Truth and Objectivity in Journalism

It has been suggested that some of the core aspects of journalism; truth and objectivity are becoming more and more difficult to preserve as journalism continues to develop and there are greater time pressures. I think that objectivity and truth are at risk because journalists are under pressure to produce more work in less time. It can simply be a matter of cutting corners, and not doubling checking information and typically it is the use of press releases, rather than researching and writing stories from scratch. Furthermore all truth is subjective, and the idea of absolute truth even when striving for democracy is unrealistic. However the fact remains that journalists have opinions and these are conveyed in their articles even though they are trying to remain objective. I think as journalist you should be honest about your own views and try to represent the facts in the fairest way possible.

There is a great clip I found, (‘The First Casualty? War, Truth & the Media Today’) that talks about how the media has failed to analyse its own role in presenting the truth to society, and its lack of ability to own up and talk about this role, means it has failed to be objective. It focuses on the ‘War on Terror’ and the impact the media’s framing has on the information about the Iraq, the protests etc and this had a influence on the way the audience viewed the war, and some suggest they are partly responsible for its occurrence. It is interesting to watch because , while the media wasn’t being out rightly dishonest, the lack of research, the framing of the stories and the coverage which all amounts to a lack of objectivity had a major influence on what people knew about the war and how they felt about it. It questions where journalists should draw the line, and reemphasises the fact that it is a journalist’s role to be objective and seek the truth. It also looks at embedded journalists in Iraq, and questions whether this provides an important insight or is simply a facade of truth, as it is ensured that soldiers toe the line. A very accurate statement made in this video was “Authority does not mean truth.” And I think this is something future journalists need to keep in mind.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFwD2xlAmVM&feature=related