So, the question at hand is how do journalists cover news and
report stories while firmly planted in neutrality?
As we learned in
the "The Elements of Journalism," neutrality is not a fundamental
principle of journalism. Rather, it is predicated upon principles of honesty
and truthfulness that journalism is founded. It is the journalist's
responsibility to be able to create distance between themselves and the story
and sources. Granted, the journalist will innately house opinions and
perspectives specific to himself or herself—this is a given, and justifiably
so. The difficulty and expertise then lies in the journalist’s capacity to
create an unbiased, entirely honest story while still retaining his or her own
personal view.
I can’t even imagine the difficulty some journalists face as they
cover stories that probably hit really close to home for them. It must
be so tough to report an event as an observer without inserting personal
opinions or without even shading the story so as to reflect one side over
another. This then represents the incredible skill journalists accommodate as
they practice and create a habit of honest journalism, untainted by personal bias,
yet without compromising the journalist’s own perspective.
Journalists aren't here to conform and become flat individuals
devoid of opinions , nor are they here to drench our news with their
partiality. Journalists are here to bring us honest news, while still
maintaining a real interest in current events, as any involved citizen would.
This silly cartoon portrays biased journalism:
This website takes a further look into journalists' responsibility to remain unbiased even on social media, or better yet, ESPECIALLY on social media:
No comments:
Post a Comment