1. Fairness and Balance Reporting and Writing
Journalism and Media Studies Centre
The University of Hong Kong
Alex Lo

2. Fairness and Balance Many different types of articles in journalism:
--News stories
--Features and News features
--News analyses
--Profiles
--Columns and commentaries
--Editorials

3. Fairness and Balance
The last three on that list – columns, commentaries and editorials – are articles in which a writer expresses an opinion, either his/her own, or that (in the case of editorials) of the media that employ them.

4. Fairness and Balance
To be persuasive, columns, commentaries and editorials should be well-researched and well-argued and take into account opposing views.
But they are not “objective.” They take a point of view.

5. Fairness and Balance
For different reasons, it’s a little different for news features, news analyses and profiles, but for news stories, one of the most traditional ideas is that reporters must be “objective.”
Here is the Cambridge online definition of objective: “not influenced by personal belief or feeling.”

6. Fairness and Balance But is objectivity in news stories possible?
Can our stories be uninfluenced by our personal beliefs or feelings? By who we are? By the cultures and places that have produced us?

7. Fairness and Balance
Many journalists today say no and that complete objectivity is impossible.
They say fairness and balance should be the goals, and that these are more possible.
Fairness and balance mean doing your best to reflect the range of views in a story and giving people under attack a chance to respond.

8. Fairness and Balance
As reporters, you will cover news stories where a wide range of issues will be discussed.
You will cover stories where people will make accusations against one another and against groups, agencies and governments.
We saw a lot of this in the Manila hostage story.

9. Fairness and Balance
In those situations, against the pressure of deadlines, you are going to be required to exercise your judgment – which of these issues and these accusations are the most valid? Which are the most newsworthy? Which can I cover in the most fair and balanced way in the time available to me?

10. Fairness and Balance
Sometimes, as in the Manila story, reporters work together in teams.
That can spread the work around, but cause communication issues that can make fairness and balance more elusive.

11. Fairness and Balance
So, telling a story that is fair, balanced and also accurate (as we already know from our previous discussions) is challenging.
People often disagree on the facts of a story. If they do agree on the facts, they may disagree on what the facts mean.

12. Fairness and Balance
A story that seems fair and balanced to you, or to one group in a story, may seem unfair to others, depending on their perspective or agenda.
But you are like an umpire or a referee in a sports contest – you are involved, but have to be fair to all sides. You know something about the issues, but have no stake in the outcome, except maybe to write another story, in which case you want to be on good terms with all sides.

13. Fairness and Balance
Fairness and Balance are also important in features and news features, news analyses and profiles. But these types of articles are different from traditional news stories.

14. Fairness and Balance
A feature story is about a topic that might not be currently in the news, but that people might find interesting because it involves some unique idea or aspect of the human experience. Reporters are still expected to be fair and balanced, but are given more freedom in their writing to develop such emotional values as joy, sadness, anger, inspiration and many others.

15. Fairness and Balance
A news feature uses sources and research to turn up new information and provide insights on events or issues recently in the news.
The reporter is shaping the content and therefore has more direct control over what is needed to make the story fair and balanced.

16. Fairness and Balance
A news analysis is similar to a news feature, except that reporters get more freedom to express insights and draw conclusions based on their reporting and demonstrated expertise. Their stories might not have to be as “balanced” because they have made a strong “case” for the conclusions they draw. They still have to be fair if they accuse people or groups of wrongdoing.

17. Fairness and Balance
A profile is a journalistic portrait of a person who is interesting or controversial for what they say, do or think.
The profile writer can adopt an “attitude” about the subject, but is also expected to give those the subject might attack a chance to respond and to place controversial issues into a balanced perspective.

18. Fair and Balanced?
Fox News Channel was created by Australian-American media mogul Rupert Murdoch. Its motto is “Fair and Balanced”.