Truth Balance and Bias in Journalism Analysing Journalism
Truth, Balance and Bias in Journalism Analysing Journalism Week 4
Aims To analyse competing approaches to ‘objectivity’, ‘truth’ and ‘balance’ � To identify underlying pressures encouraging changes in approach to ‘objectivity’ � To consider the crisis of Public Service Broadcasting in this context
Early Approaches in Journalism (Recap) • • Journalism as a ‘mirror on the world’ Implies an objective and ‘complete’ account But selection is inevitable? And therefore values or bias inevitably present?
News as a Production Process Early academic studies of journalism developed “Gatekeeper Theory” See D. M. White in Tumber ‘News: a reader’. Focus on the role of editors and subs within the news organisation
But some develop this further • Gayle Tuchman ‘Objectivity as a Strategic Ritual’ (AJS 1972) • Observation study of two newsroom in USA • ‘Real’ Objectivity never achieved • Within journalism ‘objectivity’ becomes a “ritual” (like a rain dance)
Constructing ‘truth’? • Tuchman: Journalists substitute ‘balance’ for objectivity • And use ‘rule of thumb’ measures to support claims for accuracy and truth in copy • More recently Allan (1999) ‘News Cultures’ argues journalists include textual devices within news texts to support claims for ‘truth’ • ‘the will to facticity’ (Allan) • E. g. symbols of ‘authority’ in news broadcasts etc.
Constructing ‘truth’? • Similarly Starkey (2007): • “ A range of technical and symbolic codes are consistently deployed in [news] output to signify …importance, seriousness, urgency, sincerity, rigour …authenticity of content” (2007: 3) • E. g. the globe turning at beginning of news broadcasts etc.
Constructing ‘truth’? Frozen Planet 'fake' Controversy BBC 2012
Constructing ‘truth’? • In documentary … • ‘fly on wall’ conventions • Conventions of ‘docusoap’, etc. all work to convince audience that the focus is upon ‘real people’. ‘Being Liverpool’ Channel Five • ‘Rogue Males’ Channel ‘Drug Mules’ Channel 4 4
Key questions • If news, current affairs and documentary are always ‘constructed’ … • …can journalism ever be objective? • …or true? • …or fair?
Broadcast Journalism • Broadcasting understood as more powerful and therefore different to press • 1926 Crawford Committee grants monopoly to BBC (contrast to US etc. ) • “Scrupulous fairness” required of the BBC and encoded in first charter • Reith demanded “due impartiality” of his producers
Broadcast Journalism • Early years of BBC ‘comment’ and ‘opinion’ banned from broadcasts • Political speeches reported verbatim without interpretation • Political campaigning not covered • Only ‘non-political’ current affairs – see Curran and Seaton on history of the BBC Talks Department in 1930 s Not to mention the ‘ten day rule’!
Broadcast Journalism • 1950 s controls on ‘comment’ slowly erode • The ‘new’ Independent Television News covers a bye-election in 1957 • But all broadcasting including ITN still required to maintain “due balance and impartiality” with the regulatory frameworks of PSB
What Happened to Objectivity? • In practice both BBC and ITN have sidestepped the issue of objectivity • Balance as a substitute • As Starkey (2007) and Mc. Nair (2001)argue in liberal democracies balance is interpreted as ‘balance between the main political parties’
Some Problems… • The relationship with the state is always problematic • Should national broadcasters remain ‘balanced’ in times of war or national crisis? • 1926 General Strike • 1984 -85 Coal Strike • WW 2 but what about the 2003 Iraq War?
Some Problems… Reith’s “compromise” or “retreat” in 1926: …since the BBC was a national institution, and since the Government in this crisis was acting for the people … the BBC was fro the Government in this crisis too …
Some Problems… • More recent ‘flashpoints’: • Use of the term ‘British forces’ on Newsnight in 1983 (Falklands War) and also in 1991 Gulf War • Controversy around coverage of the Coal Strike • What happens when war polarises opinion?
Some Problems… • • • How to measure ‘balance’? Measures of public opinion? Problems if opinion is polarized And is majority opinion ‘the truth’? Does ‘balance’ mean reflecting the main political parties? • Does ‘balance’ mean reflecting the political consensus?
Political Consensus and Balance? The Centre Left Right Labour Party Green Party Conservative Party Liberal-Dems UKIP Environmentalists? EDL Should broadcasters adjust the ‘consensus’ as political opinion shifts? How should they judge when?
Political Consensus and Balance? • • Consensus attacked from both right and left But post-Gilligan BBC on the defensive Concedes ground to critics from right 2010 Internal report ‘accepts’ evidence of a ‘liberal consensus’ • http: //media. guardian. co. uk/site/story/0, , 2105978, 00. html • But in 2014 BBC commission’s another report – see the Cardiff University report
The argument so far… • Objectivity in journalism difficult to achieve • PSB journalism has traditionally substituted ‘balance’ for objectivity • But there are serious difficulties in doing this… • An alternative model:
Nick Davies • Also challenges conventional views of ‘balance’ • https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=Skl. GN NLZOkw
‘Balance’ through ‘diversity’ • Post-war Italy: lottizazzione (Each of the main political parties / religious groups given their own channel) • Diverse Reports (Channel Four) • Channel Four News offering Scargill and Mc. Gregor opportunities to make their own news reports on Coal Strike • Citizens’ Journalism, Bloggers, etc. • Note: shift towards relativism and constructionism
Three Possible Models for Achieving Balance in Broadcast News and Current Affairs • The Panorama model • Panorama BBC flagship still works on assumption that ‘one’ objective account can be provided • Emphasises the ‘authority’ of the reporter
Model 2: Diverse Reports • Diverse Reports = a publishing platform for a diverse range of potentially polemical reports • …which achieve ‘balance’ over the duration of a season • But which do not claim one ‘truth’
Model 3 • The latest BBC Report (2014) recommends a ‘wagon wheel’ approach • Recognition of the complexity of political perspectives • And the collapse of the ‘two party’ system
Model Three Breadth of opinion on the relationship between Islam and terrorism/extremism (BBC Report - Berry et al. 2014)
Summary • Problems with the traditional PSB model of ‘objective’, ‘balanced’ reporting • But equally models 2 and 3 open up a world where all perspectives are ‘equally true’ or ‘valid’ • Can journalism hold the powerful to account if we abandon the search for one objective, truth? • E. g. Tony Blair’s version of the reasons for the 2003 Iraq War – just one ‘equally valid’ perspective?
Postscript Mc. Intyre (BBC) http: //news. bbc. co. uk/1/hi/uk/806523. stm Newsnight (BBC) http: //www. dailymail. co. uk/pages/live/articles/news. ht ml? in_article_id=468482&in_page_id=1770&ito=newsnow The Queen’s photoshoot (BBC) http: //www. dailymail. co. uk/pages/live/articles/news. html? i n_article_id=467754&in_page_id=1770
For Discussion • Does the presentation of the ‘truth’ require the presentation of the literally evident? • Or can ‘truth’ be represented to capture a more profound truth? • Do noddy shots matter? • Or is a slippery slope towards ‘factual recreation’ e. g. Rogue Males
BBC Editorial Guidelines http: //www. bbc. co. uk/guidelines/editorialguidelines/edgu ide/ Note ‘truth’ and ‘objectivity’ do not appear – ‘balance’ and ‘impartiality’ operate as substitutes
- Slides: 31