A "Window" into Objectivity and Reality

In Dan Gillmor’s talk today, he touched on the issue of objectivity in journalism. This, of course, gets to the complex issues of fairness and bias. Gillmor said that one of the things that boils his blood is when journalists write a "balanced" story by simply printing what both sides of an issue say, without making any effort to determine which one of the sides, or even both, are lying or distorting the "truth."

Since we’re journalism teachers trying to get across these complex ideas to our students, I have a lesson that I’d like to share that I use with my students. It’s a poem that I have the students read and then answer the question: which one is right? Here’s the poem:

Photograph by eje on June 23, 2012.
Printed under a CC license.

The Window

 By Alfred Fellows

A window is a simple thing.

A frame, some glass

And maybe a lock.

Ted looked through the window

And saw a beautiful baby

Sleeping peacefully

In a bassinet in the back yard.

Ted felt warm inside

And he smiled.

Joan was standing closer.

She looked through the window

And saw a cat

About to pounce on the baby

Sleeping peacefully

In a bassinet in the back yard.

Joan let out a throaty scream

And went tearing

Towards the yard.

Paul was standing even closer.

He looked through the window

And saw a dog

About to grab the cat who was

About to pounce on the baby

Sleeping peacefully

In a bassinet in the back yard.

Paul let out a big sigh of relief

As the cat

Jumped into the bushes.

Yep, a window is a simple thing.

A frame, some glass

And maybe a lock.

The poem is an allegory in which everyone sees his or her own view of reality when looking through a “window” with a differing viewing angle. On one hand [yes, I dare use that phrase], each person saw what was true and “right” for him or her. On the other hand, you could say that we’re not sure that any of them were “right” because we weren’t really sure that anyone saw the total picture. After all, who knows what else might have been out there.

Of course, the point of the allegory is that reality is really complex and that nobody can be sure that his or her view absolutely captures it. In fact, the world is such a large complex place that it’s more than likely that nobody has a full grasp of reality, which is tough think for any of us to grasp, since we all know, of course, that we know the truth (lol).

What does this mean for journalists or for anyone living in this big, wide world? To me, it’s the starting point of a good discussion. To give a quick take, to me it means that journalists should never be so sure that they know the truth and should always dig into a story as deeply as they can. While there will always likely be further to dig, a good journalist does as much as he or she can in the limited time available to write the most comprehensive story possible.

As Dan Gillmor pointed out, it’s absolutely not enough to just tell what both sides of an issue think. Instead, you’ve got to dig into the facts and figures that are presented to shed as much light on them as possible -- and, as I'd like to add, we should never be too sure that we know the truth.

-      --  Steve Caswell

Simi Valley High School

Simi Valley, CA