Biased Motoring journalists / authors

[AntiYoyta]

Hi guys


Let me just jump in and start by asking: Have you guys & girls, ever noticed how motoring journalist have the subconscious need to praise their brand of preference?

Have a look at the following two articles:

1) Extreme bakkie for SA: Would you retest your licence to drive a monster Shelby F-150 (https://www.wheels24.co.za/OffRoad_and_4x4/Bakkie_and_SUV/extreme-bakkie-for-sa-would-you-retest-your- licence-to-drive-a-monster-shelby-f-150-20180606)

For those who didn't know, Shelby will be bringing a couple of the (IMO) awesome Ford F150 trucks/bakkies to South Africa, in RHD. That should be a good thing. Something to get excited about. Yet, the author (I'll rather not mention his name), a clearly local a Toyota fanboy, had to bash the vehicle. I can only presume, to take attention away from Ford, since Toyota do sell well in this country and any form of competition would be bad for his brand of preference.

This guy is already bringing this exciting (IMO) product down, by assuming one might need a special license to drive one. A whole article about it. The way this author chose his words was in such a way negative as to lure potential buys away from owning and driving this monster of a truck. Bakkie, doesn't do this vehicle justice!

To quote the author: "And that would require you to go for some training and a new licence evaluation before you are allowed to drive your multi-million Rand Shelby bakkie". I wonder if he would have published such a sentence, if it was some fancy Toyota bakkie...

2) South Africa's love affair with bakkies (https://www.wheels24.co.za/OffRoad_and_4x4/Bakkie_and_SUV/south-africans-love-affair-with-bakkies-20180605)

This same author (yes, he's under my radar), published this article about SA's love for bakkies. Great. He starts of with his paragraph of the Hilux (surprised!). Then, the second paragraph, is the Rangers turn for its paragraph. Yet, our local Toyota fanboy, keeps babbling about the Hilux, even though that model's turn is over. Even starting two sentences with the Hilux, even though the paragraph is supposed to be about the Ford Ranger.

Best of all, the VW Vivo & VW Polo each gets a paragraph. Keep in mind the title of his article "South Africa's love affair with bakkies". Last I checked, the Vivo and Polo are not bakkies, mr. Lance Branquinho.


I'm going to try and add new articles of each author which appears to favour one brand over the other. Being fancy word use or simply focussing more articles on one specific brand.

 

[kripstoe]

Uh, ok... :wtf:

Do you perhaps have a personal gripe with the guy?

This guy is already bringing this exciting (IMO) product down, by assuming one might need a special license to drive one. A whole article about it.

You need a Code 10/C1 license. A different journalist wrote a similar article. So you're saying they're both anti-whatever-brand you like?

Best of all, the VW Vivo & VW Polo each gets a paragraph. Keep in mind the title of his article "South Africa's love affair with bakkies". Last I checked, the Vivo and Polo are not bakkies, mr. Lance Branquinho.

The article is not about bakkies. It's about how the sales figures reflect the love of bakkies.

 

[Arthur]

Bias isn't a bad thing. In fact, sound thinking will rightly produce the right sort of bias. And being biased towards you own preferences and tastes is perfectly ok. Personally, I'm biased towards larger engines and faster motorcycles, for example.

Your own alias explicitly says you're against Yoyta - a clear case of bias.

Prejudice is probably what you mean.

Admittedly a quick scan, but I see no immediate evidence of prejudice in articles/views above.

 

[AntiYoyta]

Journalist, authors, call you what you want. They have the 'power' to influence the sales of vehicles. If old J Clarkson likes a car, it's all good. If not, it's bad. That's like the ridiculous rule many live by.

According to the author, you'll most likely need a special license. Throwing a spanner in the works, so to speak. Last I checked, articles, needing a special license, wasn't published for the MB G63 6X6. So why bring the Ford F150 down?

You are correct, the 2nd article I mentioned, was about sales. Yet 1, he gave the article a wrong title, and 2, keeps on babbling about the Hilux (Ranger being the only Hilux threat), even though the Hilux had its turn for a paragraph.

Try and see what I'm saying. Some authors subconsciously bring weaker brand down, in order to praise his or her preferred brand (hence biased).

 

[FiestaST]

I think you are overthinking it. We as humans are inherently designed to have certain biasness or favour one thing over another thing.

Personally the Wheels24 lot are relatively the worse of the local journalists around ito easily influenced.

My 2c of course.

 

[Sinbad]

Journalist, authors, call you what you want. They have the 'power' to influence the sales of vehicles. If old J Clarkson likes a car, it's all good. If not, it's bad. That's like the ridiculous rule many live by.

According to the auth.

That's not true. According to top gear mag, of the choice of models of my car, the one I have is the one to avoid. I wouldn't have any of the others.

 

[R13...]

Aren't they all biased. David Bullard stopped receiving test cars due to his unpopular views. Car manufacturers prefer canned reviewera

 

[stroller]

Car magazine can, without any shadow of doubt, be considered an in-house magazine for VW.

Not only in their biased reviews of VW/Audi vehicles but also the editorial dedicated to VW products.

They have this raunched out phrase of "perceived quality" out of all proportion whenever they describe any feature of a VW or Audi.

I'm not saying that VW cars are crap, my submission is that Car magazine oversell the brand to the extent that their opinion loses all credibility whenever they mention VW.

 

[AntiYoyta]

Let me not get started with Car Magazine.

Some serious bias/prejudice... going on over there.

There's this one guy which seriously takes the nail/screw. Not sure if I can name names.

 

[Drifter]

I can do one better. A WHOLE magazine is biased to one brand. That will be CAR and their love for VW/Audi.

 

[AntiYoyta]

For those who might have read this post might think, so what? Who cares?

