The function of balance in US news coverage of uncontested issues: The case of female genital cutting

Abstract

Most research on reporter practices examines coverage of contested topics. These require reporters to demonstrate objectivity by counterposing authoritative sources representing opposing sides. I examine news articles about a topic uncontested in the USA, female genital cutting (FGC), to complicate our understanding of how reporters do their job. In contrast to the literature, reporters strike a balance, including the ‘general public’ of FGC-practicing communities extensively. However, because the balance is confined to non-authoritative speakers ‘over there’, the balance nonetheless serves to stigmatize proponents. This research shows that the negative portrayal of members of FGC-practicing communities is due not only to their erasure in news coverage. Instead, whether standing translates into influence depends on context, something reporters can manipulate when there is consensus. Likewise, the separation of topics into contested and uncontested erases the ways in which controversy is not a characteristic of issues, but a function of reporter decisions.

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