News Literacy, Spring 2021 -- Week 9 Lecture
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News Literacy, Spring 2021 -- Week 9 Lecture
- 3. 1. Distinguish between news and opinion in the journalism neighborhood and understand why their differences matter. 2. Understand why both news and opinion must adhere to the journalistic standards of Verification, Independence, and Accountability (VIA). 3. Distinguish between news and opinion by paying attention to labels and language. 4. Recognize that well-done opinion journalism has benefits, especially when consumed along with impartial news reporting.
- 4. What is opinion journalism? The author/speaker shares and explains their view, judgment, or appraisal on a particular subject NOTE: News reports often include the opinions of the sources who are interviewed for the story. This does not make them opinion journalism.
- 5. The goal of news reporting is to inform The goals of opinion journalism are to inform and to persuade
- 8. Clearly labeled opinion journalism is not bias
- 9. Many news outlets separate news reporting from opinion
- 14. Some news outlets always take sides
- 17. Some news outlets routinely blur the lines between news and opinion
- 18. What’s the value of opinion journalism? 1.Gives insight into complicated stories 2.Opens your eyes to new ways of looking at the world 3.Challenges our assumptions 4.Helps us develop our own points of view
- 20. “Analysis and commentary should be labeled and not misrepresent fact or context.” “Deny favored treatment to advertisers and special interests … (and) remain free of associations and activities that may compromise integrity or damage credibility.” “Analysis and commentary should be labeled and not misrepresent fact or context.” ─ The Society of Professional Journalists VERIFICATI ON INDEPENDEN CE ACCOUNTABILI TY Opinion journalism should be about VIA
- 21. Look for Verification in opinion
- 22. Look for Independence in opinion
- 23. Opinion journalism vs. informed advocacy
- 24. Does the opinion journalist work for an independent news outlet that includes a variety of viewpoints?
- 25. Does the journalist maintain intellectual independence?
- 26. Does the journalist avoid direct ties to partisans?
- 27. Does the journalist avoid direct ties to partisans?
- 28. Look for Accountability: Many newsrooms label opinion
- 29. Look for Independence in opinion
- 30. Does the opinion journalist work for an independent organization that includes various viewpoints?
- 31. Does the journalist maintain intellectual independence?
- 32. Does the journalist avoid direct ties to partisans?
- 33. Does the journalist avoid direct ties to partisans?
- 34. Look for Accountability: Many newsrooms label opinion
- 37. TV uses labels, too.
- 39. News show host. Generally does not offer opinions. THE ANCHOR
- 40. TV reporter. Generally does not offer opinions. CORRESPONDENT
- 41. An opinion journalist. Offers opinion grounded in fact. COMMENTATOR
- 42. The line begins to blur. These are experts or political operatives, often not independent. ANALYST OR CONTRIBUTOR
- 43. Pure opinion. These are partisans. Sometimes called “contributors.” CONSULTANT OR STRATEGIST
- 44. First-person declarations Exaggeration Emotionally loaded words Tone (sarcasm, irony) Parody
- 45. Where does the reporting stop and the commentary start?
- 46. Opinion journalism or assertion?
- 47. Something that is stated positively, often with no support or attempt at proof
- 48. Opinion journalism or assertion? Daniel Patrick Moynihan, former UN ambassador and four-term U.S. senator from New York Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.
- 50. Facebook mirrors your views What you like shapes the news you see
- 53. Be an active consumer, with a mixed news diet
Editor's Notes
- Within the journalism neighborhood, there’s News Street and and Opinion Street.
