“Journalists must maintain independence from those they cover” (Kovach & Rosenstiel 118). Journalists have biases and opinions. It is impossible to not have an opinion about anything. In fact it would be scary if no one had opinions in this world. However, is there a point in journalism where personal opinions can be for lack of a better term, controlled? Is there a way to report the news without letting your biases seep through your journalism?
Journalism is different than propaganda and activism. Propaganda is shaping, manipulating, or changing a way a person should think or act about a particular idea, behavior, or event. Activism is action that will or intends to bring change in a social, political, environmental, or economic way. By most definitions, journalism reports the news while propaganda and activism promotes viewpoints. It’s hard to not have any biases or opinions but journalists can avoid presenting propaganda or activism as news. If journalists keep the core principles of journalism intact, they can avoid acting as propagandists and activists. “The issue is in the nature of the work itself. People should not become focused on the wrong thing . . . communication and journalism are not interchangeable terms. Anyone can be a journalist. Not everyone is” (Kovach & Rosenstiel 120).
Journalists not only have to keep an independence of mind but an independence from race, ethnicity, and gender. In America, especially in the work field, we are encouraged to stress having diversity. When people hear diversity, they think of race, gender, ethnicity, and economic status; focusing more on demographics. Although those factors are included in diversity, they don’t completely shape our personal ideas and beliefs. Rather it be our class, education, region, family, personal psychology, personal experiences, and religion that shape our personal ideas and beliefs. “The argument, I believe, ignores and/or minimizes the influence of class, education, region, family, personal psychology and religion in shaping our personal ideas and beliefs. . . .Observable traits such as race and gender . . .serve as a proxy” (Peter Bell, at CCJ Forum, Ann Arbor, MI, February 2, 1998).
In the journalism field rather than have a diversity of race, ethnicities, genders, and economic status, it is more important to have a diversity of ideas. Simply by putting an African American, Asian, or physically handicapped person in the newsroom does not guarantee that you have diversity of ideas. Journalism should not only cover the truth but many sides and views and beliefs to each story. “You can determine revenue on the basis of demographics, but you can never determine content. . . .Far from hiring in the newsroom being an indicator of where diversity comes from, it’s knowing your audience, and to be truly interested in your audience from the top to the bottom, from the left to the right, and from all economic levels” (John Hockenberry, at CCJ Forum, Ann Arbor, MI, February 2, 1998).
In journalism, it’s important that we keep an independence of mind. Yes it’s hard to suppress our opinions but it’s possible to steer away from propaganda and activism. We should embrace our beliefs but not promote them to our audiences. Along with embracing our opinions, the news business needs diversity in ideas. With diverse ideas, it creates better journalism so the people know what to think rather than how to think about the news.
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