When White reporters cover race: News media, objectivity and community (dis)trust

Abstract

When White reporters cover issues involving race, they often fall back on traditional, passive practices of objectivity, such as deferring to official sources and remaining separate from communities. Using in-depth interviews and focus groups combined with textual analysis in a case study of one Midwestern city, we explore the ethical tensions between the commitment to neutrality and the need for trust building in communities. This essay suggests that the current practices by White reporters may be unethical and argues for an active objectivity focused on loyalty to all citizens. This statement about the clashing of ethics explores a middle ground for reporters in historically White-dominated communities caught between long-time norms and the demands of an increasingly diverse society.

News Values, Cognitive Biases, and Partisan Incivility in Comment Sections

“…Incivility, since it often centers on conflict arising from broken social norms, may be considered newsworthy, even in comments. Journalists also follow the professional norm of objectivity in their work, which calls for them to apply the principles of fairness and impartiality (Robinson & Culver, in press; Schudson, ). Even as the term “objectivity” has come under fire, the idea that journalists need to fairly portray varied perspectives has held (Kovach & Rosenstiel, ).…”

The Position and Influence of Agency News on Foreign News in Contemporary Slovak Television Production

“…This follows from the need for the audience to be informed about what is important for them within society (Šmíd, Trunečková, 2009: 15-16). Journalism is asked to be independent and to secure objectivity or impartiality in news reporting (Carlson, 2019;Huxford, Hopper, 2020;Robinson, Culver, 2019;Wahl-Jorgensen et al, 2017;Watanabe, 2017). However, journalists use several sources in their work, from which they draw the necessary information.…”

Victim or Villain? Racial/Ethnic Differences in News Portrayals of Individuals with Mental Illness Killed by Police

“…For African-Americans with mental illness killed by police, the racial/ethnic diÄerences in the use frames discovered in this article are arguably an example of journalism being an "an active, interpretive cultural activity" (Ward 2010:146). Robinson and Culver (2016) argued that this does not mean that journalism should be opinionated, but rather that it should include "diverse perspectives...interpretive reporting argues that journalists make sense of communities along with the people who inhabit them" (p. 2). In this context, journalists may be endeavoring to make sense of these incidents within the context of African-American communities.…”