Project Censored Fights Newspaper Bias
Organization Reports the News That Didn’t Make the Headlines
May 10, 2009
News reporting is a commercial venture. News organizations today are under pressure to produce news that is intriguing and will draw the most viewers and readers. This results in unintentional bias in the news due to constraints of time, space, and pressures of corporate sponsors.
Project Censored, founded in 1976 by Carl Jensen, is a media research program run through the Sonoma State University Sociology Department. For over 30 years it has evaluated and presented news to the public that is overlooked or swept aside. Project Censored has a goal of making the public aware of news stories that didn’t make it to the press. It trains people in First Amendment rights and freedom of speech issues.
How Project Censored Works
Each year, Project Censored receives many articles and news reports from journalists and other concerned citizens. These articles are reviewed by student researchers and faculty to determine the accuracy and validity of the news, as well as its level of importance.
Once an article has been reviewed, 25 stories are sent to a panel of judges who rank them in order of importance. These news stories are published in the book: Censored: The News That Didn’t Make the News. The top 25 stories for the current year and previous years are available online at the Project Censored website.
Importance of Project Censored
Reported news is intentionally and unintentionally censored in different ways, including pressure from advertising sponsors, limitations in time, or space, and legal issues. When time and space are at a premium, stories are chosen for publication based on their level of importance. This is a subjective choice, depending on who is producing the news.
Project Censored works to make some of these overlooked news stories available for public consumption. To become informed and literate in world news, a person must have access to a wide array of information.
Citizen Journalism
The concerned citizens of the world are now using modern technology to report news as it happens. Using cell phones, digital recording equipment, and computers, and publishing to social networking sites, they are able to make news interactive and immediate. It’s important to remember that citizen journalists may not be trained in reporting techniques, so personal bias may creep into these reports.
The growth in citizen journalism is evidence that the public desires to know all of the news. People no longer want the big media corporations deciding what is fit for public consumption, what is important and what is not. By becoming advocates of free speech through action, they are helping to make more news available to all. Project Censored is one more way the public can access censored news.
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