Objectivity has been the gold standard in journalism. But whose objectivity? As journalists debate their role — especially when it comes to race — the traditional definition of “objective” must evolve beyond detached stenography and performative balance. Learn how increasing standards of fairness and transparency can improve credibility and trust.

1. MORE THAN
BOTH SIDES
Logan Aimone, MJE //
University of Chicago Laboratory High School Spring 2024
REDEFINING OBJECTIVITY

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A basic tenet of
journalism is to seek
comment from
various sides.

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But as a reporter,
you’re not supposed
to take a side.

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That’s how
we were taught.

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For decades, every
beginning journalist
has learned the
fundamental lesson:

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BE
OBJECTIVE

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But why?
How did we get to the point
where good journalism
means objective journalism?

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But why?
And how are we defining
“objective” anyway?

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A BIT OF
HISTORY

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NEWSPAPERS IN HISTORY
•Historically, newspapers weren’t always
objective — that is, they weren’t neutral.
•The idea that newspapers should dispense
neutral, factual information via trained
professionals is fairly new.
Real Clear Politics

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NEWSPAPERS IN HISTORY
•In the 19th century, most newspapers were
explicitly linked to a particular political party
and the economic interests of the publisher.
New-York Tribune
• Founder/editor Horace Greeley
• From 1840s-1860s was
dominant newspaper of Whig
Party then Republican Party
• Source: Wikimedia Commons,
public domain

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NEWSPAPERS IN HISTORY
•New newspapers
were developing
based on sales
and advertising
(not funded by
parties).
Bisbee (Arizona) Daily Review
• Dec. 22, 1916
• Source: Library of Congress

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NEWSPAPERS IN HISTORY
•In the late 19th century, “objective” coverage
slowly began to be defined by the consensus
of the day.
•Because consensus was formed by the
dominant ideology*, objectivity was also
defined from that perspective — the dominant
group or majority.
*At this time consensus was determined largely by people who were white,
male, politically centrist — not people of color, women, LGBTQ+, religious
minorities or people with far left or right political ideologies.

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NEWSPAPERS IN HISTORY
•One way this showed up was through reporting of
civic news, including crime.
The Journal, New York
• April 12, 1896
• Source: Library of Congress

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NEWSPAPERS IN HISTORY
•For example, lynching was seen through a racist
lens — the consensus (dominant) view at the time
could not comprehend that a Black man could be
innocent when accused. (More on this later…)
The Montgomery (Alabama)
Advertiser
• February 1892

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NEWSPAPERS IN HISTORY
•But mainstream press was not telling whole story
— other perspectives weren’t included.
The New York Times
compilation of Southern
newspaper headlines
• 2018

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NEWSPAPERS IN THE “AGE OF CONSENSUS”
•After World War II, Americans experienced a
new status as a dominant superpower, as well
as general agreement on culture, government
and economy (capitalism).
• Source: Unknown

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NEWSPAPERS IN THE “AGE OF CONSENSUS”
•Journalism moved to the mainstream center
— the place of consensus.
• The New
York Times
newsroom,
1942

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NEWSPAPERS MEDIA IN THE 1990s TO TODAY
•Political conservatives in particular believed the
mainstream (centrist) media was biased, so in the
1970s they began to undermine trust.
•“Liberal media bias”
•Rise of new conservative media, including talk radio
in the 1980s and Fox News Channel in 1996

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BOTH SIDES: A FALSE “BALANCE”
•Hypersensitivity among the press to charges of
bias and challenge to their objectivity.
•To combat perception of bias, mainstream
news begins to present “balance” with
sources, pundits, analysis.

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BOTH SIDES: A FALSE OR PERFORMATIVE “BALANCE”
•News outlets — then and now — tend to seek
“both sides” of an issue, often a conservative
or liberal, even when public opinion on the
issue is not evenly split.
•Iraq War
•Climate change

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Journalists
changed habits
from consensus
to performative
balance.

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This led to
journalists not
pushing back for
fear of being
called biased.

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Until recently,
journalists even
anguished over
what could be
called a lie.

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A
JOURNALIST’S
ROLE

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If you quote
“both sides,”
is the story
reported
effectively?

