Question: How do media organizations ensure that different views and perspectives are being reported?
Pluralism in news coverage
Pluralism in the news is important, but when it comes to the extent to which this is followed up, this is vague. First and foremost, no specific group or part of the newsroom is responsible for the internal pluralism in the news material. There are no formal rules for this to be maintained, it is instead a more informal rule that you as a journalist of course need to cover different sources and angles. This responsibility is distributed to each journalist.
One of the journalists believes that obtaining different perspectives is part of the daily work of a journalist. The fact that this is also an important factor in a Norwegian journalistic regulation called “Vær Varsom-plakaten”, means that this has always been implemented in every journalist – you always need to cover different views. This is perhaps even more evident in one of the other journalists who work with politics. She says that it is important that she covers opinions from all the political parties when reporting. Another journalist explains how she, and her colleagues, discuss cases which helps seeing what kind of angles and sources is necessary to cover.
The importance of having a large network of sources as a journalist today, is something one of the journalists talked about. Much of journalism today is based on that you should be able to write a little about everything and know a little about everything. To manage this, it is important to have access to many different sources. She believes this big network of sources will have an impact on the pluralism in the news.
The use of experts
When journalists are referring to experts, the importance of good research is big. One of the journalists talks about how easy it is to become an expert today. This makes it even more important to be critical of who to use.
There is a strong tendency to use researchers from universities. These are people who can point to research they have done and then again seems more credible when they are used commenting on a specific case.
Picking out experts also depends on your network as a journalist. In some cases, the journalists use experts several times, or they ask colleagues if they know someone who is fitted to talk about a specific topic. The experts should preferably be politically neutral, but if someone is politically involved, the journalists need to inform about this.
The news media provides pluralism in its news material in several different ways. With the help of a large network of sources, collaboration with colleagues and with a common understanding among journalists that it’s important to cover different points of view in a case. There are no set rules in the newsrooms on this except from using a journalistic regulation in all journalistic work. The use and selection of experts requires that one is critical and thorough in the research.
Credits: 2 or 3?
2 = no formal rules, but newsroom meetings regularly discuss and check for pluralism
3 = newsrooms follow known and standardized procedures to ensure internal pluralism and give voice to various groups
(kan vær varsom plakaten anses som en formell regel – I så fall, 3 poeng?)
