Bias In Super Size Me

Bias: Bias is when a documentary has an inclination towards a particular view or opinion. It is important when creating a documentary that all opinions and views are recognised and explored in the film and that it doesn’t focus entirely on one side of the story. An example of a documentary that is biased is Super Size Me, directed by Morgan Spurlock. The documentary primarily focuses on the detrimental effects of fast food and it does not mention any positive effects it could have. The documentary shows Spurlock living off McDonald’s food for 30 days in order to display to the audience how badly his health is affected. However, Spurlock purposely limits the amount of exercise he does and mainly chooses high calorie food from the menu. This is influencing the documentary as he could have chosen a salad or done some more exercise and the negative health effects would not have been so severe. The only factual information used in the documentary highlights how bad fast food is and there is no
When creating a documentary, it is important to make sure that your personal opinion will not influence the story. For example, news readers must make sure that their opinion doesn't influence the story that they are telling. If the news reader was to base the report off of their personal view then this will cause bias and the audience will lose interest. For this reason it is vital to include all opinions and come to a fair and balanced conclusion. An example of a factual programme that includes both sides of the story equally and is balanced is Supersize Vs. Super Skinny. In this programme, the health issues surrounding over-eating are discussed, however they also give a fair argument about the health issues surrounding under-eating. For this reason, I think that this programme is balanced as it informs the audience on how to eat