Decision Making and Truth Seeking.
In regards to this passage I read on page 22 of Chapter 02 in Information Ethics: A Profession Seeks the Truth:
This Enlightenment view of truth undergirds the journalistic ideal of objectivity. Objectivity has its intellectual roots in the previous three hundred years. While objectivity has many definitions, it may be considered, most simply, a mechanism that allows journalists to divorce fact from opinion. Journalists view objectivity as refusing to allow individual bias to influence what they report or how they cover it. It it a journalism in which all facts and people are regarded as equal and equally worthy of coverage. Culture, an individual sense of mission, and and individual and organizational feelings and views do not belong in objective news accounts. An Enlightenment view of truth allowed objectivity to be considered an attainable ideal.
(underline is my own)
It is true that journalists should regard all people as well as fact equally. I think it is wonderful that in covering these stories, people from all over the world are able to learn news that can effect them. However, it appears to me that most of the global major new stories are conducted in English. I think similar cases would be how scientific research papers are written in English, and how most schools around the world encourage learning the English language. In a sense, I think this is part of the "cultural" umbrella. If things were taught in another language, I know that there would be a slightly different variety in topics of focus. For example, family prosperity might be more emphasized than self-made millionaires, just because the English language itself lacks words for certain ideas but has a wide vocabulary for others. Although culture does affect our perception of things (and therefore our objectivity), I think it is important to acknowledge just how much we are effected by it.
I met a pleasant agreement when I read --further into the chapter in "Defining and Constructing the News"--cultural values and professional norms are noted: "Those values and norms, often at odds with an Enlightenment concept of truth, lend themselves to a pragmatic version of the news, provided you remember who's doing the writing and story selection." This is in line with the postmodern philosophy that "context is literally everything". Examples the chapter gives that I hadn't even realized before included how "routine coverage of elections in Britain or Israel is conveyed in horse-race metaphors even though both countries employ a parliamentary system where governing coalitions are common and who wins the horse race not nearly so important." This is a concrete example of my first reaction in reading the Enlightenment view on objectivity.
Separating yourself from biases is difficult, but the least you can do is recognize and admit them.
Also, I'd like to note that I think most people would agree with philosopher William David Ross (1930) in this ethical theories as defined by these proposed six types of duties:
1. Those duties that rest on previous acts of my own: duties of fidelity, based on my implicit or explicit promise, and duties of reparation, arising from a previous wrongful act.
2. Those duties of gratitude that rest on previous acts of others.
3. Those duties of justice that arise from the necessity to ensure the equitable and meritorious distribution of pleasure or happiness.
4. Those duties of beneficence that rest on the fact that there are others in the world whose lot we can better.
5. Those duties of self-improvement that rest on the fact that we can improve our own condition.
6. One negative duty: the duty of not injuring others.
I know I've tended follow these ethical guidelines in my life decisions.
The ethical news values of accuracy, tenacity, dignity, reciprocity, sufficiency, equity, community and diversity are all worthwhile pursuits.