What is Fairness?
Lesson 6:5
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Fairness:
Fairness:
Marked by impartiality and honesty. Free from self-interest, prejudice, or favoritism. Being fair to the evidence.
What might we mean by this definition: “Fair to the Evidence?” Using this definition, a journalist is being fair to whom?
Fair to the news consumer, or better yet: the facts.
It would be balanced to always call the Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan when writing a news story about lynchings in the mid-Century Southern U.S., but would it be fair to the evidence to give equal space to their denials it ever happened?
So now you're probably wondering "How do I make sure that reports are fair?"
Start with the following:
Fair Play
Fair Language
Fair Presentation
Fair Play
Fair Play
In Fair Play, look for an obvious effort to include relevant perspectives through the inclusion of multiple points of evidence.
Markers of this include:
Strong evidence that is verified by multiple sources.
Transparency by the reporter in saying what information they have and how they got it. (I.E. "According to records from the administrator, we found...")
Being clear that they attempted to include all sides of the story (being balanced) if there is an element that is unknown, developing, or disputed. (Example: "We reached out to the accused, but did not hear back at the time of publication")
A good example for thinking about fair play, comes with the story of the blind men and the elephant. Since the elephant is so big, and then men blind, they are only able to grasp a small portion of the elephant, in order to determine what is in front of them.
One holding the trunk believes it to be a snake, while another holding the elephants ear thinks it's a sheath of leather.
Each of them are only taking in small bits of information on the whole elephant, and it isn't until all of those parts are put together that they realize that they're all touching an elephant.
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