- The findings from the survey, conducted between Feb. 22 and March 8, 2018, reveal that even this basic task presents a challenge. The main portion of the study, which measured the public’s ability to distinguish between five factual statements and five opinion statements, found that a majority of Americans correctly identified at least three of the five statements in each set. But this result is only a little better than random guesses. Far fewer Americans got all five correct, and roughly a quarter got most or all wrong. Even more revealing is that certain Americans do far better at parsing through this content than others. Those with high political awareness, those who are very digitally savvy and those who place high levels of trust in the news media are better able than others to accurately identify news-related statements as factual or opinion. For example, 36% of Americans with high levels of political awareness (those who are knowledgeable about politics and regularly get political news) correctly identified all five factual news statements, compared with about half as many (17%) of those with low political awareness. Similarly, 44% of the very digitally savvy (those who are highly confident in using digital devices and regularly use the internet) identified all five opinion statements correctly versus 21% of those who are not as technologically savvy. And though political awareness and digital savviness are related to education in predictable ways, these relationships persist even when accounting for an individual’s education level. Trust in those who do the reporting also matters in how that statement is interpreted. Almost four-in-ten Americans who have a lot of trust in the information from national news organizations (39%) correctly identified all five factual statements, compared with 18% of those who have not much or no trust. However, one other trait related to news habits – the public’s level of interest in news – does not show much difference. In addition to political awareness, party identification plays a role in how Americans differentiate between factual and opinion news statements. Both Republicans and Democrats show a propensity to be influenced by which side of the aisle a statement appeals to most. For example, members of each political party were more likely to label both factual and opinion statements as factual when they appealed more to their political side. https://www.journalism.org/2018/06/18/distinguishing-between-factual-and-opinion-statements-in-the-news/ https://www.americanpressinstitute.org/publications/confusion-about-whats-news-and-whats-opinion-is-a-big-problem-but-journalists-can-help-solve-it/
- What is opinion journalism? It’s not sources’ opinions in news stories. It’s the opinion of the author.
- What’s the difference? News reporting informs. Reporters provide facts and context. Opinion is a VIEW, a JUDGMENT or an APPRAISAL about a particular matter. The goal of opinion is to persuade—the commentator wants you to agree with them.
- Ask: What do you think of CNN? Fox News? There’s a widespread assumption that CNN is anti-Trump, that it’s in the tank for the Democrats. That Fox News is pro-Trump, in the tank for the Republicans.
- News Literacy has a precise definition of bias – a pattern of unfairness found in a media outlet’s news coverage. So the suggestion that you can document a specific pattern of unfairness shared by every news outlet doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. We’re not saying bias doesn’t exist, only that the only intellectually honest way of establishing it would be to look at a specific news outlet’s coverage over a period of time.
- Or by what its editorials or opinion journalism says. A reputable news organization separates news from opinion – not only by labeling it, but by separating its news and opinion staffs.
- Here’s The Boston Globe, a legacy newspaper that adheres to a tradition dating back to the late 1800s: the separation of impartial news reporting from the opinion pages. Long Island’s Newsday, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times—many newspapers follow this model, as do programs in other mediums, such as National Public Radio and PBS NewsHour.
- In a rare display of internal strife, the opinion department of The Wall Street Journal openly antagonized the paper’s news staff Thursday by publishing a tersely worded note to readers just days after it found itself on the receiving end of a sharply worded critique signed by hundreds of newsroom employees. Turmoil inside the buttoned-up newsroom had been brewing for more than a month before the clash spilled into the view of the paper’s readership. The latest skirmish started Tuesday, when nearly 300 of The Journal’s news staff members sent a letter to the paper’s publisher, Almar Latour, condemning the opinion desk’s “lack of fact-checking and transparency.” The letter cited several examples of essays published by the opinion section, which is operated separately from the newsroom, that included factual errors, among them a June 16 article by Vice President Mike Pence. The essay, with the headline “There Isn’t a Coronavirus ‘Second Wave,’” was ultimately corrected. The letter highlighted how the newsroom’s own reporting more than a week earlier was at odds with Mr. Pence’s claims. “Opinion articles often make assertions that are contradicted by WSJ reporting,” the letter said. In the unadorned style typical of Journal articles, the 1,400-word note documented what it said were several other fact-checking lapses in opinion essays. https://www.wsj.com/articles/wsj-journalists-ask-publisher-for-clearer-distinction-between-news-and-opinion-content-11595349198 https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/24/business/media/wall-street-journal-news-opinion-clash-letter.html?action=click&module=News&pgtype=Homepage
- https://newsliteracy.wsj.com/
- https://newsliteracy.wsj.com/
- https://newsliteracy.wsj.com/
- When news outlets take sides with their journalism – if it is journalism that they provide – it may be a business decision. Or it may be an expression of deeply held beliefs. See, for example, The Daily Caller and Jacobin Magazine. https://dailycaller.com/ https://www.jacobinmag.com/
- From the “about” section of Jacobin magazine. The https://www.jacobinmag.com/about
- Though The Daily Caller’s “about us” page does not indicate a bias, if you know anything about Tucker Carlson and Dick Cheney, former vice president and former employer of co-founder Neil Patel, the site’s POV is clear. https://dailycaller.com/
- Jake Tapper is a host on CNN. Though he fancies himself an impartial reporter, he often makes judgments about the news and prominent politicians, and he often uses a wry, sarcastic tone. And look at his guests on this particular show: Maggie Haberman, a political reporter from the New York Times, Bill Kristol, a conservative commentator, and Paul Begala, a liberal commentator who worked on Bill Clinton’s first presidential campaign.