Problem is, hundreds, if not thousands trust what motoring authors publish. They take their word for it very seriously.

Thus, if the public reads he or she likes a car, it must probably be good. Same with the opposite.

In other words, if an author/journalist/writer writes how he, enjoyed a car, it'll be perceived as a great car.

What gets to me, is how after a while, one can see patterns in their preference. Things such as, if it's either German or Japanese, it's automatically better.

And if he sees a threat, he/she can be "creative" and bring a car down, if it's not Japanese, as an example.

These are the things which influence sales. We live in a world where, if it sells well, it must be better.

Coca Cola, as an example, sells extremely well the globe over. But that doesn't mean it's the best for you. In the same breath, you can say, if VW/Toyota sells very well, it's not necessarily the best product out there.

Guess it can come down to quantity vs quality. Sorry, going bit off topic here...

I only read local motoring news from Wheels24 & Motoring.co.za . When I read something which doesn't seem fair, I'll be posting it in this thread.

Please join me.

 

[RanzB]

Journalist, authors, call you what you want. They have the 'power' to influence the sales of vehicles. If old J Clarkson likes a car, it's all good.

From what I recall of old TG, they used to endlessely rag on Toyotas and Hyundais. How are their sales, compared to say, Alfa Romeos?

 

[AntiYoyta]

..with regards to Top Gear, I try and avoid that show.

Sure, it's entertaining. What I don't like, is their fancy camera use, filters, cool looking video's. Eye-candy to promote a car. Then the cherry on top, and which really gets to me, is when the use movie themes to try and make a car look cool.

The most frustrating part of all, is when they use American movie themes (songs from American movies), to make (as an example) Japanese car look cool!

...yet back at the ranch, Top Gear, in general, doesn't like American cars. But they use American films’ movie themes to try and make Japanese cars looks great. (other brands too, off course).

Add those funky and great looking filters on their video's about the cars, and it's one big advertisement for what they think looks great (their personal preference).

I say, get Japanese music, to make Japanese cars look great & use American themed music (I'm not talking patriotic stuff), to make American cars look great. That's just fair.

Those guys are serious paid entertainers. PAID ENTERTAINERS, being the two keywords here.

IMO

 

[RanzB]

I mean, you're the one that brought up Clarkson.

 

[Kloofvreter]

Journalist, authors, call you what you want. They have the 'power' to influence the sales of vehicles. If old J Clarkson likes a car, it's all good. If not, it's bad. That's like the ridiculous rule many live by.

No it's not.

 

[ArtyLoop]

Ah journalism... that ethically questionable profession..

 

[Kloofvreter]

Ah journalism... that ethically questionable profession..

I'm going to have to agree. Journalists are mostly scum.

 

[SykomantiS]

Journalist, authors, call you what you want. They have the 'power' to influence the sales of vehicles. If old J Clarkson likes a car, it's all good. If not, it's bad. That's like the ridiculous rule many live by.

According to the author, you'll most likely need a special license. Throwing a spanner in the works, so to speak. Last I checked, articles, needing a special license, wasn't published for the MB G63 6X6. So why bring the Ford F150 down?

You are correct, the 2nd article I mentioned, was about sales. Yet 1, he gave the article a wrong title, and 2, keeps on babbling about the Hilux (Ranger being the only Hilux threat), even though the Hilux had its turn for a paragraph.

Try and see what I'm saying. Some authors subconsciously bring weaker brand down, in order to praise his or her preferred brand (hence biased).

http://www.leisurewheels.co.za/4x4-news/six-wheelers-6x6-best/

Ten of these babies were sold in SA, with a starting price of around R10 million. And besides a fairly thick wallet, you also need a Code 10 licence to drive the vehicle on the road.

It seems you would be wrong.
I'm not seeing any [malevolent] bias in either articles. Maybe some poor writing at best (found a typo or two- words left out- which indicates poor proof reading at least). Most of what is contained in those articles (at least in the second one regarding sales figures) looks to me like facts- with some educated guesses based on previous valid information. I really don't see the problem here.

Regarding the specific mention in the op of the author still rattling off about the Hilux when clearly that segment is about the Ranger- again, I see [possible] reasons given as to why the Ranger is second to the Hilux. Again, maybe it's poor writing from the perspective of Toyota instead of Ford, but the outcome would still be the same.

I do agree that some bias exist and from memory, I've seen much worse examples than the two articles in the op.

Imo, it seems you might have a grudge with this specific author.

 

[Sepeng]

Yeah I doubt anyone takes Clarkson and Co seriously when it comes to making a car decision - Top Gear (and that new one they're in) are fun shows that happens to have cars, not car advice shows.

Locals mags and online places - look what I will concede is, they often lament the fact that people stick to their traditional brands yet in many comparison tests they give the newcomer grief cos it doesn't have the established dealer network or the same resale value. Look at the Euro car of the year winners (even runner up) the last few years - Peugot 3008, 308, Astra, Passat, Cactus, Gulia - never seen them close to winning any comparison test here (maybe the Alfa is an exception). Mags seem to gloss over the failings of some cars (yes we had a gearbox issue but it wasn't that big of a deal). But that's natural to some extent.

 

[AntiYoyta]

I hear you. Even though the Merc is stupidly expensive, people bought it.

Yet, you are missing the point:

As far as I can remember, nowhere has a whole article been published simply on the fact you need a special license to own a future Ford/Shelby F-150.

From what I can see, this author loves his Toyota's. Since the Hilux sells so well in South Africa, any possible threat, which might take some limelight away from Toyota, he is trying to bring down to place a wet blanket over any potential Ford F150 buyers considering one.

As an example, I'd wonder if that author will publish a similar negative article about some forbidden Toyota fruit product, not available to us locally.

See where I'm going?