Impartiality Bias and Freedom of Press

Question 1

Journalistic approaches

Answer 1

Impartial approach

• neutrality: integrating several, sometimes conflicting points of view, giving each point of view equal consideration; one‘s own opinion is not expressed (“view from nowhere“)
• plurality: seeing oneself as part of an (international) community contributing to a balanced picture

Advocacy journalism

• transparency: taking a clear stance on certain issues
• advocating a cause, expressing a viewpoint
• intentionally adopting a non-objective viewpoint

Question 2

Obstacles to Impartialiity

Answer 2

Inherent:

• selection of stories already represents a certain point of view
• preconceived opinions, culturally determined ways of thinking and judging
• truth in itself can be considered relative

Often inevitable:

• influence by stakeholders (government, owners, advertisers and selectively recruited staff); financial dependencies (cf “double bind“)
• imbalance of media power between rich and poor countries
• reinforcement of majority-held ideas, thereby marginalizing dissent

Outright dangerous:

• censorship
• propaganda: articles might serve a distinct political or commercial interest

Question 3

Social media and the news

Answer 3

• news no longer gathered exclusively by journalists: exchange ofnews between the audience and journalists - „crowd sourcing“
• Facebook, Twitteras so-called „horizontal media“ where people can exchange information withoutthe involvementofthe media
• the power to publish now widely dispersed
• complementary functions (gathering, filtering, distributing, verifying) of social media and traditional news outlets
• essential role ofsocial media in society, politics (e.g. US elections or Brexit)
• editorial function ofserious, well-established news organisations to make sense ofthe raw material, to provide background information, contextand analysis

Question 4

Fake News

Answer 4

• intentional disinformation
• false claims that target politicians, minorities in order to undermine, destabilize the existing order – or to make money (clickbait)
• mostly sensationalist, emotional posts with a high chance to go viral
• social divide, anger and frustration facilitates the willingness to believe news that confirms people‘s prejudices.

danger of abusing user data and targeted ads on social media
(c.f. Cambridge Analytica scandal in 2016 US election)