{"id":3772,"date":"1990-01-01T01:00:00","date_gmt":"1990-01-01T01:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rbc.com\/en\/about-us\/history\/letter\/vol-71-no-1-january-february-1990-news-in-our-time\/"},"modified":"2022-11-27T02:28:58","modified_gmt":"2022-11-27T02:28:58","slug":"vol-71-no-1-january-february-1990-news-in-our-time","status":"publish","type":"rbc_letter","link":"https:\/\/www.rbc.com\/en\/about-us\/history\/letter\/vol-71-no-1-january-february-1990-news-in-our-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Vol. 71, No. 1 &#8211; January\/February 1990 &#8211; News in Our Time"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"layout-column-main\">\n<p class=\"boldtext\">Mass communications have given                     us a window on the world, and we often might not like what                     we see through it. But without the news, we would be without                     the means to correct the ills and injustices of modern-day                     life&#8230;<\/p>\n<p> In his recent book <em> Eyewitness to History<\/em> , the distinguished                     English professor John Carey tells of how a correspondent                     from <em> The Times <\/em> of London was sent to France to cover                     the Franco- Prussian War of 1870. After the decisive battle                     of Sedan, he rushed back to England by train and ferry boat,                     staying up all night to write his account of the German victory.                     He arrived only to find that competing newspapers had published                     reports of the event sent by electric telegraph two days earlier.                     <em> The Times <\/em> had literally blundered into a new era                     in western society &#8211; an era in which the news from almost                     everywhere is available to almost everyone every hour of every                     day.<\/p>\n<p>The improvement in the transmission of the news coincided                     with improvements in printing and papermaking technology which                     made possible the speedy production of huge quantities of                     daily newspapers that could be sold at minimal prices. Meanwhile                     the spread of literacy due to compulsory education was opening                     up a mass market for the &#8220;penny press.&#8221; Soon the ordinary                     people of the United States, Britain and Western Europe had                     a ready means of learning what was going on in the world,                     a privilege once reserved for a relatively small literate                     minority. Public access to the news had been established:                     from there on it was merely a series of technological steps                     to today&#8217;s 24-hour television news by satellite.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Arguably the advent of mass communications represents the                     greatest change in human consciousness that has taken place                     in recorded history,&#8221; Carey wrote. &#8220;The development, within                     a few short decades , from a situation where most of the inhabitants                     of the globe would have no day-to-day knowledge of or curiosity                     about how most of the others were faring, to a situation where                     the ordinary person&#8217;s mental space is filled (and must be                     refilled daily or hourly, unless a feeling of disorientation                     is to ensue) with accurate reports about the doings of complete                     strangers represents a revolution in mental activity which                     is incalculable in its effects.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Public access to national and international news has deeply                     influenced popular culture, politics, and even philosophy.                     It has given ordinary men and women a more humanistic and                     tolerant outlook on life by making them empathize with all                     of humanity. New reports force us to look human suffering                     in the face, and make us want to do something about it, whether                     to donate money to aid disaster victims or call on our governments                     to put pressure on other governments to stop committing injustices.                     In the age of the news, no man is an island. We cannot help                     but be, as John Donne put it, &#8221; involved in mankind.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>So pervasive is the news in western countries that it has                     become one of life&#8217;s necessities. There are, of course, times                     when it is absolutely necessary to know what is happening                     for our own well- being, as when a hurricane is heading in                     the direction of where we live. But beyond immediate practical                     information, we need the news to help us cope with the pace                     and complexity of modern living. As the Canadian journalism                     professor Wilfred Eggleston wrote: &#8221; Survival of all living                     creatures requires an awareness of the changing environment                     &#8230; Speedy and accurate information is required for people                     to react.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Out of our need for news has evolved a principle which would                     never have been thought of in the days before the telegraph:                     that the public has a <em> right <\/em> to news that can be trusted.                     The Canadian Royal Commission on Newspapers broached this                     concept in 1981 by declaring that people have a &#8220;right to                     inform themselves&#8221; which is inseparable from their right to                     express themselves. Canada is one country where the right                     to the news is enshrined in legislation. To hold a broadcast                     licence, every Canadian radio station must carry news reports.