Consistency

We talk a lot in journalism about the importance of accuracy, and about impartiality and objectivity. But we rarely talk about consistency - reliability of judgement and selection. Journalism, of course, is an art not a science. News by quota would be dull and dry in comparison to the colourful skills and wiles of an editor. And news is relative - to what else has happened and to the context in which something has happened. I have spent a professional lifetime making those arguments and they are still all true. But increasingly I think they are not enough.

Why does one murder get saturation coverage and another similar one not get reported at all? Why are economic figures which affect all of us sometimes treated as optional filler material, not part of the regular diet? Why is news weak at reporting process in comparison to reporting events (when process may determine the long term changes in the world)? We can all come up with answers.

But when information is increasingly commodotised, and transparency is expected, I think consistency of judgement is going to become much more important in news. Consistency = reliability = trust. Perhaps that's why some people prefer a Google algorithm to a newsroom of hacks.