News

==News values==
{{Main|News values}}
News values are the professional norms of [[journalism]]. Commonly, news content should contain all the "[[Five Ws]]" (who, what, when, where, why, and also how) of an event. Newspapers normally place hard news stories on the first pages, so the most important information is at the beginning, enabling busy readers to read as little or as much as they desire. Local stations and networks with a set format must take news stories and break them down into the most important aspects due to time constraints.

Journalists are often expected to aim for [[objectivity (journalism)|objectivity]]; reporters claim to try to cover all sides of an issue without bias, as compared to commentators or analysts, who provide [[opinion]] or personal points of view. The resulting articles lay out facts in a sterile, noncommittal manner, standing back to "let the reader decide" the truth of the matter.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.unc.edu/~pmeyer/ire95pj.htm |title=Public Journalism and the Problem of Objectivity |publisher=Unc.edu |access-date=9 March 2012}}</ref> Several governments impose certain constraints against bias. In the [[United Kingdom]], the government agency of [[Ofcom]] (Office of Communications) enforces a legal requirement of "impartiality" on news broadcasters.<ref name=Wallace>Sue Wallace, "Impartiality in the News", in Fowler-Watt & Allan (eds.), ''Journalism'' (2013).</ref> Both newspapers and broadcast news programs in the United States are generally expected to remain neutral and avoid bias except for clearly indicated editorial articles or segments. Many single-party governments have operated state-run news organizations, which may present the government's views.

Although newswriters have always laid claim to truth and objectivity, the modern values of professional journalism were established beginning in the late 1800s and especially after World War I, when groups like the [[American Society of Newspaper Editors]] codified rules for unbiased news reporting. These norms held the most sway in American and British journalism, and were scorned by some other countries.<ref>Allan, ''News Culture'' (2004), pp. 20–23.</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Matheson | first1 = Donald | title = "The birth of news discourse: changes in news language in British newspapers, 1880–1930"; | journal = Media, Culture & Society | volume = 22 | issue = 5| pages = 557–573 | year= 2000 | doi = 10.1177/016344300022005002 | s2cid = 145467409 }}</ref> These ideas have become part of the practice of journalism across the world.<ref>Zhong, "Searching for Meaning" (2006), pp. 15, 35.</ref> Soviet commentators said stories in the Western press were trivial distractions from reality, and emphasized a [[socialist realism]] model focusing on developments in everyday life.<ref>Wolfe, ''Governing Soviet Journalism'' (2005), p. 29.</ref>

Even in those situations where objectivity is expected, it is difficult to achieve, and individual journalists may fall foul of their own personal bias, or succumb to [[Media bias|commercial or political pressure]]. Similarly, the objectivity of news organizations owned by conglomerated corporations fairly may be questioned, in light of the natural incentive for such groups to report news in a manner intended to advance the conglomerate's financial interests. Individuals and organizations who are the subject of news reports may use [[news management]] techniques to try to make a favourable impression.<ref>{{cite book|last=Thomas|first=Helen|title=Watchdogs of Democracy?: The Waning Washington Press Corps and How It Has Failed the Public|chapter=Spinning the News|year=2006|page=57|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lixOlrqPeqoC|isbn=978-1-4165-4861-4|publisher=Simon and Schuster}}</ref> Because each individual has a particular point of view, it is recognized that there can be no absolute objectivity in news reporting.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cjr.org/feature/rethinking_objectivity.php?page=all |title=Re-thinking Objectivity |publisher=CJR |access-date=9 March 2012}}</ref> Journalists can collectively shift their opinion over what is a controversy up for debate and what is an established fact, as evidenced by homogenization during the 2000s of news coverage of climate change.<ref>Sara Shipley Hiles & Amanda Hinnart, "Climate Change in the Newsroom: Journalists' Evolving Standards of Objectivity When Covering Global Warming"; ''Science Communication'' 36.4, 2014.</ref>

Some commentators on news values have argued that journalists' training in news values ''itself'' represents a systemic bias of the news. The norm of objectivity leads journalists to gravitate towards certain types of acts and exclude others. A journalist can be sure of objectivity in reporting that an official or public figure has made a certain statement. This is one reason why so much news reporting is devoted to official statements.<ref>John Soloski, "News Reporting and Professionalism: Some Constraints on Reporting the News", from ''Media, Culture & Society'' 11 (1989); reprinted in Berkowitz, ''Social Meanings of News'' (1997), pp. 143–145.</ref> This lemma dates back to the early history of public news reporting, as exemplified by an English printer who on 12 March 1624 published news from Brussels in the form of letters, with the prefacing comment: "Now because you shall not say, that either out of my owne conceit I misliked a phrase, or presumptuously tooke upon me to reforme any thing amisse, I will truly set you downe their owne words."<ref>Cranfield, ''Press and Society'' (1978), p. 8.</ref>

[[Strong objectivity|Feminist critiques]] argue that discourse defined as objective by news organizations reflects a male-centered perspective.<ref>Allan, ''News Culture'' (2004), p. 123.</ref> In their selection of sources, journalists rely heavily on men as sources of authoritative- and objective-seeming statements.<ref>Allan, ''News Culture'' (2004), p. 129.</ref> News reporting has also tended to discuss women differently, usually in terms of appearance and relationship to men.<ref>Allan, ''News Culture'' (2004), pp. 134–135.</ref>

The critique of traditional norms of objectivity comes from within news organizations as well. Said Peter Horrocks, head of television news at BBC: "The days of middle-of-the-road, balancing Left and Right, impartiality are dead. […] we need to consider adopting what I like to think of as a much wider 'radical impartiality'—the need to hear the widest range of views—all sides of the story."<ref name=Wallace />