An Argumentative Approach to Map the Issue of Impartiality in Newsmaking and Factchecking

Abstract

News organizations are constantly attacked with accusations of lack of impartiality, but a shared understanding of the notion is missing. Combining corpus analysis with a focus group with practitioners, we unpack the impartiality conundrum, distinguishing its scope over the news product and the newsmaking process. The results show that while the impartiality of the first is not always a value, an impartial newsmaking process is key for a healthy information ecosystem.