Ideology of Journalism

A main theme of the principles of journalism is whether objectivity is an obtainable goal and the conclusion that I have noticed is that no reporter can be completely objective. Journalists can be neutral, but it is impossible to leave cultural values at the door of a story. However, values enhance stories and make them more interesting. It is difficult to write about something that is not important to our values, but when writing about something that we care about, the story comes to life as newsgathering techniques are heightened and the writing quality is better.

Politics are a big source of news because one of the functions of the media is to be a watchdog for the government. This means that journalists are to report on politicians who are doing something wrong. However, as both the government and media have evolved the relationship has become more mutual. Politicians depend on journalists to get their names out during campaigns and journalists depend on politicians to get news stories. In a story by The Daily IIJ the mutual relationship is discussed. The ultimate conclusion is that neither journalism nor government is as strong without the other group. Several news groups are turning more towards a particular party, making modern day journalism reminiscent of early American journalism where every newspaper supported a particular political party.

A story by The American Enterprise Online says that political journalism can be good journalism. “Partisan reporting--never to be considered mutually exclusive with good reporting--is the norm in British and European mainstream media, and is nothing new in American media either.” Many American news networks are more partisan because there are so many facts that it is impossible to print or read them all. This means that difficult decisions must be made when determining what to publish and journalists use their values and ideology to determine what information to publish.

Another difficult decision faced by journalists valuing objectivity is whether to help in human tragedy. Often helping a group of people removes objectivity because the journalist appears to be taking a side. However, when dealing with natural disasters there is not an opposing side to the story. Journalists should put down the cameras and the notebooks in order to help suffering people. They first should report on the situation to inform people and encourage others to help, but after the reporting is done, they should help the situation. It would be nearly impossible to watch suffering happen without becoming emotionally attached to the suffering people.

Anderson Cooper traveled to Haiti to cover the earthquake and wrote on his blog “on a story like this you need to see it with your own eyes.” He also talked about different experiences in Haiti that he has had throughout the years and has been both criticized and praised for helping a bloody boy on camera. I believe it would be impossible to see the boy that had been struck by bricks and not try to help him regardless of whether you are a journalist or not. At some point, humanity trumps everything else and professionalism stops mattering in order to help suffering people.