<\/p>\n<p>The ability to keep track of what is happening and of what                     is being said is central to our system of government. &#8220;A people                     without reliable news is, sooner or later, a people without                     the basis of freedom,&#8221; political scientist Harold Laski wrote.<\/p>\n<p>Wherever there is no political freedom, the news is always                     controlled &#8211; not only internal news, but news from aboard                     which invites comparisons with conditions elsewhere and exposes                     the repressed populace to &#8220;alien&#8221; ideas. No less a tyrant                     than Adolf Hitler objected fiercely to free reporting.&#8221;Our                     law concerning the press is such that divergences of opinion                     between members of the government are no longer an occasion                     for public exhibitions,&#8221; he said at the height of his power.<\/p>\n<p>A man of an opposite cast of mind, the American statesman                     Thomas Jefferson, once declared that if he had to decide between                     government without newspapers and newspapers without government,                     he would choose the latter. At the same time Jefferson was                     the first to admit that the freedom of the press which he                     so eloquently upheld could be abused. This freedom (which                     today covers the electronic media as well) is by no means                     unbridled. News organizations are not free, for instance,                     to ruin a person&#8217;s reputation, to invade a person&#8217;s privacy,                     or to subject a person to &#8220;trial by publicity.&#8221; They are prohibited                     from doing such things by various laws.<\/p>\n<p>Despite these legal constraints, news organizations remain                     very much responsible to themselves, and there is plenty of                     room for breaches of that responsibility. Newspapers, radio                     and television stations carry not only accounts of events,                     but commentary on those events. Writers and broadcasters of                     opinion do not need an array of indisputable facts to blacken                     a reputation or throw suspicion on the motives of an organization;                     sufficient to mix a few suggestive facts in with a lot of                     innuendo. A clever writer or editor with an axe to grind can                     paint a biased picture even in an apparently impartial report.<\/p>\n<p>At one time it was left almost entirely up to newspaper                     proprietors and their sycophants to decide how much restraint                     would be applied on their ability to play with the facts,                     or to publish absolute falsehoods. Their papers frequently                     distorted the &#8220;news&#8221; to suit their own political objectives.                     Sensationalism ran rampant among hotly-competitive big city                     dailies. The truth was often slaughtered in the crossfire                     of their circulation wars.<\/p>\n<h3>The new breed of journalists put the                   public interest first<\/h3>\n<p>For better or for worse (some say worse) the new generation                     of newspaper proprietors in North America are for the most                     part detached from the day-to-day operations of papers they                     own, running large chains from corporate head offices. News                     organizations have become big businesses, whether their outlet                     is in print or by electronic means.<\/p>\n<p>The decline of the old-time imperious press barons coincided                     with the rise of professional journalists who insist that                     their first duty is not to the boss but to the reader. Sensational                     dailies still exist, but beneath their splashy lay-out, they                     will usually be found to be quite scrupulous about getting                     their facts straight, at least in their news columns.<\/p>\n<p>Today, any news organization worthy of the name pledges                     itself to ensure as far as possible that the news it presents                     is accurate, fair and balanced. While this has always been                     an informal understanding among ethical journalists, many                     organizations have adopted formal codes of ethics, and some                     employ ombudsmen to protect the public interest.<\/p>\n<p>By adopting such self-restraint, the media have acknowledged                     that the dissemination of the news is not just another business.                     It is a form of public trust, not only because people need                     information to live out their everyday lives, but because                     the media have so much latent power. Power must be counterbalanced                     by responsibility, and news organizations have chosen to exercise                     that responsibility themselves, rather than risk the threat                     to democratic practice posed by having governments do it for                     them.<\/p>\n<h3>What the public thinks about lies in                   the choice                   of the news<\/h3>\n<p>The greatest power of the media to influence public opinion                     lies not so much in their commentary on the news but in their                     selection and presentation of it. &#8220;<em> Of course <\/em> the                     people won&#8217;t always vote the way the editorial writers tell                     them on next week&#8217;s sewer bylaw,&#8221; observed the 1970 Canadian                     Senate Report on Mass Media; &#8221; but who decides when they&#8217;ll                     start thinking and talking about sewers &#8211; or whether they&#8217;ll                     worry about pollution at all?