Thursday, April 27, 2006
confliction addiction
At first I couldn’t imagine why conflict is usually listed as a tradtitional news value. I was imagining journalists blowing issues up to create conflict, or reporting only shocking stories... What was it they said in Bowling for Columbine about making the front page? Then I realized that the value of conflict is not so much about selling news or shock value as it is about representing both sides of an issue, representing the fact that conflict exists. We live in a world full of conflict. If our reporting didn’t reflect this, it probably wouldn’t be accurate. And if conflict means representing both sides of issues, then I imagine that, far from sacrificing accuracy, tenacity, and equity, conflict actually encourages ethical news values.
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1 comment:
I totally agree. I don't think we have enough conflict in the media.
Personally I think it is because of the conglomeration of our news media. If there is only one voice out there it is obviously going to be hard to have conflict.
I also think the more conflict we have in the media the less conflict we are going to have in life. The more we see different viewpoints portrayed in our news the more we recognize that there are different views. And the more we recognize them the more we will eventually accept them.
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