- What’s the value of opinion journalism? Why risk the ire of partisans, the accusations of bias, and the common confusion among consumers? There are benefits, when it’s done well: Gives insight into complicated stories Opens your eyes to new ways of looking at the world Challenges our assumptions Helps us develop our own points of view These benefits are strongest when opinion is consumed along with news reporting.
- Contrasting POVs
- The point of those ethics guidelines is to preserve the essence of journalism: Verification…Independence…Accountability If a person is trying to help you make up your mind, trying to foster democratic debate about how we govern ourselves, they fight fair. They verify the facts they use to support an argument. They aren’t allowed to pose as an opinion journalist if they are on the payroll of one interest group or another. And they are accountable for their opinion, labeling it as opinion so that a viewer or reader is not misled into thinking it is reporting. This slide shows how VIA fits in the ethics code for even an opinion journalist.
- https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/06/opinion/coronavirus-schools-reopen.html
- Think tanks, nonprofits, etc.
- For example, USA Today’s opinion section. Look at the varieties of opinion here. Even opinion sections that tend to lean one way or another politically, often welcome alternative voices, in the form of letters to the editor, guest columns, etc.
- Independence is different than neutrality. While it’s near-impossible for a thinking human to be perfectly objective, even the most partisan opinion writer can be independent, if their paycheck comes from a news organization instead of one of the major partisan players. If Nicole Wallace were on the payroll of the Republican Party, she might never ever be able to criticize the Republicans, as she often does on her MSNBC program. And if Jamelle Bouie were on the payroll of the Democrats, rather than the New York Times, he would have a much harder time criticizing the Democrats, including Joe Biden, at one time the party’s frontrunner for the 2020 presidential nomination. Both have a point of view, but both are paid to serve the audience, not a political party. It’s often confusing to students who correctly cling to V.I.A. as the fundamental standards of journalism, yet encounter opinion journalists like Jamelle Bousie or Nicole Wallace who take a side. An opinion journalist answers to the audience, the readers and not to one or the other of the political parties. This is what we mean by independence, when it comes to opinion journalists.
- There have been times, however, when commentators have held close relationships with political candidates. That is inappropriate, and consumers should be made aware. David Sirota was still working as an opinion journalist as he transitioned to his new job as an advisor to the Bernie Sanders campaign. In pieces for The Guardian and others, and in his social media posts, Sirota regularly criticized Sanders’s opponents in the Democratic primary. https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/a-bernie-sanders-supporter-and-journalist-had-a-secret-he-kept-from-his-readers/2019/03/20/063aabee-4b26-11e9-b79a-961983b7e0cd_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.c53acb28de25
- Fox News hosts Sean Hannity and Jeanine Pirro, who are both outspoken Trump supporters on their shows, joined him on stage at a campaign rally in November 2018. An ethical journalist should avoid such associations and conflicts of interest. https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-fox-news-hannity-trump-rally-20181105-story.html Hannity, for his part, is not independent from Donald Trump. Hannity has said that he does not consider himself to be a journalist. http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/09/20/fox_news_sean_hannity_literally_endorses_donald_trump_on_new_campaign_ad.html http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/22/business/media/sean-hannity-turns-adviser-in-the-service-of-donald-trump.html http://insider.foxnews.com/2016/09/21/tonight-10-et-trump-talks-minority-outreach-hannity-town-hall Another Fox host, Peter Hegseth of Fox & Friends, has taken at least $50,000 from GOP groups for fundraising help. https://www.mediamatters.org/blog/2019/01/23/gop-groups-have-paid-fox-news-host-pete-hegseth-over-50000-fundraising-help-recent-years/222605
- ANIMATION: RED ARROW HIGHLIGHTS THE “OPINION” TAB News on the web continues to evolve rapidly and in all directions at once, so these are very broad observations of the news-to-opinion spectrum on the Web: CNN labels sections of its site by topic, including a tab that sends readers to the work of opinion writers.
