Understanding subjectivity as the intimate perspective on journalism, diversity, context, and community is an opportunity to humanize news and storytelling based on truth and facts as complementary to people’s experiences. Better proposed by Frank Harbers and Marcel Broersma,
“The social code between reporters and their audience implies that journalism has to render a truthful representation of reality. Subsequently, journalism’s authority depends on the belief that it has the epistemological tools to gather and convey truthful information. However, the ways in which truth claims are socially constructed and substantiated differ consistently over time, culture and form of journalism.”
As a journalist in progress focusing on Women, Gender, & Sexuality studies and Public Diplomacy, I have questioned the perception of objectivity as intrinsic to journalism as much as I have asked myself if it makes sense to be a journalist, feminisms sociologist, and diplomat concurrently—then proceed to make fun of myself as most people have when I mention my academic path because it does not seem rational for a journalist in the United States to advocate and work with communities that are too close to them.
In my case, being a woman of color who studies women of color issues and an immigrant from a conflictive country scrutinizing diplomacy and conflict resolution studies through journalist lenses results in an unethical predisposition for traditional journalism; I am excessively immediate to these demographics and topics to report on them. This conventional perspective is understandable; subjectivity questions the functionality of objectivity in a more diverse context. But is not objectivity a superfluity accessible depending on inherent privilege? To whom it serves anyway?
Last summer, in a peer discussion, we looked at the Journalists Sense Turmoil In Their Industry 2022 Report by the Pew Research Center, which reflected an insufficient diversity in the newsrooms and professional journalism environments. The survey asked the participant journalists if their news organization(s) has enough employee diversity in various areas. For example, regarding gender and age diversity, most newsrooms say they have enough. Two-thirds of journalists polled (67%) believe their organization has enough gender diversity among its employees, while 19% believe it does not. And 58% believe their workplace has enough age diversity, which is more than double the share who believe it does not (25%).
However, journalists give the industry mixed reviews on newsroom diversity, with the lowest marks in racial and ethnic diversity; “by a considerable margin, more journalists say their organization does not have enough racial and ethnic diversity (52%) than say it does (32%).”
Yet, there are differences in these questions based on respondents’ demographic characteristics. For example, when asked about the fair treatment of employees within the news organization, Black, Hispanic, and Asian journalists are frequently less likely than White journalists to say that employees are treated fairly in all three areas — gender, age, and race and ethnicity — and more likely to believe that employees are not treated fairly. The same pattern holds when female journalists are compared to male journalists, and younger journalists are compared to their older colleagues.
The first thought that came to me was, “objectivity has a white face; in fact, it is a white man” it came out of my mouth faster than it was fully processed in my brain. Because what it portrays is that there is a power distance based on our identities as journalists and individuals. And if those dominant in the field—white men—feel the most comfortable and do not realize the diversity disparities in journalism and the professional environment—evidencing their inherent power—our vision of objectivity is theirs; they have molded it. Hence, objectivity is valuable and intrinsic to their work because not many other identities might displace their power and storytelling, but that does not work for the rest with intersecting identities. Thus, the question remains: Why should objectivity overvalue subjectivity if it only works for a few where the inherent power stays condensed?
The TIME magazine made space to talk about the favorable effect of quality reporting that subjectivity provides in journalism; Eighth Journalists Reflected on a Year of Covering Stories About Their Communities, “pursuing the whole truth means considering the humanity of one’s subjects—and of oneself.” Within those lines, one of the striking reflections for me was made by Josiah Bates, a staff writer. He talks about the shift before his pitches being greenlit before and after the George, Floyd death demonstrating that journalists’ lived experience can help us empathize and deepen their work in the service of telling stories that accurately reflect the world around us and our communities,
“As a Black man in this country, I know firsthand the importance of issues like criminal justice, policing and gun violence and how many people are affected. That’s why I put the onus on myself to try to cover them thoroughly. But unless there are more diverse voices and perspectives in decision-making positions at mainstream news outlets, critical stories will continue to be left untold.”
We tell diverse and complex people’s stories, requiring us to see them with subjectivity and find a connection to listen to them before telling their stories.
References
Harbers, F., & Broersma, M. (2014). Between engagement and ironic ambiguity: Mediating subjectivity in narrative journalism. Journalism, 15(5), 639–654.
Aguilera, J., Caldwell, J., Bates, J., Suleman, N., Bajekal, N., Cachero, P., & Haynes, S. (2021, May 13). Journalists Reflect on Covering Stories About Their Communities. TIME.
Gottfried, J., Mitchel, A., Jurkowitz, M., & Liedke, J. (2022, June 14). Journalists Sense Turmoil in Their Industry Amid Continued Passion for Their Work. Pew Research Center. Retrieved February 19, 2023.
Gottfried, J., Mitchell, A., Jurkowitz, M., & Liedke, J. (2022, June 14). U.S. journalists say newsrooms lack racial diversity, mixed views on other diversity issues. Pew Research Center.
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