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SPJ Code of Ethics
calls on
journalists to be
truth-tellers.
“Conduits of Misinformation” — SPJ Quill, Jan. 6, 2023

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Journalists fail in that role when they
rely on outdated reporting
conventions, such as giving equal
weight to “both sides” of a story
when evidence strongly supports one.
“Conduits of Misinformation” — SPJ Quill, Jan. 6, 2023

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“If someone says it’s raining,
and another person says it’s
dry, it’s not your job to quote
them both.
“Your job is to look out the …
window and find out which is
true.”
— Jonathan D. Foster, Sheffield University

30. MORE THAN BOTH SIDES
A SHIFT IN
CONSENSUS

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HALLIN’S SPHERES
•Developed by Daniel Hallin to explain coverage of
the Vietnam War, has three concentric spheres:
• Consensus
• Legitimate controversy
• Deviance
Hallin, Daniel (1986). The Uncensored War: The Media and Vietnam.

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HALLIN’S SPHERES

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CONSENSUS
•General agreement among people — bedrock
values.
•Also known as the dominant ideology
•Topics can be reported on without controversy:
• Parenthood — parents are good and good for the public
• Crime is wrong
•No need to provide opposing side/balance.

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LEGITIMATE CONTROVERSY
•There is not general agreement among people
(low consensus); multiple points of view
•Audience becomes more educated
•Journalists tend to seek neutrality
•Majority of subjects in news media
•Active debate:
• “Should the city raise the minimum wage?”

35. MORE THAN BOTH SIDES
DEVIANCE
•Ideas too fringe, taboo, extreme, inconsequential or
even dangerous to be represented in news
coverage
•Journalists decide to filter these viewpoints
— they denounce or ignore them
• Cannibalism
• Aliens abducted cheerleaders
• Conspiracy theories
• Anti-democratic values

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In a fractured media
landscape, different
audiences may place
topics in different
spheres.

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Ideas move
between these
spheres over time.

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Public opinion
shifts.
Journalism helps
shift it.

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SHIFTING CONSENSUS
•Chattel slavery: Until the mid-1800s was considered
consensus, moved to legitimate controversy but
now is very much in deviance
•Segregation
•Women’s suffrage

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SHIFTING CONSENSUS
•Climate change: Until recently was considered open
for debate with “balance” from industry, but now is
generally considered to be truth
•Marriage equality
•Medical and recreational marijuana
•Black Lives Matter: Recently had rapid change
•Vaccines: COVID-19 has re-ignited controversy
•Next?

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ROOTS OF
A NEW
OBJECTIVITY

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As newsrooms
change, is it possible
to be fair and
transparent — and
still be objective?

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IDA B. WELLS-BARNETT
• Through her work as an investigative
reporter, she told stories that the white
press was unwilling to tell.
• Led an anti-lynching crusade by
reporting and publishing the truth,
even at risk to her own life
• Honored with Pulitzer Prize in 2020
— 85 years after her death
• Source: University of Chicago Special
Collections Research Center

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NIKOLE HANNAH-JONES
• Reporter for The New York Times
Magazine covering civil rights and racial
injustice; professor at Howard University
• “I don’t find it useful to pretend we have
no thoughts on the things that we cover.
I always say, the only things you don’t
have opinions on are things that you
don’t know enough about to form an
opinion.”
• 2020 Pulitzer Prize for commentary,
“The 1619 Project”
• Source: nikolehannahjones.com

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CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR
• 40-year journalism career, now CNN chief
international anchor, reported from war
zones around the world
• “We have to be truthful, not neutral.”
• “And it applies to everything. Whether
you’re covering Donald Trump, whether
you’re covering the climate crisis,
whatever you’re covering — you
absolutely have to be truthful, which does
not mean unobjective. Objective means
cover all sides. It does not mean come to
the same judgment about all sides.”
• Source: CNN

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Stephen J.A. Ward, media ethics expert
“Objectivity is not about perfect neutrality or the
elimination of interpretation. Objectivity refers to a
person’s willingness to use objective methods to test
interpretations for bias or inaccuracies. Objectivity as a
method is compatible with journalism that interprets
and takes perspectives.
“Every day, scientists adopt the objective stance when
they use methods to test their hypotheses about
phenomena. The same stance is available for
journalists.”

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Michele Norris, Washington Post columnist
“You know, can you express yourself fully and
cover Black Lives Matter? Or can you do that
and cover politics and do that in a way that is
fair and impartial? I will be honest that I face
some of that and — you know, as many other
Black reporters did covering an ascendant Black
candidate. And yet, white reporters cover white
politicians all the time, and there are not
questions about objectivity.”
Appearance on “Consider This,” NPR, May 7, 2021

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Sam Sanders, NPR
“We — capital-J journalists, the media —
have to fight that tendency to focus on
the kind of voices that we think are from
central casting. There’s a lot of voices.
There’s always been a lot of voices.”
Appearance on “Pod Save America,” June 28, 2021

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Nikole Hannah-Jones, journalist and educator
“Journalism is not stenography. We
don’t simply say, ‘Donald Trump said this.
Nancy Pelosi said this.’ That should not be
our role. Our role should actually be at
getting at the truth and providing context
and analysis so people understand what
this means.”
Appearance on NPR's “1A,” June 9, 2020

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Which opinions
are valid?
What responsibility
do journalists have
to shift them?

