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“But did they report it objectively?”
What journalistic objectivity and “balance as bias” means when it comes to climate reporting
Ryan Allan MacfarlaneUndergradute
University of Lethbridge@_ra_mac
Philosophy 4000: “Environmental Philosophy and the Climate Crisis”University of Lethbridge
February 24, 2015
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What is journalism?
Journalism has no widely agreed upon organizing principle. Journalists often say things like, “our work speaks for itself.”
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What is journalism?
Things the public generally expects of journalists:
● That they report the truth● That they hold power to account● That they offer voice to the voiceless● That they report objectively
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What is objectivity?
Generally, journalism objectivity is taken to mean reporting news that is:
● Accurate● Balanced● Unbiased
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What is objectivity?
It's possible to distinguish between 3 types of 'objectivity':
1) Ontological2) Epistemological
3) Procedural
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'Traditional objectivity'
Traditional journalism objectivity believed an objective news report was a mix of all 3 types of
objectivity
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'Traditional objectivity'
Distinguished 'news' from 'opinion' where whatever wasn't 'news' was 'opinion'
But the principle of 'traditional objectivity' was never formally defined and had no theory—was
mostly based on newsroom practice
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Journalism ethics
Objectivity was used to move journalism away from nationalism of the 17th century,
partisanship of the 18th century, “yellow journalism” and sensationalism of the early 20th
century.
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Journalism ethics
Walter Lippman (18891974)
Advocated for the professionalization of journalism, argued that journalism should adopt an objectively transparent method—one like science
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Journalism ethics
Objectivity gave journalism its ethical foundations and created a sense of
professionalism
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Professional journalism
● Who can work as a journalist?● What makes a journalist 'professional'?
First, let's consider qualifications for other professional careers
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Professional qualifications● University professor● Lawyer● Tradesperson● Journalist
● Recognized degrees, peerreviewed work● Called to the bar by the bar association● Tradesschool, apprenticeships, journeymen, masters● Jschool, but no external, professional body
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Problems with objectivity
“Balance as Bias”
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Problems with objectivity
While objectivity, professionalism & journalism ethics help journalism avoid ideological bias,
the practice of balance has led to 'informational bias'
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'Informational bias'
“joint product of internalized professional values and of newsgathering routines.”
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“Balance as Bias”Methods and results
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Boykoff & Boykoff, p. 128
Measure #1: Coverage of debate over anthropogenic contributions to global warming:
● Only presents argument that anthropogenic global warming exists, clearly distinct from natural variations
● Presents both sides, but emphasizes that anthropogenic global warming exists, still distinct from natural variation
● Presents a balanced account of debates surrounding existence of anthropogenic global warming
● Presents both sides, but emphasizes dubious nature of the claim that anthropogenic global warming exists
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Coverage of anthropogenic contributions
52.65
35.29
6.185.88
balanced accounts of anthropogenic contribu-tions to warming
anthropogenic contribution dominant
skepticism of anthropogenic contribution dom-inant
exclusive coverage of anthropogenic warming
US prestigepress coverage of existence of anthropogenic contribution to global warming 1988–2002, n=340
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Boykoff & Boykoff, p. 128
Measure #2: Coverage of decisions regarding action on global warming:
● Dominant coverage of decisions/assertions regarding immediate/mandatory action to deal with global warming
● Balanced accounts of various decisions regarding action● Dominant coverage of decisions/assertions regarding
cautious/voluntary approaches to deal with global warming
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78.2
11.17
10.63
Balanced accounts regarding action
Cautious/voluntary action dominant
Immediate/mandatory action dominant
Coverage of action
US prestigepress coverage of action regarding global warming 1988–2002, n=367
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What does this suggest?
As reporters applied their professional ethic of objectivity to covering climate change, they
inadvertently overemphasized the position of climate deniers
Climate deniers picked up on this, exaggerated doubt in public debate, leading to more
“balanced” reports
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But now false balance is being acknowledged in journalism
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Public editor: Stories on vaccination aren’t propagandaBy Sylvia Stead
Feb 18, 2015, The Globe and Mail
“The reader is correct that news stories should be fair and balanced, but if The Globe were to include someone “credible” from the antivaxxer community, that would be false balance.False balance is when journalists twist themselves into a knot
to try to balance scientific and expert views with someone whose views are not factbased, expert or scientific. Would you
even report a story about whether the Earth is flat or round and quote some marginal conspiracy theory types arguing that it
can’t be round? No. Would you publish anything about whether the moon landing was real and give equivalency to the views of
those who believe it was a hoax? Again, no.”
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Public editor: He Said, She Said, and the Truth
By Margaret Sullivan
Sept 15, 2012, The New York Times
“Simply put, false balance is the journalistic practice of giving equal weight to both sides of a story, regardless of an established truth on one side. And many people are fed up with it. They don’t want to hear lies or halftruths given credence on one side, and shot down on the other. They want some real answers.”
Public editor: Another Outbreak of ‘False Balance’?
By Margaret Sullivan
Feb 7, 2015, The New York Times
“The Times’s standards editor, Philip B. Corbett, told me that avoiding false balance, generally, is very much on the minds of Times journalists. He has not issued rules about it because, he said, 'I’m wary of issuing mandatory language. It’s usually not a good approach.'”
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So what do we do from here?
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It is important to understand the relationship between the public and the media
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Traditional model of the relationship between the public, media, and society—such as political organizations & scientific community
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Alternative model of the same relationship
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Perception of media's role
● One emphasizes a hierarchical, filterdown approach
● The other places each part in dialogue with the others
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Conclusions
1) Journalists don't have a well defined method:
● It is hard for journalists to define what they do and how they do it
● The public may distrust journalists because of obscurity
Journalists need to rediscover 'objectivity' as objective and transparent method
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Conclusions
2) The public needs to know what to expect of journalists and politicians—and ask for it
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Conclusions
3) Climate scientists, policy makers, etc. need to recognize 2 things:
● That journalism can't be used as a tool to promote a message—even if it's the right one
● That journalism can work effectively and report accurately on the climate—current problems are not inherent, but methodological
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Afterword
Data journalism is a relatively new field of journalism and seems to offer a promise of more
transparent methods—and journalists specifically trained to understand data
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Climate change is a big issueBut we can address its constituent parts
Thank you for your time!