It is always said around that journalists and reporters should have objectivity and fairness. Many news companies have also added these remarks as their mantra to show that they are very fair and well balanced than their counterparts. Objectivity means that when covering new that is so tough, reporters should not show their personal feelings, their own biases or prejudice in their stores. They should report everything by using a neutral language and do their best to avoid charactering individuals and institutions negatively or positively.
At the beginning of your journalism career, you might find it hard to keep up with. This happens because you are mostly familiar with writing personal journals and essays. The frequent usage of adjectives is one trap that beginner writes fall into and they easily show how they feel about a subject.
Objective journalism
Objective journalism should state the facts and put them in the right context. Subjective journalism on the other hand, has been renamed to be advocacy journalism and it mainly reports the news from a biased view point that is very intentional. This is mostly used to promote a particular standing. It could be a political standing, social value and positions that will only have direct benefits to the News Company or agency. In 1972, Walter Cronkite was identifies as America’s most trusted man. He was so good with reporting the news with in-depth information without using any personal bias, and this was his career trademark. Walter was always prepared and feared nothing when it came to asking tough questions to politicians and other government officials not withstanding their political identity. Objective journalism has the same guidelines about giving unbiased understanding to the audience.
Subjective journalism
The return of advocacy journalism has been greatly influenced by the popularity of talk shows and many others. Subjective reporting does not have any shame when bringing in personal beliefs and motives into the news rooms. You will even find matters that were confidential and need only to be addressed to editors can now be found on the headlines and front pages. Advocacy journalists support their shenanigans of the media to only defend people and positions hence giving voice to people who cannot stand for themselves outside journalism reports.
Fairness
To be fair as a journalist, you always need to know that there are two sides of the story and common with many issues, they always have viewpoints that differ. Both parties should be given equal space in a news story or editorial. For example, if the school board at your local school is debating whether they should ban a selection of books from the libraries. They will have to bring in many residents of the region who will represent both sides of the story while at the meeting.
A journalist may have strong feelings about a certain subjects and without taking sides, they should interview both parties to get views from all of them. And after doing this, they should cover both arguments as they write their story and use neutral language. This act will give both conflicting sides equal space to be investigated.
Reporters conduct
Objectivity and fairness not only apply to the way a reporter writes concerning an issue, but also how they carry themselves in public. A reported should not only be fair and objective when they write stories and news, but they should also be objective and fair in how they act in their daily life.
From the above example of a school board meeting, the reporter may make a good gesture by interviewing people with different views about the subject. But if the journalist shoots up in the middle of the meeting and starts shouting about what they feel about banning of the books, then their credibility will have been thrown out the window. Everyone in the room will have doubts about them and they will not be believed to be fair and objective.
One skill that a reporter should learn is how to keep their prejudice numb when they are on the job. When the audience of the news organization wants to hear the facts, truth and depth of the story, the company has to take risks by choosing advocacy journalism. By doing this, news organizations are jeopardizing their position and could be branded as propaganda outlets rather than reputable news companies. When political, personal and social agendas are put before the truth, the trust of the public is broken.
Caveats to remember
There are some caveats to remember when thinking about fairness and objectivity. First, the rules of fairness and objectivity apply to journalists covering tough news. It does not matter to the columnist who writes for the op-ed or the art section movie critic. The second consideration is that, reporters are always looking for the truth. While being objective and fair is important, a journalist should not get in the way of columnists and editors in finding the truth.
For instance, if you are a journalist writing about the end days of the world war two and you are behind the allied forces as they free people from concentration camps. You manage to find a way into such a camp and see the hundreds of emaciated, weary people and loads of dead bodies. In an effort to be objective, will you call an American soldier for an interview to talk about how shocking you find this, and then proceed to get the other side of the story from a Nazi official? Of course it is not possible, this is a position where evil acts have taken place, and your job as a reporter is to tell the truth. The point to note here is that always use objectivity and fairness as tools of finding the truth.
News vs. propaganda
A successful journalist is able to follow through both sides of a story and have a good eye in distinguishing the two. Journalists need to evaluate news objectively and give their viewers the exact contexts and deep understanding of the situation. Journalists and reporters in the United States have been known for a long time to be protecting the small guy from being found by the powerful and rich. But when news companies use this ability to influence people’s opinion and people’s behavior to financially benefit themselves, it creates indifference between news and propaganda.
Conclusion
Being a journalist has so many advantages to the public more than even the journalist themselves. Everyone is always looking to get a well-researched story that will perfectly reflect the society’s expectations. That is why as a journalist, you need to have objectivity as a truth seeking tool by your side. When your audience expects you to tell the truth and you end up lying about something, you will be jeopardizing your position and that of your company. If you have to use advocacy journalism, do it for the right purposes and not with reasons that would cause harm to parties involved.
