Objectivity & Balance: How Do Readers and Viewers of News and Information Reach Conclusions Regarding Objectivity and Balance? By Natalie Jomini Stroud, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Department of Communication Studies Assistant Director, The Annette Strauss Institute for Civic Participation University of Texas at Austin and Stephen D. Reese, Ph.D. Jesse H. Jones Professor Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, College of Communication University of Texas School of Journalism University of Texas at Austin Public broadcasting is legally charged for research related to these issues. with “strict adherence to objectivity and Although the news environment has balance.” Thus, its mission is firmly shifted greatly, research has focused on rooted in uniquely American normative the traditional, institutionalized news expectations of the role of media and media and has been slow to address new journalism in a democratic society. The forms. The discourse surrounding news public makes judgments about media performance often has implied objectivity and balance within a that the media to which people respond historical context, but these concepts are are a monolithic institution. Of course, it often in tension with various is not, nor is it always possible to easily interpretations. At the heart of these distinguish between the professional ideas, however, is the hope that media media and emerging forms of citizen provide meaningful information that journalism. With this caveat, we will helps citizens navigate their lives in a emphasize how audiences in general democratic society and the hope that respond to news and information, and different voices are given a fair how they evaluate it. We structure our opportunity to be heard. Given the White Paper in the following way: declining levels of trust in media, these 1. expectations arguably are not being met. We provide context for our audit by With less public confidence that social reviewing key conceptual and theoretical institutions in general function on behalf issues in the study of news media of the greater good, the causes of and performance. We then turn to discussing solutions to the crisis of trust in the the terminology that has been used when media have become deeply politicized. describing news media performance. The public is more aware than ever of 2. how news is made, and the online world Next, we review research on how the has brought an explosion of media public reaches conclusions about news criticism rooted in a diverse range of media performance. political interests. Lacking a legitimated 3. and trusted middle ground, there is a Informed by our audit, we relate the strong tendency to find bias in research findings to public media information that doesn’t conform to pre- programming. existing viewpoints. The echo-chambers 4. We conclude by making a number of of the blogosphere and growth in media recommendations about: watchdog groups have made media a. criticism an integral part of many How to collect and deliver news content citizens’ belief systems. within the context of objectivity and In this White Paper, we summarize our balance, findings from an audit of what is known b. about how people reach conclusions How to monitor and evaluate objectivity regarding objectivity and balance (as and balance, and well as related terms) and make c. recommendations in response to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting call How to capitalize on public media’s balanced news. unique role in providing objective and 2 that nation-wide, journalists are more Objective 1: Discussion about how the public typical of the average American, but reaches conclusions on issues related to objectivity and balance. certain studies of journalists in large Objective 2: Review of the most relevant eastern cities (including The Media Elite academic research on the issue, with survey of journalists at the elite media) references listed1 show a predictable pattern of journalists Contextualizing Media favoring Democrats over Republicans, CriticismContextualizing Criticism although even then, the attitudes are As media became more commercial and more conservative on economic issues more concentrated in ownership, than social. This location of blame at the particularly post WWII, journalists level of the news producers leads began to operate more as insiders with conservative critics to demand greater respect to the national establishment, “ideological” diversity in the newsroom leading some to express concern about (e.g. CBS News anchor Dan Rather was their elite status as not in keeping with a particular favorite target of the right the public interest. Hallin (1992), for for his alleged liberal leanings). example, argued that the rise of Liberals were slower in coming to the journalistic professionalism solved the media criticism table. By the time they problem of objectivity in part by did, the “liberal media” label was choosing to reflect the inner discussions broadly accepted by the public, a of government, with journalists successful result in large part of the themselves enjoying an insider status in conservative rhetorical strategy (Domke, return for accepting the ground rules of Watts, Shah, & Fan, 1999; Watts, Washington. In time, this produced some Domke, Shah, & Fan, 1999). Liberals in undesirable groupthink tendencies. As turn have focused more on the the conservative movement grew in ownership structure of media and the strength after the 1960s, the ideology of under-representation of public interest the “counter-establishment” branded this groups, women, and minorities. The connection of media with the irony is that “liberal” journalists have establishment as a “liberal” tendency given greater credence to the (Rusher, 1988). conservative critique than the liberal The publication of the book The Media counterargument, a function, it can be Elite: America’s New Powerbrokers in argued, of the fact that blaming 1986 by S. Robert Lichter, Stanley journalists for bias at least grants them Rothman, and Linda Lichter brought some professional efficacy that the special emphasis to examining the ownership and political economy individuals producing the news, locating critique does not. the blame for bias with these So how can the media be both professionals and providing fodder for conservatively and liberally biased? The the “liberal media” claim. Though critics answer lies in understanding the continue to support the claim of a different kinds of explanations chosen “liberal media” by referencing the left- 1 All references are listed at the close of this leaning (though by no means radical) document. political predispositions of journalists, research by Weaver et al. (2007) found 3 Normative Concepts by different critics and assumptions In their call for research, the Corporation about the proper role of media with for Public Broadcasting noted that regard to the state. The general “references to ‘balance and objectivity’ discussion of media must be understood should be broadly defined to include in the context of the politicization of related issues.” We found a number of American institutions in general. Higher related terms in our review. As we will education and science are among other discuss below, the choice of terms itself realms where the ability of a carries a host of assumptions about how professional discipline to produce a reality can best be conceived and legitimated outcome has been brought presented, with corresponding into question. Indeed, efforts implications for media practice. So, to increasingly have been made to address recognize this problematic aspect, we such disciplinary matters – once under encapsulate all of these terms by the control of professionals in those referring to assessments of news media fields – within the political arena. performance. Below, we review some of Because public broadcasting receives the major normative concepts that have government support, it is particularly been discussed. vulnerable to these interventions. In 1. Objectivity journalism, this concern has led Objectivity has been the ethos of 20th foundations and other groups to mount a Century American journalism. And the revitalization of the profession from Western model of journalism has found within, to forestall such outside renewed traction in other parts of the intervention. Initiatives such as the world including Latin America and Project for Excellence in Journalism Eastern Europe, even as the have tried to reassert the fundamental impossibility of its achievement values of the profession in view of becomes more evident. As Zelizer, Park, external attack, including the importance and Gudelunas (2002) note, “...the of truth-seeking, verification, context, public’s insistent demand for objectivity and proportionality. in the news and a naïve faith in its Within this context, a vocabulary for possibility keep bringing debates about discussing the responsibilities and the media back to an insistence on performance of the news media arose. unbiased coverage” (p. 302). As an over- The varied language we use to describe arching concept, objectivity refers news media performance contains variously to a normative ideal (that assumptions about what “good” news journalism can reach the truth), a sense would look like. Objectivity, balance, of detachment on the part of journalists, neutrality, plurality, and bias are among a set of practices designed to produce the concepts used to evaluate news “truth” (reliance on officials), and an media programming. In spite of the rise institutional framework,