Verify This

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In class last Thursday we talked about Verification and Objectivity.

What does verification mean?

• The establishment of the truth or correctness of something by investigation or evidence
• The evidence that proves something is true or correct
• Evidence or testimony that confirms something
• Does NOT mean fair or objective

These guidelines for How to Stay Objective were also given in class:

1. Never add anything that was not there
2. Never deceive the audience
3. Be as transparent as possible about your methods and motives
4. Rely on your own original reporting
5. Exercise humility

First, let's go over the difference between journalism of verification and journalism of assertion. Journalism of verification is the ideal: it is when journalists act independently to find and verify new facts. Journalism of assertion is what journalists are frequently practicing now as a result of technology and consolidation. Rather than doing their own investigating, "In the age of the 24-hour news cycle, journalists now spend more time looking for something to add to the existing news, usually interpretation."

This discipline of journalism of assertion affects journalistic bias because journalists are often simply re-reporting others' work and findings. So if one organization gets it wrong, there's a strong likelihood that others will report false information as well since, as Geneva Overholser put it, "we all feed at the same trough" in this age of electronic reporting. If reporters made sure to verify facts for themselves and do their own reporting, this situation would be better.

Next, let's talk about transparency. Transparency about your methods and motives is the third step in how to be objective. It means to be open and honest with your audience about what you both know and do not know: you must reveal as much as possible about your sources, who they are, how direct their knowledge is, what biases they might have, etc. Transparency shows respect for the audience: it allows the audience to register the information and to judge it on their own. "The key is this: the Spirit of Transparency first involves the journalist asking for each event, 'What does my audience need to know to evaluate this information for itself?'"

Practicing intellectual humility is another major step in remaining objective in your writing. It is important for journalists to be humble about their skills; they need to be skeptical about their ability to interpret information correctly. "Humility also means that you are open-minded enough to accept that the next person you talk to could change the entire meaning of your story or even convince you that you have no story." This is so important to keep in mind: journalists should not get so attached to their stories that they cannot let them go if circumstances change. It is our job to provide necessary information, not irrelevant misinterpreted stories.

Since class got out early, we didn't really get a chance to discuss how the media best serves democracy, but I went ahead and took the liberty of looking up "agenda setter role" (because we're talking about the watchdog role next week).

"The agenda-setting hypothesis asserts that the media have an effect indirectly by choosing certain issues for emphasis, thus making those issues more salient to the audiences."

-"Another Look At the Agenda-Setting Function of the Press"

This is what Christopher Harper has to say on the matter, using Tom Cekay as an example.
"For the past 20 years, Tom Cekay has been what's known as a "gatekeeper," a critical role in the way a medium sets agendas. That means Cekay is an editor who determines what gets through the "gate" into the newspaper for the reader to see. For years, the gatekeeper has been one of the most powerful people in the media, highlighting particular stories, promoting trends, sorting the journalistic wheat from the chaff, and some would argue restricting the flow of information."

Benjamin Barber, at the same conference as Christopher Harper (Democracy and Digital Media: The Agenda-Setting Function of Media) also had some to say on new media and its role with democracy. He outlined three definitions of democracy and then went on to describe how new technologies contribute to these particular attitudes of democracy.