The slides for a seminar that I taught at the University of Lethbridge in the course Philosophy 4000 "Environmental Philosophy and the Climate Crisis".

1. “But did they report it
objectively?”
What journalistic objectivity and “balance as bias” means when
it comes to climate reporting
Ryan Allan Macfarlane
Undergradute
University of Lethbridge
@_ra_mac
Philosophy 4000: “Environmental Philosophy and the Climate Crisis”
University of Lethbridge
February 24, 2015

2. What is journalism?
Journalism has no widely agreed
upon organizing principle.
Journalists often say things like,
“our work speaks for itself.”

3. What is journalism?
Things the public generally expects of
journalists:
● That they report the truth
● That they hold power to account
● That they offer voice to the voiceless
● That they report objectively

4. What is objectivity?
Generally, journalism objectivity is taken to
mean reporting news that is:
● Accurate
● Balanced
● Unbiased

5. What is objectivity?
It's possible to distinguish between 3 types of
'objectivity':
1) Ontological
2) Epistemological
3) Procedural

6. 'Traditional objectivity'
Traditional journalism objectivity believed an
objective news report was a mix of all 3 types of
objectivity

7. 'Traditional objectivity'
Distinguished 'news' from 'opinion' where
whatever wasn't 'news' was 'opinion'
But the principle of 'traditional objectivity' was
never formally defined and had no theory—was
mostly based on newsroom practice

8. Journalism ethics
Objectivity was used to move journalism away
from nationalism of the 17th
century,
partisanship of the 18th
century, “yellow
journalism” and sensationalism of the early 20th
century.

9. Journalism ethics
Walter Lippman
(1889­1974)
Advocated for the
professionalization of
journalism, argued that
journalism should adopt
an objectively transparent
method—one like science

10. Journalism ethics
Objectivity gave journalism its ethical
foundations and created a sense of
professionalism

11. Professional journalism
● Who can work as a journalist?
● What makes a journalist 'professional'?
First, let's consider qualifications for other
professional careers

12. Professional qualifications
● University professor
● Lawyer
● Trades­person
● Journalist
● Recognized degrees, peer­reviewed work
● Called to the bar by the bar association
● Trades­school, apprenticeships, journeymen, masters
● J­school, but no external, professional body

13. Problems with objectivity
“Balance as Bias”

14. Problems with objectivity
While objectivity, professionalism & journalism
ethics help journalism avoid ideological bias,
the practice of balance has led to 'informational
bias'

15. 'Informational bias'
“joint product of internalized professional
values and of newsgathering routines.”

16. “Balance as Bias”
Methods and results

17. Boykoff & Boykoff, p. 128
Measure #1: Coverage of debate over anthropogenic
contributions to global warming:
● Only presents argument that anthropogenic global warming
exists, clearly distinct from natural variations
● Presents both sides, but emphasizes that anthropogenic global
warming exists, still distinct from natural variation
● Presents a balanced account of debates surrounding existence
of anthropogenic global warming
● Presents both sides, but emphasizes dubious nature of the
claim that anthropogenic global warming exists

18. Coverage of anthropogenic
contributions
52.65
35.29
6.18
5.88
balanced accounts of anthropogenic contribu-
tions to warming
anthropogenic contribution dominant
skepticism of anthropogenic contribution dom-
inant
exclusive coverage of anthropogenic warming
US prestige­press coverage of existence of anthropogenic contribution to
global warming 1988–2002, n=340

19. Boykoff & Boykoff, p. 128
Measure #2: Coverage of decisions regarding action on global
warming:
● Dominant coverage of decisions/assertions regarding
immediate/mandatory action to deal with global warming
● Balanced accounts of various decisions regarding action
● Dominant coverage of decisions/assertions regarding
cautious/voluntary approaches to deal with global warming

20. 78.2
11.17
10.63
Balanced accounts regarding action
Cautious/voluntary action dominant
Immediate/mandatory action dominant
Coverage of action
US prestige­press coverage of action regarding global warming 1988–2002, n=367

21. What does this suggest?
As reporters applied their professional ethic of
objectivity to covering climate change, they
inadvertently overemphasized the position of
climate deniers
Climate deniers picked up on this, exaggerated
doubt in public debate, leading to more
“balanced” reports

22. But now false balance is being
acknowledged in journalism

23. Public editor: Stories on vaccination aren’t propaganda
By Sylvia Stead
Feb 18, 2015, The Globe and Mail
“The reader is correct that news stories should be fair and
balanced, but if The Globe were to include someone “credible”
from the anti­vaxxer community, that would be false balance.
False balance is when journalists twist themselves into a knot
to try to balance scientific and expert views with someone
whose views are not fact­based, expert or scientific. Would you
even report a story about whether the Earth is flat or round and
quote some marginal conspiracy theory types arguing that it
can’t be round? No. Would you publish anything about whether
the moon landing was real and give equivalency to the views of
those who believe it was a hoax? Again, no.”

24. Public editor: He Said, She Said, and the
Truth
By Margaret Sullivan
Sept 15, 2012, The New York Times
“Simply put, false balance is the
journalistic practice of giving equal weight
to both sides of a story, regardless of an
established truth on one side. And many
people are fed up with it. They don’t want
to hear lies or half­truths given credence
on one side, and shot down on the other.
They want some real answers.”
Public editor: Another Outbreak of
‘False Balance’?
By Margaret Sullivan
Feb 7, 2015, The New York Times
“The Times’s standards editor, Philip B.
Corbett, told me that avoiding false
balance, generally, is very much on the
minds of Times journalists. He has not
issued rules about it because, he said,
'I’m wary of issuing mandatory
language. It’s usually not a good
approach.'”

25. So what do we do from here?

26. It is important to understand the relationship
between the public and the media

27. Traditional model of the relationship
between the public, media, and
society—such as political
organizations & scientific community

28. Alternative model of the same relationship

29. Perception of media's role
● One emphasizes a
hierarchical, filter­
down approach
● The other places
each part in dialogue
with the others

30. Conclusions
1) Journalists don't have a well defined method:
● It is hard for journalists to define what they
do and how they do it
● The public may distrust journalists because of
obscurity
Journalists need to rediscover 'objectivity' as
objective and transparent method

31. Conclusions
2) The public needs to know what to expect of
journalists and politicians—and ask for it

32. Conclusions
3) Climate scientists, policy makers, etc. need to
recognize 2 things:
● That journalism can't be used as a tool to
promote a message—even if it's the right one
● That journalism can work effectively and
report accurately on the climate—current
problems are not inherent, but methodological

33. Afterword
Data journalism is a relatively new field of
journalism and seems to offer a promise of more
transparent methods—and journalists
specifically trained to understand data

34. Climate change is a big issue
But we can address its constituent parts
Thank you for your time!