Journalism Research and Random Meanderings

Monday, January 03, 2005

Does Iraq News Coverage Lack Balance? Objectivity? Both? 

Google News today had 853 stories related to one attack by Iraqi insurgents (see three examples below) and 427 more linked to a suicide bomber's attempt to assinate interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi. Evidently there were no operations by Iraqi security forces or American troops worth covering. If there's a conspiracy to skew reporting of events in Iraq virtually every news outlet in the world seems to be in on it.

The articles below were picked more or less randomly and their inclusion is not meant to single them out for criticism or protect the excluded media outlets.

7 killed, 39 injured in suicide attacks targeting security forces
"CBC News, Canada - BAGHDAD (AP) - Two car bombs, one near the prime minister's party headquarters in Baghdad, killed seven Iraqis not including the drivers and wounded 39 others ... "

Rebels kill 17 in Iraq attacks
"International news from swissinfo, the Swiss news platform - BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Insurgents have killed 17 Iraqi police and National Guards in another bloody spree of ambushes, bombings and suicide attacks aimed at wrecking Iraq's January 30 national election..."

Suicide bombing kills 18 Iraqi guardsmen
"San Francisco Chronicle, CA - Baghdad -- Insurgents intensified their campaign against the country's nascent security forces Sunday, killing at least 18 national guardsmen and one civilian ..."

Admittedly Google News is still in beta (meaning it's a pre-production version of the software) and as such may not be the best instrument with which to gauge news balance. During the recent Canadian federal election, news about the event was so scarce I inquired to Google News Feedback about it. They responded, essentially saying the same thing they say on the About Google News page.

"The headlines on the Google News homepage are selected entirely by a computer algorithm, based on many factors including how often and on what sites a story appears elsewhere on the web. This is very much in the tradition of Google's web search, which relies heavily on the collective judgment of web publishers to determine which sites offer the most valuable and relevant information. Google News relies in a similar fashion on the editorial judgment of online news organizations to determine which stories are most deserving of inclusion and prominence on the Google News page."

So, if there's any bias on the part of Google News, it's built into the software and presumably gets tweaked on occasion when the programmers improve their methodology. If the world's news editors are biased changing that may not be so simple. A commercial publication is predisposed towards profit - it has to be to survive. Public and non-profit news organisations don't have that justification. Editors and journalists are (supposed to be) trained in balance and objectivity in journalism school but can usefully depart from that when necessary in editorials, columns and, occasionally, investigative journalism.

It's very hard to believe that Iraqi forces opposed to the current governement are the only ones active and that American and coalition troops and Iraqi government security personnel are cowering in their bases but it's hard to tell from the coverage. Taking the cynical view that the media has given up representing their audiences' best interests are and are merely out for themselves is too depressing to contemplate.

===PB===