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Can you be
objective?
Whose
objectivity?

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COVERAGE
BEYOND
“BOTH SIDES”

53. MORE THAN BOTH SIDES
AVOID “BOTH SIDES”
STORYTELLING
1Abandon performative balance
when covering important, timely
topics.

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AVOID “BOTH SIDES” STORYTELLING
•Untrue assertions make their way to mainstream
news consumers in several ways.
•Common tactics sources use include
•false equivalence • whataboutism
•bothsidesism • lying
•Well-meaning journalists play a role by allowing
sources to give “their side” of an argument — true
or not — out of a belief that fair, ethical journalism
requires them to do so.
“Conduits of Misinformation” — SPJ Quill, Jan. 6, 2023

55. MORE THAN BOTH SIDES
PRO-VERIFICATION
PRO-TRUTH
2As a gatekeeper, one role of a
journalist is to be pro-democracy.
Accuracy is the goal.

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PRO-VERIFICATION & PRO-TRUTH
•Provide context.
•Don’t just be a stenographer.
•Ask questions to get at the truth.
•Use credibility, authority and power to move
the public.

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NOT THE ODDS
BUT THE STAKES
3That is, focus on impact and
consequences.
Coverage of issues should be more
than binary winner-loser.

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NOT THE ODDS BUT THE STAKES
•The same lens can be used to cover any issue:
What is the impact of this policy/decision/vote
on our readers (or a subset of them)?

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In election reporting, focus on impact.
NYU professor Jay Rosen,
a media analyst and
critic, advocates for a
“citizens agenda”
approach to campaign
coverage. It revolves
around a single question:
“What do you want the
candidates to be
discussing as they
compete for votes?”

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STRIVE FOR MORE
FAIRNESS AND
TRANSPARENCY
4Your actions should be
transparent and defensible.
Disclose conflicts of interest.

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STRIVE FOR FAIRNESS AND TRANSPARENCY
•Maintain the watchdog function. It’s
important.
•Provide sources the opportunity to respond.
•You must be accountable to your audience.
•Credibility will be strong — readers
(and sources) know and trust the news staff.

62. MORE THAN BOTH SIDES
BE SKEPTICAL
OF INSTITUTIONS
AND MOTIVES
5What is the claim?
By whom?

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Example:
What a police report states (or doesn’t)
impacts the narrative.
A police report is not the whole story.
Just the phrase “police claim” frames
the conversation in terms of “police are
saying this” — providing enough
evidence to be reasonably skeptical.
— Phillip Atiba Goff, co-founder and CEO of the Center for Policing Equity
and a professor of African American studies and psychology at Yale University
NPR, May 28, 2021

64. MORE THAN BOTH SIDES
• Original statement
issued by the
Minneapolis Police
Department on the
death of George Floyd:
“A Medical Incident”
(May 25, 2020)

65. MORE THAN BOTH SIDES
IDENTIFY AND USE
SOURCES WHO PROVIDE
COMPLETE PERSPECTIVE
6Not just sources of convenience:
reporter’s friends, institutional
leaders, well-known to give a
“good quote.”

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FINAL
THOUGHTS

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What special
circumstances
do student
journalists face?

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What are possible
“blind spots” or
limitations when
attempting
coverage?

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Gina Baleria, Ed.D., Sonoma State University:
In truth, we have never actually prized individual objectivity.
Think of the journalists we look to as examples when we
measure our own work. When legendary journalists Walter
Cronkite and Edward R. Murrow are remembered, the
moments we hold up are the moments when they set
objectivity aside to speak truth and give context to the
American people — Cronkite when he took a stand against
the Vietnam War, and Murrow when he took on Sen. Joseph
McCarthy. We applaud the truths they told, the context they
provided, and the transparency they offered to us in those
important stories.
Poynter: It’s time for journalism educators to rethink ‘objectivity’ and teach more about context

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This presentation is
available online at:
slideshare.net/loganaimone
Permission is granted
for classroom use.

71. Logan Aimone, MJE //
logan.aimone@gmail.com // @loganaimone
QUESTIONS?