Objectivity and Fairness

The concept of objectivity in journalism developed almost a century ago, as a reaction to the sensational, opinion-driven reporting that was common in most newspapers of the day. The term “objectivity” was originally used to describe a journalistic approach or method; journalists would seek to present the news in an objective way, without reflecting any personal or corporate bias.

Over time, objectivity was required from the journalists themselves. The executive editor of the American newspaper The Washington Post, Leonard Downie, took the concept so seriously that he refused to register to vote. But many journalists today concede that total objectivity is impossible. In 1996, the U.S. Society of Professional Journalists dropped the word “objectivity” from its code of ethics. Journalists are human beings, after all. They care about their work and they do have opinions. Claiming that they are completely objective suggests that they have no values. Instead, journalists have largely agreed that they must be aware of their own opinions so they can keep them in check.


The audience should not be able to tell from the story what the journalist’s opinion is. By using an objective, scientific method for verifying information, journalists can report stories that do not reflect their own personal views. The story itself, in other words, should be impartial and fair.

Journalists also strive to be fair in their reporting by not telling one-sided stories. They look for contrasting views and report on them without favoring one side or another. In addition to verifying assertions of fact, they will seek out differing opinions in cases where the facts are in dispute.

Fairness is not the same thing as balance, however. Balance suggests that there are only two sides to any story, which is rarely the case, and that each side should be given equal weight. Journalists who seek that kind of artificial balance in their stories actually may produce coverage that is fundamentally inaccurate. For example, the vast majority of independent economists may agree on the consequences of a particular spending policy while a small handful has a different opinion, which has been proven wrong by past experience. A story giving equal time or space to the views of both groups would be misleading.

The challenge for journalists is to report all significant viewpoints in a way that is fair to those involved and that also presents a complete and honest picture to the audience. “Fairness means, among other things, listening to different viewpoints, and incorporating them into the journalism,” says reporter and blogger Dan Gillmor. “It does not mean parroting lies or distortions to achieve that lazy equivalence that leads some journalists to get opposing quotes when the facts overwhelmingly support one side.”

Observation

 On-the-scene observation is one of the fundamentals of good reporting. Journalists want to witness events for themselves whenever possible so they can describe them accurately to the audience. Good reporters use all of their senses on the scene. They look, listen, smell, taste, and feel the story so the audience can, too.

To do this well, journalists need an accurate record of their observations. A print reporter can do his or her job with a notebook and a pencil or pen, but many also carry audio recorders and cameras, especially if they are expected to file stories for an online edition as well. For radio, journalists need to capture sound, and for television, both sound and video.

Using a recorder is one way of making sure that any quotations you might use are accurate. But electronics have been known to fail, so it’s important for all journalists to be skilled note-takers. Here are some tips on note-taking from experienced reporters:

• Write down facts, details, thoughts, and ideas. Make clear which is which, and where they came from.

• Draw diagrams of rooms, scenes, or items in relationship to each other.

• Always get correctly spelled names, titles, and contact information. Ask for birth date and year, to make sure you have the person’s age right.

• Spell out interview ground rules in the notebook.

• Don’t crowd the notebook. Leave space for annotating notes.

• Leave the inside covers blank to write down questions to ask later.

• Annotate the notes as soon as possible.

Many reporters use their own shorthand for common words so they can take notes more quickly. They annotate their notes, spelling out abbreviations to avoid any confusion later.

They also will mark the most important information they have learned, good quotes they may use in the story, anything they need to follow up on or check for accuracy, and questions that still need to be answered.

It sounds obvious, but reporters must be sure they have the tools they need before heading out to cover a story: notebook, pen, tape or digital recorder, and fresh batteries. There’s nothing more embarrassing than arriving on the scene only to discover there is no film or tape in the camera, or that the only pen in your pocket is out of ink.

 Today’s journalists often carry additional tools: a mobile telephone and a laptop computer. A few other simple items can be useful, as well. Putting a rubber band around your notebook to mark the next blank page makes it easy to find quickly. A plastic bag will protect your notebook when it rains, so the pages stay dry and the ink doesn’t run. A small pair of binoculars will help you see what’s going on even if you can’t get very close. A calculator will help you convert information like the number of tons of fuel carried by an aircraft into terms more familiar to the audience, in this case, liters or gallons. 

Where the News Comes From :

Journalists find news in all sorts of places, but most stories originate in one of three basic ways:

• Naturally occurring events, like disasters and accidents

• Planned activities, like meetings and news conferences

• Reporters’ enterprise.

