Detecting Political Bias in Sociology Articles

Sociology is a field that seems to attract the extremes from both political sides, as well as a few extremes from political sides that no one even knew existed. As Anthony Giddens said, it might be difficult to determine if there is a particular bias toward one political view or another in Sociology, but there are ways to at least get an idea of it, and that is to examine some Sociology features. It is very possible that there is simply no political bias at all, but that remains to be determined.

The first feature examined, Born Amid Bullets (Auyero, 2013), examines the difficulties of Latin Americans, particularly children, living in smaller villages. The article puts the violence in a negative light simply because of its influence on those not involved in the war, rather than those actively affected by the war, such as the soldiers and, to an extent, politicians. The article seems to have a somewhat liberal tone to it due to its sympathy for those not in a position to properly defend themselves, such as the poor and children, while also putting forth something of an anti-violence message that permeates the article. The article also puts a sort of pro-education message into it, stressing the need for children to ensure that they understand how and why the violence around them is occurring, and how they can possibly stop it in the future.

The second article examined is called The (Mis)Education of Monica and Karen (Hamilton and Armstrong, 2012). This feature article looks at two women who grew up and went to college together and examines some of the struggles they faced in the process. The main point of the article is that many colleges in the United States are not adequate for a number of reasons. Most notably, they are designed more for students who have more money than sense and graduate with a sense of entitlement, so to speak. In this sense, they shun students who are more “average,” such as Monica and Karen in favor of those who have outstanding grades, are out of state, or, most importantly, have lots of money. The article seems to almost take a socialist tone when discussing how so many of the colleges in America are monetized so much. In this sense, the article is very liberal. However, it also has tones of anti-authority and government, who they partially blame, so, in that sense, the article is more right-wing.

The third article examined, New Ways of Bowling Together (Hart-Brinson, 2012), looks at a new form of recreation known as civic recreation, which is where one engages in a leisure activity such as bike riding in order to gain awareness for a cause, such as breast cancer. The concept for this article is fairly moderate in nature, although the author does make several allusions to liberty and political liberalism through civic recreation. However, there was no undertone of politics in this feature. The only statement the article seemed to want to make is that it is possible for people to converge and support a single cause together and get fit in doing so. This article is definitely moderate.

The final article examined is called The Roots of American Decline (Lachmann, 2011). This article looks at several aspects of the United States, the economy in particular, and explains how these trends indicate a general decline in the American way of life. The article seems to have a right-wing flavor to it due to its disdain of high authority and strong favoritism of American military might, both general concepts favored by Republicans.

From examining the articles above, it was difficult to determine a clear political bias one way or another. However, there is a slight hint of left-winged favoritism apparent after reading a number of articles on the site. This seems to jive with probably one of the most widely-held beliefs about Sociology (that it is another way for left-wingers to “get the word out.”) This stereotype seems to be false, or at least not as true as many believe, due to the moderate or even right-winged nature of some of the articles on the website.

Works Cited

Auyero, Javier. "Born Amid Bullets." Contexts 12.1 (2013): 24-29.

Hamilton, Laura, and Elizabeth A. Armstrong. "The (Mis) Education of Monica and Karen." Contexts 11.4 (2012): 22-27.

Hart-Brinson, Peter. "New Ways of Bowling Together?." Contexts 10.4 (2011): 28-33.

Lachmann, Richard. "The Roots of American Decline." Contexts 10.1 (2011): 44-49.