Objectivity has been the most debatable issue in the history of journalism and there are, therefore, many different ways of looking at it. Media academics such as Gans (1979) and Tuchman (2000) refer to objectivity as an examination of contents of collected news materials. Glasser (1992) points out that objectivity is a balance of beliefs restructured by a journalist and presented against independent thinking. It is difficult to test the objectivity of journalists because it is the credibility of facts gathered by a journalist that lies at the heart of objectivity. In Glasser’s opinion, the “notion” of objectivity is flawed against the newsman’s mandate of reporting responsibly. Objectivity is therefore professional principle through which journalists write news responsibly and present it to their audience as a final product (Glasser, 1992). This study will discuss objectivity also in reference to the problems that journalists face when they cover news stories. It may be that journalists may have problems searching for stories not because they do not embrace journalistic principles of fairness, clarity and objectivity, but because of the way in which facts are presented to them by news sources (Fred and Wellman, 2003). There have been some cases whereby media audiences have wrongly been made to think that journalists are biased in their coverage. 2 For example, the 2003 Iraq invasion by US-led forces, where correspondents were made to practice embedded journalism is a good example of how circumstances could force a journalist to succumb to soldiers’ demands of keeping their war causalities away from their cameras. It is worth noting, however, that being biased for a journalist in such a war situation could be circumstantial in the sense that an American journalist covering a story in Iraqi’s capital, Baghdad, would be regarded as a spy by Iraqi’s troops. Likewise, an Iraqi journalist chasing stories in the coalition force’s camps in Iraqi’s capital would be treated as a traitor by the Iraqi people (Fred and Wellman, 2003:21). There is no doubt that in the situations described above objectivity in journalism can be affected. It is against such background that this study will investigate the factors that affect objectivity in the print media. It is vitally important to bear in mind that bias should not be confused with editorial columns that express the opinion of publishers, or editors for that matter. The question of objectivity goes back to the gatekeepers, whereby the editors as gatekeepers decide what to publish and what news stories reporters should gather. So the question of objectivity in the news can be dealt with by the editors who decide which story should be run by their respective newspapers. According to Fred and Wellman (2003:32), editors and media owners are the decision makers in the field of journalism.

I argue that contemporary journalists paradoxically require a subjectivist epistemology to comply with the standards of what is known as "the ideal of objectivity." Because of this, these writers have lost much of the fact-claiming and meaning-making ability that makes their work so important. In order to understand how knowledge and meaning are constructed in journalism, we need to look past the surface rhetoric of the reporter and uncover the institutional rhetoric that has developed during the course of the 20th century. In this dissertation, I apply the classical rhetorical terms kairos and nomos to the political economy of the news industry and the professional conventions produced by that industry.

The aim of the study is to investigate and explore the role of community newspapers against the background of profit-driven media environment. The study adopted a qualitative research method. Data was collected using in-depth interviews with editors of the four community newspapers under study namely Public Eye, The Mirror, Echo and Edendale Eyethu, as well as readers of these publications. The study used focus group discussions as an additional qualitative instrument for data gathering. The SPSS software programme was used to present the data from the readers. Findings of the study The study found that media conglomerates and other businesses on the media possess both the human and financial resources to place them in a powerful position to determine the media content. However, while we know that this happens, some interventions could be considered to make sure that a more viable and sustainable balance between commerce and community is found and maintained. The study also showed that due to “market-driven journalism” embraced by the community newspapers, the right of the readers or consumers is increasingly compromised, and also that the profit-driven aspects of these publications confirm that media or journalism ethics of the community press is also at stake in that appear to benefit private and public sectors. This means the ample space allocated to advertisers as evidenced in almost every page of these newspapers, contribute to denying the readers access to relevant news or information. The study found that local content and political news are of great relevance to the readers, Community newspapers are vital in creating awareness amongst community members of different events taking place in the community hence enabling them to take an active part in different aspects of developments taking place. Community members would like to see more in-depth coverage in local news content, more coverage in events taking place locally such as community initiative projects, and more coverage on schools sports tournaments. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2010.

This dissertation studies the new class of political fact-checkers, journalists who specialize in assessing the truth of public claims -- and who, it is argued, constitute a professional reform movement reaching to the center of the elite US news media. In less than a decade this emergent genre of news has become a basic feature of political coverage. It figures prominently in national debates and commands the direct attention of elite political actors, who respond publicly to the fact-checkers and dedicate staff to dealing with them, especially during electoral campaigns. This study locates fact-checking in a wider practice of "annotative journalism," with precursors in the muckraking tradition in American news, which has come into flower in an online media environment characterized by promiscuous borrowing and annotation. Participant observation and content analysis are used together to examine the day-to-day work of the news organizations leading the fact-checking movement. This approach documents the specific and forceful critique of conventional journalistic practice which the fact-checkers enact in their newswork routines and in their public and private discourse. Fact-checkers are a species of practical epistemologists, who seek to reform and thus to preserve the objectivity norm in American journalism, even as their daily work runs up against the limits of objective factual analysis. In politics, they acknowledge, "facts can be subjective." Fact-checkers are also active participants in an emerging news ecosystem in which stories develop, and authority is constructed, in patterns of citation and annotation across discursive networks of media and political actors. This study demonstrates how attention to these media-political networks subtly informs and constrains the work of producing objective assessments of factual claims. And it suggests that the objective status of the fact-checkers themselves can be seen as a function of their position in media-political networks, reproduced in formal and informal partnerships and, most immediately, in the pattern of outlets which cite and quote and link to them. This perspective helps to account for the surprising limits of the political critique offered by professional fact-checkers, who argue for a more honest, fearless journalism but carefully avoid the largest and most controversial political conclusions that emerge from their own work. In seeking to redefine objective practice for a changed media environment, the new genre of fact-checking underscores the essentially defensive nature of what has been called the "strategic ritual" of journalistic objectivity.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Canterbury, 2006. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 107-112). Also available via the World Wide Web.