Unplanned events frequently become major news stories. A ferry sinking, a plane crash, a tsunami, or a mudslide is newsworthy not just when it happens but often for days and weeks afterwards. The extent of the coverage depends in part on proximity and who was involved. A fatal automobile accident in Paris might not be big news on any given day. But an accident in Paris in 1997 was a huge news story, not just in France but also around the world, because one of the victims was Britain’s Princess Diana.

Citizens who witness a disaster will often contact a news organization. Journalists also learn about these events from first responders: police, fire, or rescue officials. In some countries, news organizations are able to monitor emergency communications between first responders and can dispatch journalists to the scene quickly so they can watch the story unfold.

In many newsrooms, the most obvious source of news is the daily schedule of events in town, which includes government meetings, business openings, or community events. Often called a “daybook,” this list of activities is not automatically newsworthy but it provides a good starting point for reporters searching for news. Reporters who regularly cover specific kinds of issues or institutions, also called “beat” reporters, say they often get story ideas by looking at agendas for upcoming meetings.

Press releases can be another source of news, but again, they are just a starting point. Dozens of press releases arrive in newsrooms every day, by mail, by fax, or even on video via satellite. Government officials and agencies generate many of them, but other large organizations like private businesses and non-profit groups also issue press releases to let the news media know what they are doing.

A press release may resemble a news story but because it is produced by someone with a vested interest in the subject it is not likely to tell the complete story. Press releases may be factually correct, but they usually include only those facts that reflect positively on the person or organization featured in the release. Even if a press release looks newsworthy, a professional journalist first must verify its authenticity, and then begin asking questions to determine the real story before deciding if it’s worth reporting.

Staged events, such as demonstrations, also can produce news, but journalists must be wary of being manipulated by the organizers who want to tell only their side of the story. Politicians have become adept at staging events and “photo opportunities” in order to attract coverage, even when they have no real news value. That does not mean journalists should ignore these events, but only that they need to do additional reporting to get a complete story.

Most reporters say their best stories come from their own enterprise. Sometimes story suggestions come from strangers, who may visit, telephone, or e-mail the newsroom with a complaint or concern. Some news organizations actively solicit ideas from people who live in the communities they serve, by providing a telephone number or an e-mail address where suggestions can be submitted. Journalists spend a lot of time building relationships with people who can provide them with information.

Journalists frequently find stories simply by looking around and listening to what people are talking about. What you overhear at a sports event or in line at the post office could turn into a news story. Ask the people you meet when you are not covering a story what is going on in their lives or their neighborhoods and you might find yourself on the trail of a news story no one else has covered.

Another way to find news is to ask what has happened since the last time a story was in the paper or on the air. Follow-ups often lead to surprising developments that are even more newsworthy than the original report. For example, a story about a fire the day after it happened might tell you how many people were killed and the extent of the property damage. But a follow-up several weeks later could discover that a faulty radio system made it impossible for firefighters to respond quickly enough to save more lives.

Documents, data, and public records can lead to terrific stories as well. Reporters can use them to look for trends or to spot irregularities. This kind of work requires more effort, but the results are almost always worth the trouble. It’s considerably easier when the data are made available electronically, of course, but reporters have been known to enter data from paper records into computer database programs just so they can search for the most significant information in a pile of statistics. For example, a list of people who have received speeding tickets might yield a story if it could be sorted by name instead of date.

Principles of Jounalism

In 1997 the Committee of Concerned Journalists, then administered by the Project for Excellence in Journalism, began a national conversation in the United States to identify and clarify the principles that underlie journalism. The group released a Statement of Shared Purpose that identified nine principles. These became the basis for the ' Elements of Journalism', a book by PEJ director Tom Rosenstiel and CCJ chairman and PEJ senior counselor Bill Kovach.

Here are those principles, as outlined in the original Statement of Shared Purpose.

Statement of Purpose :

The central purpose of journalism is to provide citizens with accurate and reliable information they need to function in a free society. This encompasses myriad roles — helping define community; creating common language and common knowledge; identifying a community’s goals, heros and villains; and pushing people beyond complacency. This purpose also involves other requirements, such as being entertaining, serving as watchdog and offering voice to the voiceless.

Over time journalists have developed nine core principles to meet the task. They comprise what might be described as the theory of journalism:

1. Journalism’s first obligation is to the truth

Democracy depends on citizens having reliable, accurate facts put in a meaningful context. Journalism does not pursue truth in an absolute or philosophical sense, but it can — and must — pursue it in a practical sense. This “journalistic truth” is a process that begins with the professional discipline of assembling and verifying facts. Then journalists try to convey a fair and reliable account of their meaning, valid for now, subject to further investigation. Journalists should be as transparent as possible about sources and methods so audiences can make their own assessment of the information. Even in a world of expanding voices, accuracy is the foundation upon which everything else is built — context, interpretation, comment, criticism, analysis and debate. The truth, over time, emerges from this forum. As citizens encounter an ever greater flow of data, they have more need — not less — for identifiable sources dedicated to verifying that information and putting it in context.

