background preloader

Journalism

Facebook Twitter

Principles of Journalism. The first three years of the Project’s work involved listening and talking with journalists and others around the country about what defines the work.

Principles of Journalism

What emerged out of those conversations are the following nine core principles 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. 2. 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. 3. Journalists rely on a professional discipline for verifying information. 4. Independence is an underlying requirement of journalism, a cornerstone of its reliability. Martha Raddatz and the faux objectivity of journalists. Numerous commentators (including me) were complimentary of the performance of Martha Raddatz as the moderator of Wednesday night's vice-presidential debate.

Martha Raddatz and the faux objectivity of journalists

She was assertive, asked mostly substantive questions, and covered substantial ground in 90 minutes. That's all true enough, but the questions she asked reveal something significant about American journalism in general and especially its pretense of objectivity. For establishment journalists like Raddatz, "objectivity" is the holy grail. In their minds, it is what distinguishes "real reporters" from mere "opinionists" and, worse, partisans.

As they tell it, this objectivity means they traffic only in straight facts, unvarnished by ideology or agenda. Three things. Leave aside whether that is even a desirable mindset. These assumptions are almost always unacknowledged as such and are usually unexamined, which means that often the journalists themselves are not even consciously aware that they have embraced them.

Objectivity vs. Obligation. Photo by Chris Johnson.© Last year, while covering the U.S. presidential election, I definitely entered territory that was unfamiliar to me as a journalist.

Objectivity vs. Obligation

As a worker in the news business, I am accustomed to asking questions, to seeking information, and to making stories out of what happens to others. Recently, however, I’ve seen some of my colleagues in the Spanish-language media become the story. Why have we become a story? Journalists are not supposed to be activists. As an immigrant from Venezuela and a journalist working for La Opinión, a Spanish-language newspaper, I confront very different dilemmas than those of my Latino counterparts who work in mainstream media. Back when this “awakening of the sleeping giant” started a few years ago in California, I was covering the immigration beat. Instead of feeling conflicted by this role, I often felt great satisfaction at being able to serve people in a way that was a lot more tangible than just writing a story and going home. The Myth of Objectivity in Journalism. By This page has been accessed since 29 May 1996.

The Myth of Objectivity in Journalism

The oft-stated and highly desired goal of modern journalism is objectivity, the detached and unprejudiced gathering and dissemination of news and information. Such objectivity can allow people to arrive at decisions about the world and events occurring in it without the journalist's subjective views influencing the acceptance or rejection of information. Few whose aim is a populace making decisions based on facts rather than prejudice or superstition would argue with such a goal.

Public journalism problems. Journalism. Objectivity in Journalism.