Ideology and the journalist

Being LDS, issues on ideology and beliefs are something that may come into play at one point or another. Some question whether or not a journalist should leave their beliefs out, and strictly report on the facts. Others ask the question, can journalists be completely objective? In my personal opinion, I don't think a journalist can be 100% objective, nor should they be. People watch the news because they want in-depth stories, heart warming acts, and the cold-hearted truth. When a person is completely objective, those emotions won't always show through.

Anderson Cooper's on-air "breakdown"  in 2005 is often discussed. Should journalists be able to show emotion during hard, emotionally wearing ? In the book, it once talked about how journalists just need to be disconnected from everything. However, I don't think that's right. Although we are reporting the news, Journalists have emotions. I think it's okay to show emotions; it shows to the viewers that journalists aren't completely cold hearted, and aren't just doing stories "for the money". In the story that I linked to, it says that Anderson's breakdown was a breakthrough for the future of television news. I think that by him showing this emotion, it opened the doors for other journalists to be more personal in their stories. Another example of this is the one we talked about in class, when a journalist put down the camera to help that little boy in need. To me, this was the most admirable thing he could do. 

The question has been raised, should a journalist advocate a particular point-of-view? Well, yes and no. Do I think that journalists shouldn't ever express their opinion or at least show some sort of leniency towards a certain point? No, I don't. Journalists should report on the truth and do it honestly, but they should be able to put in a little bit of their own opinion. On the other hand, a journalist shouldn't advocate a certain opinion because the company they work for wants them too. However, for the most part, journalists should try and express both sides of an issue fairly, and then let the viewer decide for themselves. It has been shown that the media heavily affect the way viewers see things, so it would be unfair to be completely biased towards one side. 

The Journalistic values that were discussed in class bring up an important question; are these values automatically liberal or conservative? I don't think so. I mean, some of the values that were talked about are more left/right winged than others, but I think they can all be applied in both sides of the spectrum. It's all about finding a balance.

Overall, I think that ideology can be apparent in journalism, but there's a time and a place for everything. While a journalist shouldn't be forcing down their beliefs down everyones throats, they shouldn't have to be completely void of all beliefs, biases, etc. in everything they report. 

For more on ideology and journalism:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5h3SBe3Kr0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5W3wNpYwc4 

http://www.nlgja.org/publications/articles/jensen_diversity.htm