Expert Assessment Part 3: Analysis of Potential Bias

Analysis of Potential Bias:



1.) Bias Through Selection and Omission:

This article mostly shows the bad parts of the drug herceptin as well as the tests that show whether or not it is needed. The two other supporting articles pretty much agree with this statement, however, not quite as harshly. The main article seems to have its points clear more than the other two articles

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2.) Bias through Placement:

This article was placed on the front page of the New York Times. This could make the article seem more important than it may be. It may aslo encourage people to be against this treatment because of the importance set on the negatives of this drugs rather than positives in this article.



3.) Bias by Headline:

The title of this article makes the results of the tests of the drugs look unorganized and confused, which could give people a negative impression of the scientists that ran this experiment. This is bias because by making the tests look unorganized, the author is making the readers doubt the ethics of the experiment and they are more likely to be against it.

4.) Bias by Photos, Captions, and Camera Angles: 

This article had only two pictures, both of which were of people that were involved with the research. There was not bias in the pictures, because they were simply photos of the scientists.

5.) Bias through use of Names and Titles:

The main example of a patient with receiving this treatment is a doctor. This is bias because, at the end of the article, the doctor decides not to get the treatment. This might make other people choosing whether or not to get the treatment choose not to, since a doctor, who knows what they are talking about, chose not to get the treatment.

6.) Bias through Statistics and Crowd Counts:

There are several crowd counts about results of the treatment, all of which seem to be accurate and with out bias.

7.) Bias by Source Control:

All of the quotes concerning the technicalities of the drug treatment are from doctors, which makes it seem like their information is from a legitimate source.

8.) Bias by Word Choice and Tone:

There is bias by word choice in the last bit of the article, when the doctor chooses traditional chemotherapy in stead of this new drug. The article says, “… the studies, along with Dr. Winer’s clinical perspective, did not convince her that the drug would help.” This tone is suggesting that since a doctor with a doctor’s perspective was not convinced to get the treatment, no one else should get the treatment, either.