Impartiality – give me a break!

A friend of mine just emailed me an interesting article about the use of music in journalism.

This is the opening of Regina Macombs post:

‘More and more, photojournalists who would never add anything to an image are adding prerecorded music to news stories. Click on a video or audio slideshow on a news site, and under the narration or natural sound, you’ll often hear music. Documentaries and television journalists do it all time.

But should we? More and more in Poynter seminars, questions arise about how to properly use music in slideshows and video stories. It’s clear that the industry is looking for answers; yet there are no easy ones.’

She then goes on to quote Rich Beckman, Knight Chair for Visual Journalism at the University

“I believe that the growing use of music in documentary multimedia storytelling has the potential to cast doubt on the impartial nature of our reportage,”

I’m going to let you into a little secret. Rich Beckman is talking bollocks but he’s also 100% correct.  ‘Impartiality’ is an invention of media managers.  I can’t think of one great journalist or documentary producer who is impartial.  What he really meant to say was

“I believe that the growing use of music in documentary multimedia storytelling has the potential to cast doubt on the apprearance of impartiality  in our reportage,”

Which of course it can.

I’d  be very surprised if any news organization strives for impartiality more than the BBC.  It is one of the cornerstones of its producer guidelines, but I never met a decent BBC journalist whose feelings  didn’t turn up somewhere in their work. That’s because they are human, they have thoughts and feelings about things and they want their job working for the greatest cultural institution on the planet to to mean something. The BBC does a great job in reigning them in without asking its journalists to have a lobotomy.  There’s a decent compromise, we’re just not allowed to talk about it.

Truth is that every decision, ever edit, every cut, every layer of music is partial. Think about it, but not for too long!

The music we choose nearly always reflects the personality of those choosing it and the perceived tastes of the audience listening.  The people we interview reflects our contact book and our sphere of understanding and influence.  What’s more the way that people relate to us when we interview them is also entirely partial, depending upon our perceived status.

What we should strive for is to be FAIR. That’s whats really important/

If journalism professors were really honest, or had a good enough understanding of the trade, their seminar would be titled:

‘How to be partial and get away with it, whilst using the music you really love that will get the audience on their knees and win you an award in the next NPPA competition’.

Bet you £10 that that’s the lecture everyone wants to hear. It’s also one only a really talented multimedia producer could give.

Brian Storm are you free?