Outra objectividade

Chegará o dia em que a imprensa assumirá que a objectividade é um mito ou que objectividade em excesso afasta o público da imprensa?

O estudo "On Behalf of Journalism: A Manifesto for Change", da autoria de Geneva Overholser, e ao qual chegámos por via do Ponto Media, é elucidativo.

Na era da imprevisibilidade, a autora do estudo foi tentar saber o que deve a imprensa fazer para parar de se afundar. Conclui ela, entre outras coisas, que:

"A change in the nature of journalism’s commitment to objectivity is probably coming whether journalists embrace it or not. For one thing, the tone of journalism is very different online, with inevitable impact on traditional media. For another, the public here again feels differently from journalists. The Annenberg 2005 survey showed that the American public disapproves only narrowly of partisan journalism while journalists disapprove heartily: 16 percent of the 673 journalists polled and 43 percent of the 1,500 members of the public said it was “a good thing if some news organizations have a decidedly political point of view in their coverage of the news.” Eighty percent of journalists and 53 percent of the public said it was “a bad thing.”

O excesso de objectividade e distanciamento podem até ser contraproducentes:

"Coverage driven by grief and hope is exactly not what objectivity has been. The commitment to being dispassionate often felt to consumers like a lack of concern. Disinterest came across as uninterested – and uninteresting. More and more, Americans are trusting the information they get from sources with a “voice,” including comedy programs like The Daily Show, documentaries like An Inconvenient Truth or theater like Stuff Happens, and Fox News’s remarkable growth stems in significant part from its clear point of view."

Histórias contadas com paixão e pouca distância, mas muito bem sustentadas por fontes e citações, podem fazer muito pelo jornalismo, sugere o estudo. Mas sem responsabilidade não se vai lá:

"For all the change afoot, journalists can considerably strengthen their own position by doing a better job of holding themselves accountable and making their work transparent. This movement toward greater accountability is gathering strength, as shown by the record of organizations at media-accountability.org, assembled by the world master on accountability, Claude-Jean Bertrand, a professor emeritus at the Institut Francais de Presse. These systems take many forms, from ombudsmen to journalism reviews to reader advisory councils. They are established to reassure readers who have long wondered who is watching the watchdog – and, not incidentally, to ward off government regulation."