Mukhtar wakeel is a veteran journalist, Public Affairs Analyst and publisher, Nasarawa Newsline Newspaper
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Website: www.nasarawanewsline.com.ng
In our media- intensive culture, it is not difficult to find differing opinions. Thousands of newspapers and magazines and dozens of radio and television talk shows resounds with differing points of view The difficulty lies in deciding which opinion to agree with and which "experts" seem the most credible. The more inundated we become with differing opinions and claims, the more essential it is to hone critical reading and thinking skills to evaluate these ideas.
The only way in which a human being can make some approach to knowing the whole of a subject is by hearing what can be said about it by persons of every variety of opinion and studying all modes in which it can be looked at by every character of mind. No wise man ever acquired his wisdom in any mode but this.
Many people believe that the media should provide the public with an objective representation of facts and events.
According to columnist William Murchison , the media "exist for the purpose of developing and transmitting the information a democratic society uses to make decisions". Murchison and others argue that journalists should be neutral observers, keeping their opinions and partisan loyalties out of their reports. " Information, " Murchison, says "like meat, should arrive untainted. "
While most commentators agree that objective reporting is the ideal, few believe it is possible in practice. Because journalists are human beings, not cameras and tape recorders, they are prisoners of their own subjective views
The news profession has developed guidelines to guard against biased reporting. According to journalism professor Robert Miraldi, journalistic conventions dictate that reporters must thrive for "balance " in each story by presenting various points of views. Furthermore, good policy mandates that all facts and explanations must be supported by evidence and attributed to sources other than the reporter.
However, some commentators argue that the very conventions of objective reporting enable journalists to slant their reporting to express their own biased views. For example, even while following the "rules ", journalists are able to convey their own opinions by attributing them to outside sources.
Jack Nelson of the Los Angeles Times describes the process of shopping for the right sources. " When you are going to.make an opinionated kind of statement, particularly inthe news columns, editors insist you attribute it to someone other than yourself - so you go shopping ". Even while claiming to be objective, according to Lawrence C. Soley, " journalists simply ' marshal facts or quotes ' that are consistent with their presumptions. Information that is inconsistent with the slant of their stories is discarded. "
Whether the guidelines for objective reporting guard against or encourage biased reporting, the debate over bias in the media is fervent. Some believe the media promote a liberal bias, others see the media as the champions of Corporate Identity, and still others content the media are mechanics of government propaganda.
Of course, journalists as a group are very liberal - more liberal than the general public and more liberal than others with similar backgrounds.
