, lengths, uniqueness, and diversity.
However, since these scores are based on percentages and averages, individual articles could be more or less trustworthy depending on the context, author, and other factors. Later, we will analyze individual articles and see how some of these components can affect reliability.
Voice of America Accuracy and Reliability
When choosing a news source to read or watch, their reliability is important to examine. Considering this source’s relation to the government, there are additional concerns when studying the publication, such as the concerns regarding Voice of America’s ability to remain independent. Within this section, we will seek to understand if Voice of America is consistent in its reliability concerning its fact-based reporting.
It is helpful to understand, however, that ratings may vary across different articles from a publisher, many factors can affect the reliability of an article as mentioned previously. One example of this can be seen in the Daily Mail, which Biasly gave an Overall Reliability Rating of Good. One article they published “Putin Says Russia is in Dialogue With the US on Exchanging Jailed Americans Gershkovich and Whelan” received a Reliability Rating of Good, while the article “Boston’s Democrat Mayor Michelle Wu Defends ‘no whites’ Holiday Party” received Reliability Rating of Poor. While both of these articles were published by the Daily Mail, there is a variety in the reliability of individual articles.
Selection bias is when stories and facts are selected or deselected, often on ideological grounds, to create a narrative in support of the new sources’ ideology. Omission bias, on the other hand, is when different opinions and political views regarding a situation are left out so that the reader is only exposed to the ideological perspective supported by the author. It’s important to keep in mind these two types of biases when trying to assess an article’s level of accuracy.
One example of this can be seen in the Voice of America article “Poll: 60% of US adults support protection of access to in vitro fertilization” which was given a Bias Rating of Somewhat Liberal and a Reliability Rating of Fair. In this article, the author does a good job of referencing data that came from a new poll which shows support for protecting in vitro fertilization, additionally, the author displays the opinions of individuals regarding this issue:
“I believe that it’s a woman’s right to determine what she wants to do with her pregnancy, and she should be cared for. There should be no question about that,” said John Evangelista, 73. “And IVF, I mean, for years, it’s saved a lot of people grief — because they want to have a child. Why would you want to limit this for people?”
The issue regarding selection and omission in this article surrounds the opinions he shares, the author heavily favors those who support the protection of the procedure, and virtually leaves out entirely the opinions of those who do not support it. According to the poll he referenced himself, 4 in 10 Americans still may not support the protections being introduced, the omission of those opinions may hamper a reader’s ability to gain a balanced perspective on this issue if they solely rely on the information provided in this article.
We will continue to analyze the different aspects which may affect the reliability of an article in the following sections of this article. Understanding the symptoms of reliability issues can help one gain a more balanced perspective on topics that are important to them.
Analysis of Reliability in Voice of America Opinion Pieces
Opinion pieces must be separated from traditional fact-based journalism because the nature of these articles requires a certain level of bias to be present. The author of opinion stories will most likely be arguing for a certain side of an issue. This can often lead to an increase in bias, which can in turn lead to an increase in reliability issues due to the author cherry-picking facts or using an increased amount of sources that support their argument.
Quality of Sources and Facts Used
Voice of America publishes a variety of articles, mostly on those of domestic and international policy. One example of this is “Iran Flouting Its Nuclear Commitments” where the author discusses Iran’s behavior regarding nuclear development.
The author in this article employed seven quotations to support their claims, six of these quotes are long quotes while only one was medium length, and the author used no short quotations. This is ideal, longer quotes are better because they allow the reader to gain as much context as possible from the original statement of the person quoted. The opposite is the case with short quotations, as they allow the author of the article to easily take that person’s words out of context or use them for a purpose for which they were not intended.
The author of this article used 3 sources:
- Internation Atomic Energy Agency reports (no links, Biden administration)
- Rosemary Dicarlo, US Ambassador to the UN (appointed under the Obama administration)
- Robert Wood, Representative for Special Political Affairs (Biden administration)
The number of unique sources used within this article is lackluster, generally, the more sources that are made available make the information presented within an article more reliable since more individuals can corroborate the facts that are claimed. Additionally, with no direct link to the report that the article references, it is very challenging for the average reader to verify that the information that the author presents is true. Although, it should be noted that the portions of the reports that the author does reference are correctly referenced from the report. There are no opposite sources used within this article, this is not ideal because opposite sources offer the reader additional context about the situation, allowing the reader to make a more informed opinion.
Selection and Omission Bias
One article portraying the use of selection and omission bias by Voice of America is “Trump Lawyers Lay Out Case for Reversing Hush Money Conviction” where the author throughout the article details methods for which Trump may be able to circumvent the conviction he recently received. The author also intended to lay the framework of how a reversal of the conviction would be possible, however, their sourcing for this information came heavily from Trump’s lawyers who portrayed it as one which is likely for Trump to succeed:
“The use of official-acts evidence was a structural error under the federal Constitution,” defense lawyers Todd Blanche and Emil Bove wrote. “The jury’s verdicts must be vacated.”
How this information was portrayed could lead the reader to infer that the former president is more likely to achieve a reversal of the decision than he is in reality. This is unfortunate as it does not provide a balanced point of view for the reader, while the author does mention once that there may be points of contention in Trump’s lawyers’ position on the subject, the majority of the article does not contain opposing points of view.
Regarding the article discussed in the previous section “Iran Flouting Its Nuclear Commitments”, this article runs into many of the same issues. The article’s few references were all liberal-leaning, the author of the article made no effort to provide opposing viewpoints in the form of a conservative stance, or that of an Iranian position concerning the issue. This article provides the reader with little context regarding the situation apart from that of the Biden administration’s standpoint, which leaves the reader without a balanced viewpoint.
It is important to remember, however, that opinion articles are not meant to be objective, and that when engaging with them it may be common to see similar issues as these. Opinion articles are very rare in Voice of America, and are clearly labeled in a separate section of the site. Opinion pieces can still provide valuable insight into issues, although, it is helpful to be cognisant of markers that may point to bias or reliability issues.
So is Voice of America Reliable?
Considering Voice of America received an Overall Reliability Rating of Fair, it can be assumed that some of what the publication produces can be trusted. Individual articles, such as the ones discussed in this article, may vary in reliability. Understanding the signs of reliability issues can assist in consuming information more effectively and in a balanced fashion. Using tools such as Biasly’s News Check can help provide more insight into the content you consume, as it checks for any bias and reliability issues that an article may have.