Many moons ago – when I attended SUNY Brockport as a journalism student – I learned that news was timely and relevant. News was written to include the 5Ws in the first graf and it was also supposed to be:

Objective.  Sterile.  Unbiased.  Fair.  Balanced.  Factual.  Accurate. 

Flash forward to 2008 – I am thinking about going back to school for my master’s degree in Journalism. My choices include either a Magazine or News Editorial focus. The former is pretty clear. The latter? It made me wonder what our definition of “news” is these days. So, I went out to the blogosphere to inquire.

Here’s what Howard Owens said (reprinted verbatim from his email response, as it is both pithy and poignant):

“For thousands of years, news was reported in a personal fashion — via campfire or troubadour. The printing press enabled the rise of mass media and process of reporting news from one to many. The Internet enables a return to one-to-one, personal journalism. We can now report news in the same way we did when it was over a campfire — complete with nuance, context and personal insight.

Mass media needed “objective journalism” because news was reported one to many, so it had to be generic and meet the needs of a highly differentiated audience.

Today, all news is one-to-one. It can be personal, because if you or I disagree with that personal POV, we have the means to respond, question, and provide our own facts or commentary.

Modern news will win/succeed because it returns us to our roots, our DNA, our way of being — the way we most naturally like to communicate — in a personal voice.“

To put it mildly, Howard’s response was an eye opener. I always thought about news as it was defined for me in college!  I’m also surprised and dismayed at how tightly I held on to that definition all these years. With his added perspective, I already feel better equipped to make my decision about school. However, I still have questions and curiosities, mostly about objectivity in news reporting:

• What’s the perceived value of news that is based solely on objective, just-the-facts-ma’am reporting?
• And how do you determine what news is “credible?” Is it based on the degree of objectivity or how well you know (or how well you think you know) the person?
• Is it even possible for a reporter – a human being with feelings and preconceived notions – to be truly unbiased?
• What’s more important – the story (the facts) or how it’s packaged (how it is told)? Or does this depend on the receiver (ie, right brained or left brained individuals)?

What do you think?

RECOMMENDED READING:

• Five W’s and a H that should come *after* every story (A model for the 21st century newsroom: pt3)
• News of Future – future news for year 2020 and beyond
• News Should Be Neither Fair Nor Balanced
• What is News? (February 2009)

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