Transparency is the new objectivity

Gone are the days when a handful of trusted, legacy media organizations communicate to the masses. Now anyone can create content, and anyone can distribute it.

Digital media changed the journalistic landscape.

Journalists, then, bear significant responsibility when conveying information through story.

“(We’re in) a time when it demands more than ever that you use your own ingenuity and own imagination to create a space for your voice in the world. Know something that people want to know about, say something that people have an interest in understanding – most important, be authentic and be fair,” says Brooke Gladstone, the award-winning radio host.

Gladstone visited the Moody College of Communication on Thursday, Oct. 11 as the keynote lecture for Moody’s Honors Program, which welcomed its inaugural cohort this fall.

Best known as the co-host and managing editor of “On the Media,” a nationally-syndicated radio show that asks insightful, informed questions about current events, politics and the workings of media and culture, Gladstone was a fitting professional example of the intellectual curiosity and critical thinking the Honors Program aims to foster among its students.

Dean Jay Bernhardt said Gladstone brings to light the big questions facing society and how “communication plays an important role in solving them.”

Gladstone said the media have to work to re-establish trust with readers, viewers and listeners.

“Transparency is the new objectivity,” she said.

And journalists can engage the audience by revealing their reporting process and explaining how their thinking developed during the storytelling process.

“Whether you’re telling a story in Instagram, or in a podcast, or in a printed piece, longform essay, the whole point is to make use of the tools available to tell something with texture, fairness and accuracy,” Gladstone said.