Readers need to distinguish news from opinion: Public Editor

Do you have a clear understanding of what is news and what is opinion in the Star?

Perhaps this distinction is not totally evident to you. Based on many conversations with readers, it is clear to me that one of the key sources of misunderstanding about the Star and its journalism is a considerable measure of confusion about how to distinguish between news and opinion.

As a Star reader you have a right to know if what you are reading in the Star is news – verified information based in the impartial reporting of facts – or opinion – a column or editorial based on the personal interpretation and judgments of facts.

The Star’s statement of principles has long expressed this core value, stating that, “Sound practice demands a clear distinction for readers between news and opinion.

“All content that contains explicit opinion or personal interpretation should be clearly identified as opinion or analysis, as appropriate.”

While the Star has long strived to make this distinction clear in the newspaper through the use of various design elements (such as a columnist’s “logo”) intended to denote a piece of opinion journalism, my communications with readers over the past decade tell me these devices are often inadequate for those who don’t understand our design shorthand.

Further muddying these waters is the fact that “opinion” logos, which include a journalist’s photo, are sometimes used on news stories too. How is a reader supposed to distinguish news from opinion?

Discerning news from opinion within the Star’s digital world — on the website, mobile apps and social media postings – is even more of a challenge for readers. Here the Star too often falls short of its own principle. Many days, opinion columns expressing strong views about controversial issues are presented in a similar manner as news stories, within news sections of those digital platforms, with no signposts to indicate that what you are reading is not the news but in fact someone’s opinion about the news.

The clearest way to tell readers that an article represents a writer’s views is to label it as opinion. The Star is now taking steps to do a better job of this on all its platforms.

The Star’s trust initiative , launched in May to look into how the Star can foster greater reader trust and develop journalistic and technological tools to bridge the trust and media literacy gap, identified the need to differentiate news from opinion as a priority issue. This group spent much of the summer looking at how to more clearly and consistently signal to readers on all platforms — including the Star’s social media feeds — when articles are analysis or opinion.

I expect the Star will soon move forward on recommendations to provide stronger signposts to readers about whether they are reading news, analysis or opinion and also give readers clarity about the definitions of various sorts of content.

This is vital at this time of diminishing trust in journalism when the sheer volume of opinions and conjecture about the news can overwhelm the real reporting of verified information.

Indeed, as news organizations around the world grapple with a crisis of trust in journalism, the need to guide audiences to a clear understanding of how to distinguish news from opinion has emerged as a significant indicator of journalistic trust. Several ongoing global trust projects have fixed on the need to do a better job of this.

“One of the most common themes from users is that they are tired of blurred lines between fact and opinion,” Joy Mayer, head of the Trusting News Project, wrote recently in an article reporting on the project’s research into reader feedback on the credibility and trustworthiness of news.

The Trust Project at California’s Santa Clara University has identified the need for labels on content to identify news from opinion as a trust indicator. That project aims to create tools for readers to recognize trustworthy reporting and for platforms such as Google to identify and feature high quality journalism.

A working group of the California-based project has set out clear definitions for various types of content and recommends that news organizations be transparent in sharing those definitions with readers. Both its definitions and recommendation for transparency are aligned with the recommendations of the Star’s trust committee.

That group defines news as articles, “based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources…News reports do not incorporate the opinion of the author.”

Opinion articles “advocate for ideas and draw conclusions based on the author/producer’s interpretation of fact and data. Opinion pieces may include reported facts or quotes, but emphasize the author’s own thoughts, personal preferences and conclusions,” it states.

My opinion: these are smart recommendations critical for enhancing trust in journalism.

publiced@thestar.ca