Anyone else out there get rather cranky when reading “news” that uses headlines, specific language and a selection of quotes which guides readers to make a decision one way or another? I very rarely buy certain newspapers because of this however every now and then feel like reading a paper – only to get cranky again!
There I’m leading you with my own opinion here but this is a blog – a perfect medium for personal opinion – where I would much rather a newspaper – especially one of the top selling ones in my city – use more objective journalism. Would you?
As such an important part of marketing is communication, I have spent many hours in my career very carefully chosing words. It is a marketer’s job, and I would think the expectation of many readers that marketing material (ads, brochures, websites etc) are not likely to be completely objective. Ultimately, marketing is trying to sell you something and good marketing will present anything in a positive light.
Maybe it’s idealistic, but I expect the media to behave differently when reporting “news” yet it seems many newspapers do the exact opposite. It seems that there is a definate trend of “sensationalism sells”. Though there are countless examples of this, just one example is below “Bligh off as crisis builds”.
Though they are careful to include terms such as “..has been accused of…” rather than stating something directly, but to me, it seems deliberate leading of an opinion. I’d be interested in others interpretations as to why the Sunday Mail have decided to include this piece.
Overall I’d really like for journalism to be objective, rather than make a judgement for me. Terms such as “hitching a free ride” are simply not objective. Though no one is perfect (either the subjects of the articles or the journalists – or my own writing), I’d really love to live in a society where we strive towards objective journalism in our newspapers – give me the facts and allow me to make my own opinion. What do you think?
Zestee 