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CCT300 – Labs

Week 8. CCT300 – Labs. Objectivity in Media. CCT300 – Critical Analysis of Media October 29, 2009. The Real World View. Only in a liberal western democracy, is it expected that a journalist should strive for objectivity, balance, and a lack of bias .

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CCT300 – Labs

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  1. Week 8 CCT300 – Labs Objectivity in Media CCT300 – Critical Analysis of Media October 29, 2009

  2. The Real World View • Only in a liberal western democracy, is it expected that a journalist should strive for objectivity, balance, and a lack of bias. • Other countries see the media’s role differently … as an arm of the state, for the good of the people. • But even if desirable, is it possible to achieve any of these?

  3. Definitions: Objectivity • Reporting that emphasizes eyewitness accounts of events, corroboration of facts with multiple sources and "balance”. • Reporting things without bias, as if one just came to Earth from another planet. • A neutral point of view, not taking a stand on any issues on which there is some disagreement. Instead, journalists are simply to report what "both sides" of an issue tell them.

  4. Problems With Objectivity • The problem with the multiple source / balance approach is • It assumes there are only two (or three) sides to an issue • It assumes that all ‘sides’ are equal

  5. Examples Of Bias • Fox News Network (for examples, see Robert Greenwald’s “Outfoxed” – www.outfoxed.org) • Anything by Michael Moore(Video samples from Fahrenheit 9/11 – www.michaelmoore.com)

  6. In the Bias of the Beholder • Can word choice can change the slant of a story?ttp://www.umich.edu/~newsbias/wordchoice.html • Does fear of being biased damage journalism? Columbia Journalism Review’s Brent Cunningham believes so: http://www.cjr.org/issues/2003/4/objective-cunningham.asp

  7. Should we embrace Bias, then? • Should we acknowledge our position instead rather than hiding our views? • Can any human being be unbiased (and still be breathing?) • Is bias a bad thing?

  8. Is Bias Built In? • Some argue that bias is intrinsic to the news media. Examples include: • Commercial Bias • Temporal Bias • Visual Bias • Bad News Bias • Narrative Bias • Status Quo Bias • Fairness Bias • Expediency Bias • Glory bias Dr. Andrew R. Cline, Assistant Professor of Journalism, Missouri State University

  9. An Alternate Suggestion • “Objectivity called for a consistent method of testing information, precisely so that personal and cultural biases would not undermine the accuracy of journalistic work.“ Kodi Barth - Lecturer in Journalism, United States International University-Nairobi

  10. Activity • In pairs take a look at Fair’s FAQ on objective media in journalism: • http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=121 • Select a Canadian Newspaper from this list: • http://broadcast-live.com/newspapers/canadian.html • Select an article under any section and critically analyze it using FAIR’s FAQ. Follow the questions and make an assessment. Decide as a pair whether you consider this specific news article objective. Explain why or why not.

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