2. Its first loyalty is to citizens

While news organizations answer to many constituencies, including advertisers and shareholders, the journalists in those organizations must maintain allegiance to citizens and the larger public interest above any other if they are to provide the news without fear or favor. This commitment to citizens first is the basis of a news organization’s credibility, the implied covenant that tells the audience the coverage is not slanted for friends or advertisers. Commitment to citizens also means journalism should present a representative picture of all constituent groups in society. Ignoring certain citizens has the effect of disenfranchising them. The theory underlying the modern news industry has been the belief that credibility builds a broad and loyal audience, and that economic success follows in turn. In that regard, the business people in a news organization also must nurture — not exploit — their allegiance to the audience ahead of other considerations.

3. Its essence is a discipline of verification

Journalists rely on a professional discipline for verifying information. When the concept of objectivity originally evolved, it did not imply that journalists are free of bias. It called, rather, for a consistent method of testing information — a transparent approach to evidence — precisely so that personal and cultural biases would not undermine the accuracy of their work. The method is objective, not the journalist. Seeking out multiple witnesses, disclosing as much as possible about sources, or asking various sides for comment, all signal such standards. This discipline of verification is what separates journalism from other modes of communication, such as propaganda, fiction or entertainment. But the need for professional method is not always fully recognized or refined. While journalism has developed various techniques for determining facts, for instance, it has done less to develop a system for testing the reliability of journalistic interpretation.

4. Its practitioners must maintain an independence from those they cover

Independence is an underlying requirement of journalism, a cornerstone of its reliability. Independence of spirit and mind, rather than neutrality, is the principle journalists must keep in focus. While editorialists and commentators are not neutral, the source of their credibility is still their accuracy, intellectual fairness and ability to inform — not their devotion to a certain group or outcome. In our independence, however, we must avoid any tendency to stray into arrogance, elitism, isolation or nihilism.

5. It must serve as an independent monitor of power

Journalism has an unusual capacity to serve as watchdog over those whose power and position most affect citizens. The Founders recognized this to be a rampart against despotism when they ensured an independent press; courts have affirmed it; citizens rely on it. As journalists, we have an obligation to protect this watchdog freedom by not demeaning it in frivolous use or exploiting it for commercial gain.

6. It must provide a forum for public criticism and compromise


The news media are the common carriers of public discussion, and this responsibility forms a basis for our special privileges. This discussion serves society best when it is informed by facts rather than prejudice and supposition. It also should strive to fairly represent the varied viewpoints and interests in society, and to place them in context rather than highlight only the conflicting fringes of debate. Accuracy and truthfulness require that as framers of the public discussion we not neglect the points of common ground where problem solving occurs.

7. It must strive to make the significant interesting and relevant

Journalism is storytelling with a purpose. It should do more than gather an audience or catalogue the important. For its own survival, it must balance what readers know they want with what they cannot anticipate but need. In short, it must strive to make the significant interesting and relevant. The effectiveness of a piece of journalism is measured both by how much a work engages its audience and enlightens it. This means journalists must continually ask what information has most value to citizens and in what form. While journalism should reach beyond such topics as government and public safety, a journalism overwhelmed by trivia and false significance ultimately engenders a trivial society.

8. It must keep the news comprehensive and proportional


Keeping news in proportion and not leaving important things out are also cornerstones of truthfulness. Journalism is a form of cartography: it creates a map for citizens to navigate society. Inflating events for sensation, neglecting others, stereotyping or being disproportionately negative all make a less reliable map. The map also should include news of all our communities, not just those with attractive demographics. This is best achieved by newsrooms with a diversity of backgrounds and perspectives. The map is only an analogy; proportion and comprehensiveness are subjective, yet their elusiveness does not lessen their significance.

9. Its practitioners must be allowed to exercise their personal conscience


Every journalist must have a personal sense of ethics and responsibility — a moral compass. Each of us must be willing, if fairness and accuracy require, to voice differences with our colleagues, whether in the newsroom or the executive suite. News organizations do well to nurture this independence by encouraging individuals to speak their minds. This stimulates the intellectual diversity necessary to understand and accurately cover an increasingly diverse society. It is this diversity of minds and voices, not just numbers, that matters.

