Sunday, February 17, 2008

Objectivity in modern society

It may be argued that modern technologies have sort of taken the job of a journalist at its most basic form -- people have the ability to inform themselves instantaneously and draw their own conclusions based on the information that is given to them. I think that objectivity is now obsolete in this age because people like reading an INFORMED point of view, and not necessarily the "truth." This may sound kind of ridiculous, but if the "truth" existed, most of the problems in the news would be resolved and no debate would exist. In other words, the world news in modern day society is so complicated that ONE single objective view of them is impossible -- there are several perspectives in all of these issues and focusing on one of them as being the "truth" would do a disservice to the public. That is why its important for people to get their news from multiple sources so that they can draw their own conclusions from all of the news coverage.

Maybe the role of the journalist and the ideal of the "objective bystander" should be reinvented. Maybe if journalists released themselves from this unrealistic standard they would be able to do better work, and in effect, produce better and more relevant news. Although lots of journalists have tried this and continue to produce informed but subjective reporting, this idea has yet to be accepted in the mainstream.

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