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Back in the comparatively simple world of 1920, the great                     American columnist Walter Lippmann wrote: &#8220;The news of the                     day as it reaches the newspaper office is an incredible medley                     of fact, propaganda, rumour, suspicion, clues, hopes, and                     fears, and the task of selecting and ordering the news is                     one of the truly sacred and priestly offices in a democracy.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>All sorts of judgments come into play when a newspaper or                     news program is being produced: How long should a story be?                     Should it come first, last, or in-between? Within the story                     itself, which points should be emphasized over others? In                     a controversy, which spokesmen for which side should be quoted                     more prominently? The answers to all these questions have                     a strong influence on what people think about issues and events.<\/p>\n<p>How do editors and news directors choose what you will or                     will not hear about? According to George Kennedy in his textbook                     <em> News Reporting and Writing<\/em> , there are five usual                     criteria: impact ( what everybody will be talking about);                     proximity (all things being equal, something that happens                     a few streets away is bigger news than something that happens                     1,000 miles away); timeliness (news has a short shelf life);                     prominence (&#8220;names make news&#8221;); conflict (as in strikes, politics,                     crime, sports competition), and novelty (&#8220;if a dog bites a                     man, that&#8217;s not news; if a man bites a dog, that&#8217;s news&#8221;).<\/p>\n<p>The yardsticks used by professionals to judge what makes                     news frequently come in for criticism from the public and                     its spokesmen. &#8220;Trouble: that&#8217;s [what&#8217;s] wrong with journalism&#8217;s                     current definition of the news,&#8221; complained the Senate Report                     on Mass Media . &#8220;There is more to life than hassle and strife,                     but the media&#8217;s entrapment in drama, conflict and disruption                     prevents them from reporting it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The trouble is that people like to hear about trouble as                     long as it is not happening to them, and the news is to a                     large extent &#8220;market driven.&#8221; A perhaps-apocryphal story is                     told in the business about a man who started a wire service                     which carried only good news, and promptly went broke.<\/p>\n<p>It is an open question whether it is the consumers or processors                     of news who demand that it be delivered at great speed, but                     certainly any news organization that is consistently beaten                     to the punch on stories would fear losing market share to                     more alert competitors. Many of the failings of the media                     can be traced to the haste with which reports are prepared.<\/p>\n<p>The scope for error is enormous when reporting is done in                     a rush, which is why newspapers and agencies obligate themselves                     to publish corrections when the inevitable mistakes occur.                     Speed breeds superficiality; when something is reported in                     a hurry, important details may be overlooked or misunderstood.<\/p>\n<h3>The difference between the facts and                   the truth<\/h3>\n<p>Even when the time to prepare a report is not unduly short,                     there is a constant danger of getting events or issues out                     of perspective . At a time when life is growing ever more                     complicated, salient facts may be lost in the shuffle of all                     the considerations that come into play. Also, news people                     see things through their own pre- conditioned perceptions,                     and &#8220;the observer is part of what he observes,&#8221; as communications                     scholar P.W. Bridgman put it. They must deal with words, and                     words can be slippery. They sometimes pass on their biases                     to readers or listeners through their choice of language.<\/p>\n<p>Reporters, as opposed to opinion journalists, traditionally                     have tried to keep their personal feelings and opinions out                     of their reports, but objectivity is not without its pitfalls.                     There is a decided difference between the facts and the truth.                     It might be a fact that a person involved in a newsworthy                     situation says something , but what he says might not be true.                     Still, his words must be reported objectively in the absence                     of evidence that they are lies.<\/p>\n<p>The school of &#8220;new journalism&#8221; that grew up in the 1960s                     contended that true objectivity was a psychological impossibility                     and should therefore be dispensed with. In any case, the new                     journalists insisted, objectivity was merely an excuse for                     the established media to support the <em> status quo <\/em> on                     questions of justice that cried out for reform.