Transparency = Objectivity (In 2010)

After reading blogger David Weinberger's piece, I must say I'm both surprised and greatly encouraged by this new shift that has affected journalistic standards. In the golden age of print, no journalistic standard was more lauded than objectivity, which was used by journalists to mask their true views. Weinberger writes, "objectivity - even as an unattainable goal - served an important role in how we came to trust information, and in the economics of newspapers in the modern age." With the rise of the Internet, however, objectivity is no longer the revered golden cow to be worshiped; rather, it's transparency, the once taboo journalistic practice.

The Internet has made every media outlet - whether they want to be or not - transparent. This transparency, once something print journalists feared, is now seen in some circles as not only a good thing, but a necessary move. As Weinberger writes, "What we used to believe because we thought the author was objective we now believe because we can see through the author's writings to the sources and values that brought her to that position." Indeed, the endless pit of information on the Internet makes it increasingly harder to be objective.

So how does transparency show itself on the Internet? The answer: through independent bloggers, in the form of links. Rather than hide their political leanings, bloggers now, when writing politically partisan pieces, post links that further explain their points. "Transparency prospers in a linked medium," Weinberger writes, "for you can literally see the connections between the final draft's claims and the ideas that informed it." By being transparent, bloggers are gaining credibility because they're striving for accuracy, and not the bland, middle-of-the-road objectivity of yesteryear.

I'm all for it.