The Media Interview

Chris Anderson, editor of Wired and author of The Long Tail, talks about how the rise of social media is affecting journalism (thanks to Sherrilynne at Strive Notes for putting me on to this article). He covers a lot of ground, but I want to focus on his comments about objectivity in journalism:

When there were only one or two newspapers in each town there was basically only one way to get information out there. And because they had this responsibility, as the sole provision of news, they needed to be as even-handed as possible, and be the fourth estate, the counterbalance to government.

But today, you have many sources of information and no single one has to be sole provider. As a result, you don’t have to offer both sides. You can assume that you can offer the side that you believe in strongly and the other side. They’ll get out there their own way. Readers do not read single sources — they’re reading many sources — and will make up their own mind based on multiple points of view expressed as strongly as only their holders can express them.

I think what Anderson says here goes only part of the way on the concept of objectivity in news. Yes, in the past there’s been a “duty to be objective” based on scarce journalistic resources – what I see in the new marketplace of abundant information is a “demand for objectivity”. I think enough people will want someone to sift through the exploding volume of information and present a balanced account of the facts, that there will be a healthy demand for objective news sources.