Reaction to Objectivity in Journalism

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Reaction to Objectivity in Journalism Objectivity in journalism seems like an impossible concept to attain. The reason behind this is because the media has become locked in a race to see who can obtain the biggest viewership (Iskandar 2005). In order to do so, programs look at what the majority of the audience wants and tries to give it to them in order to instill in them a sense of loyalty to their programs. One example of this is the case of Fox News Channel. Their success came from their “journalistic approach and overtly right-leaning editorialism (Iskandar 2005).” In other words, FNC looked at what the people wanted and then gave them that by structuring their programs to fit the audience’s wants. In this case what the people wanted was a more conservative opinionated broadcast and FNC adopted the concept of contextual objectivity to target a specific audience in order to gain a higher number of viewers. With this approach to journalism there is little room to be objective about certain topics (i.e. political matters, global crisis, and warfare) and in the end the media will present the audience with its own bias and opinions destroying the free flow of ideas. However, this concept works because even if the media upheld high standards of objectivity, the audience is not expected to be objective and they will flock to the programs that seem to share their similar views (Iskandar 2005). By embodying this concept and giving the people what they wanted the FNC was able to grow and pull ahead of other news media. Therefore, because we live in a capitalist society that prioritizes profits, in order to maximize profits journalist programs need to maintain a constant high number of viewers. In order to do so, these programs will try to give the people what they want in order to maintain their loyalty as FNC has done. This concept of contextual objectivity seems

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