La objetividad periodística en campaña electoral

Resumen

Conventional academic wisdom assures that objectivity, is impossible in any kind of discourse. However, políticians continue to impose codes of objectivity to control the news; and journalists seek to follow professional routines which reflect a balanced approach to the news. Comparative newsroom observation carried out in both private and public networks during a national electoral campaign shows how theories of objectivity influence news content. On the one part, the codes imposed by políticians to the public service follow an «old theory» of objectivity in line with the liberal assumption of the neutral state. On the other, the private network, closer to the «new theory» of objectivity, proposed by the American movement public Journalism, provides a closer to audience campaign coverage. Newsroom observation shows that «codes of objectivity» imposed by políticians are a party-consensus formula that clashes with journalistic professional values.