ISSUES AND THE NEWS: RETHINKING OBJECTIVITY

For or against?

I initially believed that as a budding media professional I was completely ‘for’ objectivity, that for a journalist to be biased would be unprofessional, unethical, and against one of the fundamental pillars upon which good reporting is based. However, I realized that I am more in favour of receiving the whole story, of gaining some insight and understanding about the issues which are being reported on, about discovering the truth of a matter free from political spin or ‘balancing’ which distorts and misrepresents public opinion. I want to know what is really going on, not the superficial, vanilla-flavored, PR-polished, censored version of events. It may be argued that analysis of issues should be left to the politicians, and that it is up to journalists to report on what they see, rather than what they believe. But, as ‘society’s watchdogs’ it is imperative that journalists are able to give readers greater context and insight into issues, and if they need to include analysis in order to do so and keep public officials accountable, they should be able to. I still believe that personal biases in reporting can prove very detrimental, but I also believe that when objectivity distorts the real state of affairs and presents the reader with a misleading, or blatantly false perception, the situation is just as dire. Bias disguised as journalistic integrity is not doing journalists, or society at large, any favors.