Critical Literacy: Perspectives, Bias and Questions of Beliefs, Values, Identity and Power

A perspective is the point of view every text comes from. A bias is an unfair slant: one-sided, loaded words, missing facts or voices, or stereotypes.

Beliefs, values, identity and power.

Swamp suggests a flood or something overwhelming; handout suggests people want something for nothing. Both make people using the food bank seem like a problem.

Quoted people get power to shape the story. If the people most affected are never quoted, their view is missing.

It links evil to disability or appearance (hunched, scarred) and foreignness (thick foreign accent), not to actions or motives.

Novelists who portrayed Indigenous women characters as stereotypes rather than real people.

Sample: Rising Costs Push Food Bank to Record Month.

Yes. Every text is written from some point of view.

An oversimplified idea about a whole group of people.

Rising rent and grocery prices.

The character or force opposing the main character (often a villain).

Mohawk (Kanien'kehá:ka).

Without a cause, readers may fill the gap with stereotypes (blaming people). Omission can slant a story as much as loaded words.

Not necessarily. It is fairer, but every report has a perspective. Readers could ask whether it includes solutions, what governments are doing, or whether any voices are still missing.

Sample: Elias Carver smiled at the town council and promised jobs, while his trucks dumped waste in the river at night. Look for: menace through choices, not disability, appearance or accent.

People inside a community usually have knowledge and experience outsiders lack; outsiders may repeat stereotypes. It also matters who benefits from and controls the story.

Sample (values): a car ad shows a driver alone on an empty mountain road, valuing freedom and independence and leaving out traffic, cost and the environment.

Sample: Report 2 tells the story from the perspective of downtown businesses. It quotes only a store owner, so people using the food bank are spoken about but never heard. Words like 'swamp' and 'handout' frame them as a burden, and by leaving out rising costs, the report invites readers to blame them. This raises a question about power: when newspapers quote only people with economic influence, whose problems get treated as important, and whose get treated as nuisances?

A strong answer recognizes that readers can enjoy stories and also notice patterns; fiction shapes how people see real groups (for example, linking scars or accents with evil). Critical reading can deepen enjoyment by showing how a story works, and helps readers choose and create fairer stories.

A first-person memoir clearly comes from one person's perspective, but it isn't biased if it is honest about being one view, doesn't distort facts and doesn't stereotype others. Bias appears when a text claims to be complete or neutral while slanting the facts.