Transparency and its growing importance

When I took journalism 101, one of the first lessons I learned was the importance of objectivity in journalistic writing. As I took more classes however, I began to learn about the growing prominence of transparency in journalism.

Blogger David Weinberger discussed in one of his posts how “transparency is the new objectivity.” While some believe you can’t trust journalists who display their opinion, Weinberger feels the complete opposite.

He said, “Transparency gives the reader information by which she can undo some of the unintended effects of the ever-present biases. Transparency brings us to reliability the way objectivity used to.”

After learning about the idea of transparency I can’t help but agree with Weinberger. It is impossible for a person to have absolutely no opinion on a subject. Particularly, in regards to politics I feel it is almost pointless for a journalist to try to appear as objective.

While much of the public does know which news outlets are conservative and which are liberal, journalists still typically construct their content in a way to make it appear that they are being “objective.”

Some proponents of objectivity may say if a journalist is only presenting the facts then the reader can be left to come to their own opinion on the subject. In this case I would say it is rare for an article to be 100 percent bias free. Even if the journalist did not intend for their bias to be displayed it could come through in an underlying way.

If a journalist were up front about his/her political views (or any opinions that could impact their writing) they would allow the reader to gain an understanding of where the news is coming from. The reader would still become well informed on the news and at the same time be able to evaluate certain aspects of the article more clearly.

Also if a reader felt so inclined, they could search for news coming from a journalist who has different views than the journalist of the original piece they read. By understanding biases and gaining news from journalists with different outlooks, I believe that the reader would be able to truly understand what the news is and really grasp how he feels about a certain issue.

Another important aspect of transparency that Weinberger discusses is how the Internet has impacted journalists’ transparent writing. Online journalists can easily link to where they got certain information. This allows readers to evaluate the source for themselves and not solely rely on the journalist.

As a more conversational relationship develops between journalists and their audience, with things such as comment sections online and journalists reaching out for sourcing tips, I feel it will become more and more important for journalists to be transparent in their writing.