Not transparent or too transparent?

Ji Ren
jr956710@ohio.edu

Not transparent or too transparent? 

It's always hard for news organizations to decide what percentage of transparency of a story or news gathering can satisfy the public and build credibility in such a world where readers trust news media less than before. Although news organizations have been trying to rebuild their reputation for a long time, a misused word can ruin every effort they've made. 

Disclosing the background of stories, providing readers news material, and even showing them a newsroom's daily meetings definitely make journalism more transparent. But is this a long-range decision for news organizations to make to attract readers? Probably not. The public blames news media for not being transparent and doubting its credibility. However, being too transparent causes problems and is not the right thing to do for news media.

Too much disclosure means too much pressure to journalism. We have to admit that being transparent can help supervise and improve the media world as being responsible for both news organizations and the public. But spending too much time on explaining readers' doubts, such as why the decision was made or how the story was written in a way, is wasting time and increasing the burden on journalists, in my opinion. If only providing evidence to prove the truth of a story and credibility of journalism takes much of our time, how many hours are left for us to work as a real journalists?

I believe the mission of journalists is to present truth to the public; if you do so, then readers will trust you and you do not need proof to gain their trust. Also, being too transparent brings ethical problems to newsrooms. Letting readers make their own conclusion is not bad; however, this requires journalists and newsrooms to disclose all the background materials they've used for the story, which may be related to sources' privacy and create an ethical dilemma.   

Nowadays, as the Internet and other hi-tech products allow all kinds of information be reached by the public much easier, it's somewhat hard for newsrooms to hold a stable group of readers. Therefore, besides being transparent, knowing and writing what readers like seems to be the key to grow readerships. 

Among readers' favorites, entertainment news must be in the first three places.

As I read stories on CHINADAILY's website, I found the news about recently divorced singer Faye Wong to be the most-viewed story, and it's even under editor's picks. Not only in China, but countries like the U.S. and Japan also share the phenomenon. Most of the public is eager to read this non-nutritious-value news to "refresh" their lives, so editors choose these stories as front-page news to "fulfill" readers' wishes and attract them.

However, as journalists, seriously, should we consider what the truly valuable stories are to write? Should we consider what our responsibility and obligations are to the public? Neither being too transparent nor having entertainment news all over the pages will save journalism and attract the public. Presenting truth to readers and doing what a journalist should do are the things we really need to care about.