Achieving Balance in Your Articles: From Sources to Headlines

How liberal, conservative or neutral a newspaper is might be important to you in choosing if a newsroom is right for you, especially when you're just starting out.

Richard Benedetto, national political correspondent for USA Today, addressed this topic when I met him at a forum in college. By the way, he's one of the most charismatic, intelligent and articulate people I've ever encountered.

Anyhow, although thorough research and reading editorial pages helps, Benedetto offered a specific way of determining a newspaper's leaning.

He suggested that readers cut out all the headlines in a newspaper, and place them into categories: liberal, neutral and conservative. Whichever pile has the highest number will probably indicate its bias, according to Benedetto.

I thought it was a really smart idea.

If you don't have the time to cut out each headline, you could probably achieve the same by going through a newspaper and placing tallies in the three categories on a piece of paper. Either way, I think Benedetto's idea is worth practicing, if bias is a concern to you.

On the topic of bias, when you're writing, make sure there's accurate and balanced representation from as many people as necessary. Not just when there's two opposing sides but even if you're covering a fairly mundane topic, such as a book review, it's good to have the voices as well-rounded as possible. For instance, you would obviously talk with the author, but consider talking with a couple of readers, the publisher and maybe even bookstores so you can encompass various takes on the topic.

So how many voices do you put in a story?

I would say three different people are standard.

Of course, it depends on a lot of variables such as availability, article length and nature of the story. For instance, in breaking news for a big metro, you may only be able to get two reliable voices in the allotted time.

And sometimes in a feature--although lengthier--two strong sources really can carry the entire piece, if the reporting is solid. For others, numerous voices (much more than three) are necessary, because the story emphasizes a need for diverse viewpoints (like a political issue).

If you can get a lot of voices--great. But at the same time, you don't want to your article to sound like a series of quotes or a long string of attribution. And just because you do 10 interviews, doesn't mean you have to quote every one of them.

The most recent article of mine that ran this week had three voices. It was a story on a regional swim championship. I had highlighted one particular female athlete and enclosed a quote from her, her coach and her teammate.

It's really up to each reporter's discretion, but three is generally a good number to enclose.