- For example, USA Today’s opinion section featured an op-ed by President Trump. A little over a week later a regular opinion columnist accused Trump of being bought and sold by Saudi Arabia. Opinion pages tend to lean either left or right, but still, they invite differing opinions.
- Independence is different than neutrality. While it’s near-impossible for a thinking human to be perfectly objective, even the most partisan opinion writer can be independent, if their paycheck comes from a news organization instead of one of the major partisan players. If Nicole Wallace were on the payroll of the Republican Party, she might never ever be able to criticize the Republicans, as she often does on her MSNBC program. And if Jamelle Bouie were on the payroll of the Democrats, rather than the New York Times, he would have a much harder time criticizing the Democrats, including Joe Biden, at one time the party’s frontrunner for the 2020 presidential nomination. Both have a point of view, but both are paid to serve the audience, not a political party. It’s often confusing to students who correctly cling to V.I.A. as the fundamental standards of journalism, yet encounter opinion journalists like Jamelle Bousie or Nicole Wallace who take a side. An opinion journalist answers to the audience, the readers and not to one or the other of the political parties. This is what we mean by independence, when it comes to opinion journalists.
- There have been times, however, when commentators have held close relationships with political candidates. That is inappropriate, and consumers should be made aware. David Sirota was still working as an opinion journalist as he transitioned to his new job in the Bernie Sanders campaign. https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/a-bernie-sanders-supporter-and-journalist-had-a-secret-he-kept-from-his-readers/2019/03/20/063aabee-4b26-11e9-b79a-961983b7e0cd_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.c53acb28de25
- Fox News hosts Sean Hannity and Jeanine Pirro, who are both outspoken Trump supporters on their shows, joined him on stage at a campaign rally in November 2018. An ethical journalist should avoid such associations and conflicts of interest. https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-fox-news-hannity-trump-rally-20181105-story.html Hannity, for his part, is not independent from Donald Trump. Hannity has said that he does not consider himself to be a journalist. http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/09/20/fox_news_sean_hannity_literally_endorses_donald_trump_on_new_campaign_ad.html http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/22/business/media/sean-hannity-turns-adviser-in-the-service-of-donald-trump.html http://insider.foxnews.com/2016/09/21/tonight-10-et-trump-talks-minority-outreach-hannity-town-hall Another Fox host, Peter Hegseth of Fox & Friends, has taken at least $50,000 from GOP groups for fundraising help. https://www.mediamatters.org/blog/2019/01/23/gop-groups-have-paid-fox-news-host-pete-hegseth-over-50000-fundraising-help-recent-years/222605
- ANIMATION: RED ARROW HIGHLIGHTS THE “OPINION” TAB News on the web continues to evolve rapidly and in all directions at once, so these are very broad observations of the news-to-opinion spectrum on the Web: CNN labels sections of its site by topic, including a tab that sends readers to the work of opinion writers.
- Animation: labels appear one-by-one automatically. Evidence-based, factually accurate Opinion Journalism makes it very confusing for a news consumer. There are statistics and quotes from experts and the kind of verification that makes a news story reliable. It can seem like News Reporting. But then the writer or commentator spouts off an opinion, or leaves out a fact or two in order to emphasize one facet of the argument. BUT If they are committed to informing news consumers, news outlets are scrupulous about labeling. Remember that Code of Ethics. Clear labelling. These are a few common labels. (Lecturer can explain each) ASK: WHY WOULD AN OUTLET NOT LABEL CLEARLY?
