Emotional Ethics

Colin Roose

cr516410@ohio.edu

Photo by: Outofthejungle.blogspot.com

When one thinks of a journalist's role in society, it can be difficult to see how personal opinion in news reporting would be an issue. After all, a writer has to relay the facts, right? And wouldn't it take a concerted effort to insert political/economic/personal biases in a story? So all a journalist has to do is write what he or she sees. Simple, right?

Well, not quite. Unfortunately thoughts and words cannot be produced in a dispassionate vacuum. Most journalists have feelings and motivations, and they're not going to just go away in such an emotionally nuanced field of work.

Advocacy journalism is one label given to journalism that takes a clear side when reporting on an issue. Traditionally, these are left to editorial columns. But what about the unseen factors in writing, like the advertisers behind a publication or the political and social climate in which one writes? 

Writing for Media Lens, David Edwards gives several examples of how point-of-view writing can come forth in seemingly the most neutral of stories. He quotes Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi as saying that advocacy journalism is present in all writing, giving the example of sports coverage from the 1930s and '40s. There may have been no open political opinions expressed, but the fact that the game had not yet been integrated is advocacy journalism, because whether or not Blacks were playing had to be openly stated.

He goes on to describe the BBC reporting of the purchase of The Washington Post by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Despite the fact that this could bring the credibility of the entire newspaper into question, the BBC only gave philanthropic reasons for why a billionaire would want such a well-known newspaper.

This is why attempting to report multiple sides of an issue is imperative. No matter how neutral the writing, discussing just one side of a story could be damaging to a reporter's credibility simply because it looks one-sided. Journalism can be controversial; it can be tepid and non-confrontational, but take away its role as the magnifying glass of overlooked detail and it loses its relevance.

But is any opinion or outside influence bad? Not necessarily. One of my favorite examples of how it can ultimately lead to good is shown in Belinda Alzner's article in "The Canadian journalism project." CBC reporter Brian Stewart met a little girl named Birhan while covering famine in Ethiopia in the '80s. He paid for her and her siblings to enter school and still visits and sends money to her family.

Is this a potential conflict of interest to reporting? Yes. But it is also a case where a broadened worldview in journalism led to ultimate good being done. And isn't attention toward pressing needs exactly what journalists try to get across to their readers?

As someone who greatly enjoys opinion pieces, commentary and editorials, I feel like I am particularly at risk for inserting potentially dangerous words into my writing without meaning to. I have no idea what motivations I will have someday, be it political or economic, if I ever end up working in this field. But pushing forward a viewpoint explicitly never has a place in fair reporting, and keeping in mind examples of bias as a warning is its best prevention.