Here on the College of Journalism website, we stress how important it is to read (and watch and listen) with a sceptical mind. All that a newspaper article (or TV package etc) can ever tell you is what the journalist was thinking when they put their story together.
This story from the Birmingham Mail illustrates the learning perfectly. It shows something else too - something I always teach in my face-to-face sessions on Originality. That it's at least as important to read the end of a story as it is to read the beginning. The end is where journalists - perhaps straining to be 'fair' - hide or skate by the uncomfortable facts.
Take the headline here:
"Balloons considered a safety risk by Solihull Council"
Not in itself untrue, as we'll see ... but, like any good headline, it's trying to 'set' the story so we, the audience, know how to read it. It tells us this story is drawn from the bucket called 'health and safety gone mad'. We can safely tut and roll our eyes before we even embark on the lead par which reads:
"Solihull Council has been condemned by the town's MP for threatening a couple with legal action for displaying balloons outside their shop."
That's code for 'every story needs a top line, so we phoned the local MP who obliged us'. Again, it's not untrue ... but it's not quite the story, either.
The article continues with quotes from the shopkeeper couple (it's "officialdom gone mad") and references to the hard times shopkeepers are having with the recession.
Of course, most readers will have bailed out by now, their views of officialdom and 'the health and safety dictators' confirmed before they get to this. A quote from the local council:
"We are not banning balloons, we are simply trying to take a common sense approach to keeping one of borough's busiest streets as clear and useable for everyone.
This has arisen because, despite Mr and Mrs Betts having a permit to place one 'A-board' on the pavement outside their shop, they have been placing three, blocking the way for pedestrians, people with prams, people in wheelchairs etc."
So ... hang on. This isn't about balloons at all (though the council DID ask the shopkeeper couple to take down some balloons they'd tied to a lampost). It's about someone cluttering the pavement - as some would see it - with three times the number of A-boards they agreed with the council.
OK ... so a trivial example. At the end of it all, no-one's hurt. But it's an excellent illustration of how important it is to read those last three pars of any story - the place where the uncomfortable facts are given a brief acknowledgement - if you want to know where to start with asking your own questions.