- Other sites that are less traditional or feature more commentary than news often don’t bother to label opinion. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/10/cancel-billionaires/599587/
- Reputable news channels label opinion as well – the label Fareed’s Take is designed to let you know the show’s host is switching to commentary.
- So, here are you few rules of thumb for separating news and opinion on TV news.
- Look for labels that identify who the journalists are …
- Just as in the press, TV reporters generally do not take sides.
- And just as a newspaper columnist or editorial writer has the license to express fact-based opinions and analysis, commentators do the same on TV. Listen to Cokie Roberts explain on NPR.
- Here’s where it starts to get tricky. Many of the experts you see on cable TV news are not journalists and make no pretense of impartiality.
- In fact, some of these experts are actually there to represent one side of the argument.
- While sharp eyes will catch labels, a good ear can be just as important.
- Listen to this clip. News? Opinion? Both? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59Kq4bZ8N5I
- On the other hand, there’s assertion—unsupported assertions. Opinion is a VIEW, a JUDGMENT or an APPRAISAL about a particular matter. An assertion is something declared with no attempt at proof. I said it, so it’s true. Ask: what’s the important difference?
- So, who cares which is which? Like reporters, opinion journalists are expected to stick to the facts. But the goal of opinion journalists is to use what they’ve learned to provoke discussion by picking sides and arguing forcefully. Opinion journalism is, by definition, one-sided. I may be misled if I only hear one side of the situation.
- As we’ve discussed, we all have preferences, deeply held beliefs, and implicit biases. Our brains are wired to seek comfort and affirmation, not reliable information. We talked about cognitive dissonance—how we’re stressed by information that contradicts our beliefs—and how our brains cope with it (selective distortion and retention, source amnesia, confirmation bias). Social media and search engines, which are based on algorithms, tend to feed our biases, entrap us in a “filter bubble” where we run the risk of living blinkered lives. It’s the irony of our age that we have access to more information than anyone in human history, and yet we consciously narrowcast, selecting to subscribe to or follow news we agree with, and search engines and social media tailor our results and feeds to what their algorithms think we want.
- Algorithms tailor your feed to fit your interests, based on the way you label yourself and also based on your past activity on the social media platform. What you like, dislike, click on, share—this determines the kinds of content that will appear at the top of your feed. If you only like cat pictures on Facebook, Facebook will feed you a ton of content about cats. More dangerous is that Facebook will reinforce your political beliefs, feeding you stories that match your politics and filtering out stories you’re likely to disagree with. The Wall Street Journal has a feature called Blue Feed/Red Feed, pictured here, that contrasts the kinds of stories a liberal Facebook user will see with those a conservative will see, on the same subject. http://graphics.wsj.com/blue-feed-red-feed/
- How does this work? Google and Facebook and YouTube monitor your searches, your likes, your friends and they – in the name of service – deliver more and more customized ads and search. If you want to see how Facebook has categorized you, here’s how. You do, by the way, have the option of editing these “preferences” to break out of the bubble. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/24/us/politics/facebook-ads-politics.html
- It’s important to recognize, as the Russian operatives no doubt did, that these efforts at manipulation could only take root because of the political polarization of the American electorate and the power of cognitive dissonance. During the campaign, BuzzFeed fact-checked a sampling of posts from hyper-partisan Facebook pages presenting themselves as news sites and found 20 percent of the left-wing reports were false and nearly twice as many right-wing offerings were untrue. Why were people so quick to believe and share them? https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/craigsilverman/facebook-removed-conservative-liberal-pages-laura-ingraham
- How does one go about creating a healthy, mixed news diet? Whether one is an avid news consumer or a casual one, there are ways we can improve our news consumption habits and sharpen our understanding of the news media. You’ll keep up with the news, take weekly current-events quizzes, and engage with relevant examples every day. Ideally, you’ll apply News Literacy skills to find news outlets that you’ll follow regularly even after this class has ended.