Elements of Journalism: Indpendence From Faction

Journalists must maintain an independence from those they cover. That manifests itself in several ways.

First, you must have an independence of mind. That means avoiding conflicts of interest; defined loosely as the avoidance of connections, benefits, and relationships that may draw into question your intentions.

For example, if you're on the football team, it would be a conflict of interest to write about the football team. If you're dating the mayor, you probably shouldn't be writing about local politics. If you're writing about an anti-war protest, don't participate in or donate to anti-war groups.

This applies to opinion writers as well! Their loyalty is to accuracy and the facts, even if seen from a partisan point of view. They are true to a set of ideas -- like conservatism -- rather than a member of a team -- the Republican Party -- and puts teh audience first.

Second, you must have independence from class or economic status. There is a class divide between those who produce news, and those who receive it. It's become more pronounced since journalism has become more professional.

Solutions include recruiting more people from a diversity of classes and backgrounds and interests, so that newsrooms aren't so insular (e.g., the same kinds of people with the same parochial patterns).

Third, you must have an independence from race, ethnicity, religion and gender. Newsrooms lacking diversity are unable to do their jobs properly, and may not be able to appreciate, understand or learn of all the audiences they report to.

For example, a few years back The State News was very slow to pick up on anger among black students here over the Jena Six incident. At the same time, the newsroom was overwhelmingly white and suburban in their roots. The disconnect and newsroom composition were probably not a coincidence.

Diversity does NOT compromise independence. The key is whether editors and reporters maintain their primary allegiance to the core journalistic values that build toward truthfulness and informing the public. In that case, racial and ethnic and class and religious and ideological backgrounds inform their work without dictating it.

The end result is a richer, fuller view of the world for the public. Creating barriers to diversity and the related process of discovery is disloyal to your audience, by narrowing the newsroom's world view. Good judgment and first allegiance to the audience is what separates the journalist from the partisan.