I found an online article published today (Sunday the 22nd of May, 2011) that discussed, with relation to WikiLeaks, the idea that journalists often manipulate stories in order to convey their perception.
The article raises issues of objectivity and subjectivity in reporting, as well as asking the ‘fundamental’ question: ‘what is truth’ (Guardian, 2011) in journalism? One reason why I find this article particularly interesting, is because WikiLeaks have described themselves as a ‘new model of journalism’ (WikiLeaks, 2011), a new model which believes in transparency in the media. This means that WikiLeaks believe that what it is doing is distinct from anything else. The articles writer, Stephen Pritchard, endeavours to explain what it is that WikiLeaks is/ does, by writing;
‘the WikiLeaks saga was an alliance of modern technology and good, old-fashioned journalism: of those 250,000 documents, fewer than 2,000 have been published in an meticulous editing process across five newspapers that sought out the best stories from a mountain of 300 million words: constructive documents praising governments or officials are unlikely to feature in such a process, however many were leaked in the first place. Good news doesn't make a story’ (Guardian, 2011)
The final part of this quotation is probably the most significant part of the whole article. It posits that people do not want to read about ‘good news’, which is perhaps why WikiLeaks has been so popular. The organisation shows bias towards a world where we know what our government is doing.
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