<\/p>\n<p>Though it was practiced in the name of democracy, subjective                     reporting proved to be distinctly undemocratic, which perhaps                     explains why it is now discredited among most mainstream journalists                     . Its practitioners felt free to ignore the precept that there                     are two sides to every story when one side did not agree with                     their point of view.<\/p>\n<h3>The aberrant one-tenth of what happens                                       makes the news<\/h3>\n<p>Worse, the freedom from the discipline of objectivity blurred                     the distinction between personal interpretation of the facts                     and pure fiction. It became just too tempting for some writers                     not to invent convenient &#8220;facts&#8221; when a story was (so they                     thought) written from such a personal point of view that no                     one could check up on it. In several cases, someone <em> did                     <\/em> check up, and found that stories had been falsified.<\/p>\n<p>Although members of every profession will occasionally bring                     it into disgrace, the cases of fabrication seemed to confirm                     the views of those who regard the entire media with unwavering                     suspicion. Such derelictions are, in fact, very uncommon.                     The great majority of writers and editors strive intently                     to ensure the integrity of the news.<\/p>\n<p>People who excoriate the sins of the media frequently fail                     to differentiate between reportage and commentary. The media                     themselves sometimes contribute to the confusion by mixing                     the two in the form of &#8220;interpretive reporting,&#8221; and not clearly                     identifying the line between the verifiable facts and what                     the writer speculates those facts might mean.<\/p>\n<p>Mostly, though, people who rail against the media are indulging                     in the time-honoured sport of shooting the messenger. They                     are upset by the endless chronicle of folly and evil which                     journalists deliver &#8211; &#8220;the usual depravities and basenesses                     and hypocrisies and cruelties&#8221; which Mark Twain said could                     be found in any morning&#8217;s news. It is natural enough to want                     to ascribe blame for all the tumult and grief that seems to                     surround us. And so journalists are blamed for going out of                     their way to make the world look worse than it is.<\/p>\n<p>This is particularly so in the case of &#8220;investigative reporting,&#8221;                     which digs out news rather than waiting for it to happen.                     The public sometimes seems to have more sympathy with the                     subjects of revelations of misbehaviour than with the journalists                     who have uncovered them. &#8220;There they go again,&#8221; people will                     say. &#8220;Why do they have to tell us these things? Why not let                     sleeping dogs lie?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The answer is that our society would be a lot worse off                     if the media did not play such a role; the fear of being exposed                     is a strong deterrent to corruption. Granted, the media sometimes                     go too far in their pursuit of real or supposed villains.                     That is one reason why there are now press councils in many                     parts of North America. The councils are there to see that,                     in their lust for justice, the media do not commit injustices                     themselves.<\/p>\n<p>The most commonly-heard complaint against the purveyors                     of news is that they &#8220;blow things out of proportion.&#8221; In the                     most general terms , they certainly do. The bad news which                     comprises the bulk of national and international reports is                     out of proportion to the great mass of &#8220;good news&#8221; that is                     never reported. At any given hour , nine-tenths of human affairs                     around the world are proceeding peacefully, smoothly and safely.                     The stuff of headlines is the other aberrant one-tenth, or                     less.<\/p>\n<p>Walter Lippmann said that the task of news people is to                     provide a picture of reality upon which men can act, but the                     news does not and cannot reflect the whole of reality. Still,                     it does give us grounds for action to build a better world.                     There are times when we would prefer not to know just how                     stupid and bad human beings can be , but if we did not know                     about it, we would never be able to correct the stupidity                     and badness. The news is a necessary evil in the advancement                     of civilization. It might even be said that there can be no                     civilization without the news.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":0,"template":"","categories":[1],"rbc_letter_theme":[],"rbc_letter_year":[77],"class_list":["post-3772","rbc_letter","type-rbc_letter","status-publish","hentry","category-uncategorized","rbc_letter_year-77"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.2 (Yoast SEO v27.2) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Vol. 71, No. 1 - January\/February 1990 - News in Our Time - RBC<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rbc.com\/en\/about-us\/history\/letter\/vol-71-no-1-january-february-1990-news-in-our-time\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Vol. 71, No. 1 - January\/February 1990 - News in Our Time - RBC\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Mass communications have given us a window on the world, and we often might not like what we see through it. 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