Week 2 Readings

This week's readings made me think about some elements of journalism I haven't thought about before. I didn't know how much of a separation there was between the reporting and business sides of media industries, sometimes manifesting itself in the form of an actual wall between the two sides.

It upsets me that journalists have to be concerned about things like catering to advertisers and catering to the business interests of the company they work for. Instead of a journalist being rewarded for the quality of their work they are rewarded for the profitability of their work. How are journalists supposed to write the truth when they have to worry about affecting the media company’s business element?

I’m not saying journalists should be allowed to run around unchecked and write things down willy nilly, but a degree of independence is needed if they are expected to produce good work.

Week 2 Readings

The importance of independence for journalists seems to be common sense. As I thought more and more about it, however, I realized it is more complex than it initially seems. Though many forms of independence, neutrality, and/or restriction of bias can be accomplished with seemingly minimal harm to the journalist, "independence from class or economic status" and "independence from race, ethnicity, religion, and gender" are harder to eliminate.

How can one completely eliminate any biases based concretely upon one's background or upbringing? The fact that I am a woman, for instance, intrinsically alters the perspective with which I see the world. While that should not change any reporting of facts, it could technically result in my having to write something that I don't believe in or agree with. A situation such as that could cause me to have to choose between my professional integrity and my personal integrity, which is a nearly impossible choice to make. The argument that purpose, rather than neutrality (as well as the distinction made between the two), should be the focus, helps allow me to feel confident that though my background may color my work, it will never overtake it.

Reading 2

The nature of the journalist seems so noble when the most important rule is loyalty to the citizens. But as we found out, those lines get blurred when journalists inevitably have to report to a higher power. Even worse, there was already a growing division between the independent journalists and the rest of the team working for the firm.

For journalism of verification, two things that struck me were the ideas of transparency and humility. As a journalist, there is a responsibility to reporting the whole truth, the whole story - all of the facts. It makes you think about how we view different news sources as biased when that's not supposed to be the case. As for humility, I was pleased to see it in the text. I can safely say for myself - even when reporting on something - that I might not know everything I'm talking about. I think that is a refreshing conclusion to come to instead of pretending you have all of the answers. The hope is to try to find those answers, but you just might not know them.

The independence of ideology approach was fascinating when used in the example of Fox News. While considered a conservative news organization, the journalists at Fox felt they were reporting on the truth in the sense that they were creating a balance by giving airtime to a more conservative viewership. It was intriguing to think about the idea of journalism being based on this scale.

Reading Response 2

I have never considered the conflict of interest that journalists must face when it comes to the loyalty that they have to citizens and how that sometimes may be in direct conflict with the companies that employ them. This is definitely a factor in considering the question: what is "truth?" How many journalists will fight to tell the "truth" when the truth could cost them their job, and in effect: their livelihood?

In the end, I cannot even say that I am surprised that there are people out there who will sacrifice journalistic integrity for the sake of money. I say the same for news companies too. In an age where many believe that newspapers are dying, I don't see many newspapers passing over the chance to make extra revenue from outside sources, even if it means compromising their integrity. Sad, but true.

When I was reading the verification chapter, it would seem that most of this would be common sense to journalists, like being objective and the notions of Do Not Add and Do Not Deceive. Unfortunately, those concepts are not that black and white, and when considering the conflict that comes with the accountability function of journalism, I can see a similar conflict with deceptiveness in journalism that attempt to purport information that is favorable to the private agendas that keep newspapers in business.

It is however nice to know that having an opinion does not mean that you can't be "objective" and it is okay to sometimes be impartial. The book points out many of the published journalists with partisan allegiances who are considered credible, implying that is okay to take a stand as long as you are loyal to your public and you maintain an independence from those that you cover. I personally can very much so appreciate watchdog journalism for reporting information that the public may not have otherwise.

Reading response 2

In The Elements of Journalism,  the authors talked about the spirit of transparency. They stated that "Journalists should engage in masquerade only if there is no other way to get the story." I'm still not sure that what kind of situations journalists can engage in masquerade.

For example, If one of my credible sources told me that a doctor often charged extra money from their patients. Can I pretend to be a patient and shoot the conversation secretly? I know the law stated that doctors have privacy in their office, and this way is always debated. But it is probably the best way to get the information I want. Can I pretend to be a patient?

Another example is a case that happened in China. In recent years, about 20 Chinese employees who worked for Foxconn Technology Group committed suicide. Many media companies reported those suicide cases but could not dig deeply. In order to get more information, an intern from Southern Weekly,  a famous investigative newspaper in China, passed the companies' interview and became one of their employees. The intern stayed there over 40 days. He talked to several employees to gather information and recorded secretly. After that, he wrote an investigative news about the employees' life. In this investigative news, he also explained how he got these information. Was his performance acceptable?

Also about the anonymity, does every article which contains anonymous sources have to explain why they choose anonymity?

Reading Response 2

In the Element’s chapters, the topic of truth and loyalty came up a lot. I think that a lot of the reason behind citizens’ mistrust in journalists comes from the number of journalists, editors or CEOs in the past that manipulated or abused that trust. It’s always difficult to gain back trust after it’s been lost. Another part of the Element’s chapters that caught my attention was Walter Lippmann’s explanation for journalism. He really broke it down to a science, and it shows how very disciplined the job has to be. A part of the reading that took me by surprise was journalists’ need to remain separate/independent from things that they cover and reading about William Safire’s description of Independence of Mind. This ties in with the principle of remaining unbiased. It was really shocking reading about the many journalists who were fired on the spot for supporting things they believed in, but they were breaking the rule against participating in political activity while working as a journalist. During the News Reporting readings, there was a chapter on interviewing, which I really found helpful. I liked the comparison of investigative reporters to attorneys. After working in a law office I understand how having a question ready for every possible answer is vital, and it can also really make a difference in an interview.