Journalists have one of the most difficult jobs in the world, however, they play a key role in society and keeping the world up to date on current events. Journalists are trusted to give the people the facts and are expected to remain unbiased in their articles and work. This is already a difficult job that faces many struggles. For political journalists however, the stakes are much higher.
The job of a political journalist is to research and report political information to the public which then allows voters to formulate their own opinions about national, state or local issues. In a perfect world, this would be exactly how political journalism would work, however, political journalists now are under more fire than ever before. Between false information, biases, and more, the level of difficulty in being a political journalist has only grown.
Rachel Maddow, who works for MSNBC and Tucker Carlson, who worked for Fox News, are both examples of political journalists. However, both have very different views on political issues. Depending on which you prefer, almost always you’ll be hearing a biased communication of the news. This again, makes it very hard for citizens to get the straight facts.
However, sources such as News Nation pride themselves on being unbiased news reporters. Although it was rated as Center in June of 2023 by AllSides, some say it does lean more towards right center, or more towards right wing values.
As stated before, a journalist’s job is to report the news from an unbiased perspective, however, over the years this has become difficult and usually is not the case. Almost every news outlet leans either left or right. Most of the time it’s less obvious which side the news outlet leans on which can skew your opinions. However, sometimes it’s more obvious. For example, the PEW research center in 2014 found that 47% of conservative view holders named Fox News as their main source for political and government news and 15% of liberal view holders named CNN as their main news source for political and government news.
This data shows that depending on where you get your news, it may skew your political views which ultimately harms political journalism as a whole. Depending on which news source journalists work for, most reporting will be biased, and will align with your audience’s political standpoint.
Another struggle political journalists face is distrust. Again, depending on which way you lean, it will impact which news sources you deem trustworthy, however, some may go as far as calling news sources they don’t agree with “fake news”. This leads people to question their news sources and lose trust in a journalist’s legitimacy and the outlet they work for as a whole.
Political Journalists also face an extreme amount of threats for just doing their job. The ACLED recorded around 520 incidents of political violence targeting journalists around the world in 2022. The acts of violence can range from harassment, kidnapping, torture and more. These attacks happen when political views come to an extreme and people begin to blame journalists for simply stating the facts or putting information out there that a certain group of people does not agree with.
How to stay unbiased is something that political journalists have tried figuring out since the beginning of the field. It’s difficult and seems almost impossible at times. Getting perspectives from both sides, double checking your sources, and leaving your own opinion out of the article is a good place to start.
Political Journalism is not an easy job, and definitely one not everyone can handle. It’s risky and difficult and no matter what you do there will always be someone displeased with your work. However, it’s an important job and one that will continue to stay around for a very long time.
https://acleddata.com/2023/07/11/infographic-journalists-under-attack/