10. Citizens, too, have rights and responsibilities when it comes to the news

5 Ws and 1 H

               

 Reporting is a painstaking process that involves collecting facts and checking them carefully for accuracy. Journalists sometimes witness stories first-hand, but more typically they learn the details from others who have experienced something directly or who are experts in the topic. That information is reinforced or corroborated by additional sources, and checked against documentary evidence in public records, reports, or archives.

The information a journalist collects should answer questions that are commonly known as the five W’s and an H: who, what, where, when, why, and how. Depending on the complexity of the story, a reporter might ask those questions in several different ways.

WHO:

• Who is involved in this story?

• Who is affected by it?

• Who is the best person to tell the story?

• Who is missing from this story? Who has more information about this?

• Who is in conflict in this story? Do they have anything in common?

• Who else should I talk to about this?

WHAT:

• What happened?

• What is the point of this story? What am I really trying to say?

• What does the reader, viewer, or listener need to know to understand this story?

• What surprised me? What is the most important single fact I learned?

• What is the history here? What happens next?

• What can people do about it?

WHERE:

• Where did this happen?

• Where else should I go to get the full story?

• Where is this story going next? How will it end?

WHEN:

• When did this happen?

• When did the turning points occur in this story?

• When should I report this story?

WHY:

• Why is this happening? Is it an isolated case or part of a trend?

• Why are people behaving the way they are? What are their motives?

• Why does this story matter? Why should anyone watch, read, or listen to it?

• Why am I sure I have this story right?

HOW:

• How did this happen?

• How will things be different because of what happened?

• How will this story help the reader, listener, or viewer? The community?

• How did I get this information? Is the attribution clear?

• How would someone describe this story to a friend?

Many reporters use mental checklists like this one to make sure they have covered all of the important elements of a story.

An Introduction to Journalism

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Intro to Press Law and Ethics

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What makes a story Newsworthy

                     

“When a dog bites a man, that is not news … But if a man bites a dog that is news.”

John B. Bogart (1845-1921)

City Editor of the New York Sun     

So what makes a news story newsworthy? To be newsworthy, a story must be factual and presented in an interesting manner. The news story must contain information that is of broad interest to an intended audience. To be newsworthy, a news story should contain some of the following elements:

Impact:  How many people were affected by an event? A problem with the electricity utility line that causes a blackout for several hours in the city has an impact because it affects your audience directly. A report that 10 children died in a fire at school has an impact too, because the audience will have a strong emotional response to the story.


Timeliness: Did something just happen or is it going to happen very soon? In a weekly newspaper or magazine, anything that happened since the previous edition can be considered timely. As compared to a 24 hour news channel the timeliest news will be in a breaking news report or something that a reporter is covering live at a scene.

Prominence:  Does the story concern a well known person or place? People are always interested in well known people, places and events. Activities or events become news if a prominent person is involved like a musician or film star. A plane crash in Ethiopia would make the front page headlines if the prime minister or president were on board the plane.

Controversy:  Are people in a disagreement over something? People are generally interested in stories that involve conflict, tensions, opposing point of views or actions. People like to take sides and see whose position will win. Conflict doesn’t always mean having one person’s view against another. It could also entail stories such as a UN Humanitarians trying to battle the cholera epidemic in Haiti or efforts to rescue thousands of displaced people from a flood in Pakistan.

Proximity:  Did something happen near your home or in your neighborhood? Something that happens close by always attracts the interest of the reader more than something that has happened far away. A train accident in China will not be front page news in a newspaper in Somaliland unless it was carrying passengers from Somaliland.

Unusual: Did something unusual happen? A news story that is extraordinary and unexpected will always appeal to readers. As the popular saying in journalism goes, “When a dog bites a man that is not news. But when a man bites a dog that is news.”

Human Interest: Did the story catch your interest? Was it emotional or did it win your sympathy? A personal story about people has universal appeal. A story of a world famous person who grew up in a place of conflict is a story involving a prominent person and is an unusual story that people can discuss among their friends.

Different groups of people have different lifestyles and concerns, which make them interested in different types of news.

A radio news program targeted at younger listeners might include stories about music and sports stars that would not be featured in a business newspaper aimed at older, wealthier readers.

A weekly magazine that covers medical news would report on the testing of an experimental drug because the doctors who read the publication presumably would be interested. But unless the drug is believed to cure a well-known disease, most general interest local newspapers would ignore the story. The exception might be the newspaper in the community where the research is being conducted.

News organizations see their work as a public service, so news is made up of information that people need to know in order to go about their daily lives and to be productive citizens in a democracy. However, most news organizations are also businesses that have to make a profit to survive, so the news also includes items that will draw an audience; Stories people may want to know about just because they’re interesting.