Journalism of Verification

I feel like this post goes right along with the previous one on truth, but a little more in depth on how to get there.

Verification. What is it? Basically, it means that you make sure that everything you say is the absolute truth.  Never add anything that is not there, never deceive the audience, and rely on your own methods and reporting rather than others'.

Three points of verification were brought up in class this week:
-Objectivity
-Transparency
-Originality

Let's start with objectivity. This means that you remain completely unbiased and report the straight facts. This helps keep your writing accurate rather than saying what you think needs to be said.

But why is it so important to remain unbiased? First of all, if you only report one side of a story, you are going to have a lot of people upset at you for not representing the other side. In addition, when you insert your opinion, you are automatically going lose all of your audience who disagree. Second of all, people don't like being told how to feel about something. Give them the information and let them decide for themselves.

Here is an article written by John Stossel called "The Double Standard About Bias in Journalism." He talks about how when he got to the national level of reporting, he got criticized for not being objective and stopped winning Emmys - consequences for inserting personal opinions into writing.

Let's move on to transparency. This is when you disclose as much as you can about your sources. Use anonymous sources sparingly and only when you absolutely have to. The more you tell about your source, the more believable your information becomes. When you cite your source as being anonymous, it could have come from anywhere and anyone, including yourself.

It is also important that you use a variety of sources. If your story only has one source, the information is not going to be as believable as if you had three or more. In addition, people will realize that you did not make the effort to present multiple sides of the story, which could definitely cause them to lose all interest.

The last point is originality. This means doing your own work, finding the facts on your own, and not looking to other media. All of these things take away the credibility of your writing.

I think originality is the most important but also the most difficult of the three points of verification. You must be original to keep the attention of your audience. People don't want to read something they've read ten times before. Come up with new ways to look at a situation. Present facts that not many people know. Tell a story that's never been told. And it's not only what you say, but how you say it.

All three of these things - objectivity, transparency, and originality - contribute to the accuracy of your writing. And accuracy is extremely important when it comes to journalism. Not only is your reputation on the line, but so is your job.