Independence and Journalism

Last week in class we discussed the idea of Independence and journalism. In The Elements of Journalism it states that "Journalists must maintain and independence form those they cover" (118). I believe that this idea is crucial in good journalism because society deserves to hear the truth and if journalists add their own biases to their stories then the truth gets watered down until it is eventually lost (click here for an example of bias in photo journalism). One example that I came across this week which illustrates what happens when journalists are not independent from the news is in the movie, Citizen Kane. In this movie, Charles Foster Kane, a wealthy and powerful businessman, uses his fortune to take over the press and essentially uses the news to manipulate the public in order to benefit himself. Kane’s journalism lacks the basic elements that modern journalism requires in order to be validated by the public. Furthermore, he refutes all forms of the code of ethics that journalists today live by in order to make their work more reliable to the public.
We learned earlier that “Journalism's first loyalty is to citizens.” (Elements 52). Therefore, reporters need to claim neutrality when reporting in order to keep their biases out of the news so that the public can make up their own minds on what to believe. Kane used journalism to advance his reputation and standing in society. He was manipulative and he used his power to trick the public into thinking whatever he wanted. Therefore, he serves as an example of the negative role that journalists can play in society and the power and influence they have in helping the public to formulate opinions and ideas (even if those opinions are false and corrupt).
In addition to Citizen Kane, the idea of remaining independent is crucial to me because I want to go into the broadcast journalism field. In order to produce effective stories, I need to remain neutral and keep my opinion out of the news. The public are smart enough to realize when the media is trying to sway their opinion, if I were to include one sided opinions from a story in order to convey my viewpoint people would eventually figure me out and lose trust in me.
I thoroughly enjoyed the guest speaker because I felt that he was able to give an honest insider's perspective on these topics. Furthermore, I thought it was interesting when he discussed the fact that biases will leak out of the news no matter what and this is because you will always have a boss (who might not care about remaining independent from the news) who will tell you what stories you can cover.
In addition, after researching this topic further it appears that bias in the news occurs more than people realize (especially on controversial topics like global warming).