News has many qualities, including credibility, objectivity, and fairness. Before being printed, news is checked by journalists to ensure accuracy, unbiased coverage, and balance. Ideally, journalists get both sides of the story and form their own opinions. However, news can be biased or inaccurate – the journalist’s job is to report the facts.
Impact
In the modern world, news has the potential to affect our mental health and well-being. Often, negative news makes us more troubled and restless, compounding our existing worries. The constant reporting of crimes and the media’s coverage of them can increase our susceptibility to stress and tension. Even the most recent stories may be triggering our anxiety. Ultimately, the impact of news on our mental health is far-reaching.
As a result, many people do not trust news media. The emergence of non-mainstream media has further undermined public trust in traditional news media.
Objectivity
The idea of ‘objectivity’ in news reporting gained popularity during the 20th century. It was a response to the growing importance of news media as marketing tools and to notions of public interest. The ideal of objectivity was further enhanced by the rise of newspaper owners such as Adolph Ochs, who believed that the news media should be more “impartial” than they had been in the past.
However, the term objectivity is not a universally accepted ideal. Its definition is difficult to pin down in concrete terms, since it refers to a wide range of qualities. Among them are neutrality, balance, and impartiality. It may also mean being nonpartisan, unbiased, scientific, and accurate.
Fairness
There are several ways to promote fairness in news coverage. The Pulitzer Prize for Fairness in Journalism, for example, encourages the dissemination of accurate news. In addition to judging individual articles and series of articles, the award also recognizes body of work by an individual journalist. Although there is no definitive definition of “fairness,” the award guidelines highlight a range of elements that contribute to fairness in news.
Many journalists hold strong views about the issue of fairness in news coverage. However, there are also substantial divisions in opinion among the public about this topic. The most challenging area for news organizations is the coverage of politics. Many partisans see this coverage as biased and unbalanced. Nevertheless, despite the challenges, many news organizations are trying to uphold their commitment to fairness while still building a broad audience.
Veracity
The idea that people can use technology to check the veracity of news is not new, but the problem of determining the accuracy of news is not. Veracity assessment involves a complex process, which is complicated by the fact that humans bring their own personal values into the process. This compromises both the veracity assessment and the potential to mislead an audience. However, some researchers have developed automated tools to detect false news.
There are several different ways to determine the veracity of news, including comparing the content to other similar articles. Some systems analyze information in terms of how it has been shared and are able to identify fake news quickly. Other methods include checking information on websites, such as PolitiFact and Snopes.
Imagery
Imagery in news can be powerful, but it can also be dangerous. It can cause psychological damage, incite copycat behavior, and even result in vicarious trauma. For these reasons, journalists must be very careful about how they use graphic imagery. They must first determine if the photo or video was taken with the intended purpose in mind. For example, a perpetrator of a violent act may have videotaped the incident to amplify the impact.
Imagery is often used in news stories to enhance or detract from the main narrative. For example, a recent CBS evening news story featured a rash of violent criminals with mental problems who had received concealed-weapons permits. The story then featured a series of images that connected the violent criminals to a Governor Bush. A frame from the first showed the violent criminal with a concealed weapon, and the next linked him sequentially to the crying victims.