by Xing Rong. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 78-81). / Abstract also in Chinese. / ABSTRACT --- p.ii / ACKNOWLEDGMENTS --- p.iii / Chapter CHAPTER I --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter CHAPTER II --- Conceptualization --- p.17 / Chapter CHAPTER III --- Method --- p.30 / Chapter CHAPTER IV --- Results --- p.37 / Chapter CHAPTER V --- Discussion & Conclusion --- p.70 / REFERENCES --- p.77 / TABLES --- p.81 / FIGURES --- p.94 / APPENDIX --- p.96

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Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2004. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The popular media ("Media" here referring to newspapers, magazines. television, internet) adds to confusion and panic when reporting on the risks and benefits of Hormone Replacement Therapy for women (HRT). Most reports show bias, cast scientists as villains, or leave the reader more confused than before about terminology. The Southern African media does in general aspire to objectivity towards both the pharmaceutical and natural health industry. However, shallow or inept reporting, the need to generalise complicated findings and dramatise what's regarded as cold scientific news, create this bias and confusion. Misleading health reporting, in South Africa as much as anywhere else in the world, can change health behaviour and can even cost lives. Ethical health reporting can therefore be described as a matter of life and death. This paper aims to analyse the media for biased, confusing and alarmist reporting. It then aims to explain reasons for the bias or confusion. Fourteen reports are analysed. One Time magazine report, and 13 reports selected from the Southern African media. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Berigte oor Hormoonvervangingsterapie (HVT) vir vroue in die media ("Media") hier verwys na koerante, tydskrifte, televisie, internet) dra by tot verwarring en paniek. Die meerderheid berigte is bevooroordeeld, in die sin dat medici as booswigte uitgebeeld word. Indien hulle nie bevooroordeeld is nie, is berigte verwarrend, soms juis in 'n poging om konsepte te vereenvoudig. Die media in Suider Afrika aspireer wel tot objektiwiteit, teenoor beide die farmaseutiese sowel as die holistiese (kruie) industrie. Nietemin, oppervlakkige/oningeligte verslaggewing en die behoefte om ingewikkelde navorsing te vereenvoudig/interessant te maak, dra by tot vooroordeel en verwarring. Misleidende mediese beriggewing in Suid Afrika, net soos in die res van die wêreld, kan mense hoop om besluite te neem wat hul gesondheid kan skaad. Die belang van etiese verslaggewing kan dus as 'n kwessie van lewe en dood beskryf word. Hierdie studie ontleed berigte en ondersoek vooroordeel, verwarring of sensasionalisering. Redes vir bogenoemde word dan bespreek. Veertien berigte word ontleed. (een berig uit die Amerikaanse tydskrif Time, en 13 uit die Suider Afrikaanse media)

Higher education is one of the most expensive services an individual will ever purchase, yet many question whether enough information is available to higher education consumers to make informed decisions. The objective of this study was to determine the degree of personal experience higher education writers at selected major daily newspapers have with for-profit colleges and how those experiences affect the perceptions they have of the colleges. The second objective of the research focused on how much coverage for-profit colleges receive based on workforce projections, compared to traditional colleges.The study tested two hypsothees:1. Higher education staff writers at the selected major daily newspapers have little personal experience with for-profit, degree-granting colleges, compared to traditional colleges, resulting in neutral-to-negative perceptions.2. Despite predictions that a high percentage of jobs will require an education beyond high school but not necessarily a traditional four-year college degree, for-profit colleges receive less coverage than traditional colleges in the selected major daily newspapers.A five-page questionnaire was mailed to the person covering higher education at the major daily newspaper in mature ITT Technical Institute markets. Questions related to the amount of personal contact the journalists have with proprietary colleges and the perceptions they hold of these colleges as well as what they believe their readers' higher education needs are. Writers were also asked to indicate their agreement with several workforce projections and to report how many articles on specific topics were published in the last year. The study received a 54 percent response rate.The respondents were sorted twice, based on their personal contact and then based on their perceptions. Overall, respondents had about half as much contact with proprietary colleges as they did with traditional colleges in the past year, supporting the first part of Hypothesis 1. However, the largest percentage of respondents had some contact with proprietary colleges, resulting in positive-toneutral perceptions, disproving the first hypothesis overall. Delving further into the issue indicated that the more personal contact a journalist had with proprietary colleges, the more positive his or her perceptions of them were.The second hypothesis was supported however, in that traditional public colleges were contacted as sources for articles more than for-profit colleges by a margin of 77 percent to 23 percent. Non-profit traditional colleges were contacted more by a margin of 49 percent to 23 percent.Further analysis found that the more contact a writer had with a proprietary college, the more positive his or her perception of this sector was and the more coverage for-profit colleges received. / Department of Journalism

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of news commentary on the image of political candidates. Subjects were exposed to a political debate, which was followed by three experimental manipulations of a news commentary. One group saw a commentary biased toward one candidate and against the other. In a second group the bias was reversed. A third experimental group saw a neutral commentary and the control group viewed the debate but no commentary. The primary statistical analyses used were a multivariate analysis of variance, a multiple discriminant analysis and a factor analysis. The results indicated that the commentary did have some effects on the perception of the candidates' images. Furthermore, the commentaries affected the amount of the candidates' message which was recalled by the subjects, and cued the subjects to recall specific issues which were mentioned in the commentaries. Finally, the factor analysis indicated certain characteristics of the images of political candidates.