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CSPA is affiliated with the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University in the City of New York.

By Katherine Reedy

In the code of journalistic ethics, one of the most important aims is to decrease bias. Bias is a slant in your reporting that comes from personal opinion, misrepresentation of facts, or untrustworthy sources. Here are some ways to check if your article is biased.

Opinion – While most newspapers have an editorial section as well as a news section, you should try to distance the two sides as much as possible. At large newspapers, a separate staff works on the news and opinion pages. At smaller papers, it is alright to use the same staff, but keep in mind that opinions should not influence news articles.

Personal bias – When reporting an article, you should take into account any personal feelings you have towards the subject. If you’re writing about how much you dislike the math department, and you personally hate math, then you should try to keep this in mind. For example, newspapers may not allow you to join a club and then also report on it. This is in order to decrease bias.

Misrepresentation – When you use statistics or other data, check to make sure they make sense and are not examples of false information. If you read a study that says 90% of students have red hair, for instance, and you can see that this is not the case, then you should be skeptical of that data.

Sources – There are several things to keep in mind when you are dealing with sources. First, try not to use friends for quotes, since they may only tell you what you want to hear. Second, don’t accept favors from people who want to get their story in the paper. Third, try to get exact quotes. Fourth, listen for whether or not the source is trying to hide something.