Telling Stories

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Telling Stories
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News and the Problem of Objectivity

• Reporters have conventionally strived for the
  ideal of objectivity.
• Is it possible to be completely objective or
  report a story completely objectively?
• Most journalists concede that complete
  objectivity is not possible.
• The most they hope for is to be fair and
  balanced.
• Lets look at why all of these goals are hard to
  achieve. . . .

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Deciding What Stories to Tell

• The very act of selecting which stories to tell
  and which ones to leave out indicates that some
  information is favored over other information.
• CNN Cameraman comment
• Why do we not want to cover the Congo? 4 million
  dead contrast to Tsunami, Rwanda .5 million, etc.

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Congo
CONGO

• Excerpt from Time Magazine
• After decades of often brutal foreign rule,
  first as the private possession of King Leopold
  II of Belgium and then as a Belgian colony, Congo
  won its independence in 1960. But within months
  its first elected Prime Minister had been killed
  by Belgium- and U.S.-backed opponents because of
  his growing ties to the Soviet Union, an
  assassination that eventually opened the way for
  army general Mobutu Sese Seko to grab power. A
  U.S. favorite during the cold war, Mobutu
  presided over one of the most corrupt regimes in
  African history, siphoning off billions from
  state-owned companies and allowing most of the
  country to languish.

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How do editors decide which stories get told?

• According to Galtung and Ruge (1965)
• Impact
• Identification (audience)
• Format
• Expectations

Susan Pepper, storyteller Shelley Miller,
cartoonist
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The Storytellers

• The people telling the story affect how the story
  gets told
• EXAMPLE North and South newspapers in the Civil
  War (and now history told from Northern
  perspective)
• Media theorists such as Edward Herman and Noam
  Chomsky argued that news tends to favor the
  points of view of people in power.
• It can be valuable to receive news from people of
  different ethnicities, sexes, sexual
  orientations, classes, locations, beliefs, power
  differentials, and life experiences.

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The Story

• Once an editor does decide a story will run and
  chooses a reporter to cover it, additional
  decisions about how it will be told also indicate
  perspective.

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What is a Fact?

• Is there such a thing as a completely objective
  fact?
• It was a beautiful day?
• Warm or cold?
• A specific temperature?

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Objective or Subjective? 1-5

• Read each of the following statements as if
  it has been written by a journalist. Then, rate
  each statement on a scale of 1-5 based on whether
  you believe it is more objective or subjective (1
  being most objective and 5 being most
  subjective). There are no right or wrong answers.
  This is only an exercise for discussion. Be
  prepared to explain your rankings. _____ The
  man was totally wasted._____ The man appeared to
  be staggering._____ The mans blood alcohol
  level was 3.2_____ Witnesses said the man was
  drunk._____ My uncle wasnt drinking._____ My
  uncle was drunk, as usual._____ Life can be
  unpredictable when youre a victim of alcoholism.

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What is a Credible Source?

• There is no such thing as a good source or bad
  source.
• Sometimes we need facts and experts at other
  times, we go to the street to get a feel for
  popular opinion.
• What is or is not credible can imply class bias.
• Remember to go beyond the obvious sources when
  possible.
• Positioning sources is the key.

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What are credible expert sources?

• Peer-reviewed journals
• Studies funded by reputable sources
• Organizations involved in peer review.
• But even these people and organizations can have
  self-serving interests.

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What expert sources are most biased?Look at
motives for information

• Promotional
• Political
• Entertaining (Internet polls)

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Conflicts of Interest?

• Is it possible for Time Magazine to publish a
  fair review of a film produced by Warner Brothers
  or fairly report on a scandal at AOL?
• Is it possible for an American reporter to fairly
  report on a war between America and another
  country?
• Is it possible for a reporter on a junket to
  fairly report on the company that paid for the
  trip?

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Constructing Opposition(cartoon by
alligator.orgstudent newspaper of the University
of Florida)

• Time restraints often result in an inability to
  cover an issue or event in-depth.
• Therefore, reporters often find two sides and
  report them.
• Examples Brook Shields vs. Tom Cruise,
  Republicans vs. Democrats, Black vs. White
• Why is this problematic?
• Blogs often change this dynamic (the medium is
  the message)

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SPJ Code of Ethics

• Link to SPJ Code of Ethics www.cosmospasm.blogspo
  t.com
• Did any of them surprise you?
• Have you ever seen an example of news that you
  believe was clearly not complying with the SPJ
  Code of Ethics?
• Do you believe there are situations in which
  journalists should not comply with these codes?
• Codes of Conduct from Around the World

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Gonzo Journalism

• Subjectivity as a way to get at the most
  important truths.
• EXAMPLE Hunter S. Thompson
• Creative non-fiction takes creative license
• Narrative positioning of such information is
  called transparency (we see this in blogs as
  well).

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Betrayals of Trust

• L.A. Times dismissed photojournalist Brian Walski
  after he composited two photos and altered them
  to get this composition for March 31, 2003

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• Were Walskis award-winning photos doctored prior
  to that? The case led to speculation.

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Avoiding Deceptive PracticesSometimes,
journalists themselves can be deceived, as in
Guatemala 1954
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News Case Studies Comparing Perspectives
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Assignments

• BLOGS1) Blog answers to the question Can
  blogging be journalism? www.cosmospasm.blogspot
  .com Explain why or why not. View some blogs
  that have been called "journalism," such as the
  links below, and find some of your own. In what
  ways are these blogs consistent and inconsistent
  with the definition? Do they have codes of ethics
  that you can recognize? Do they have their own
  codes of ethics? Are independent blogs
  fundamentally different from those affiliated
  with a news organization? Explain.www.buzzmachin
  e.com (Jarvis)www.instapundit.com
  (Reynolds)http//www.billoreilly.com/blog
  (OReilly)
• 2) Read Francis Millers YourHub.com blog from
  6/15/06 called The Significance of YourHub.com
  (http//denver.yourhub.com/Story.aspx?contentid9
  5166) and blog a response to it. Do you believe
  that blogging, UTube, YourHub.com, and other
  citizen journalism is changing the nature of
  news? Is it changing the nature of journalism?
  Explain why or why not.

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Questions?