Advocacy Journalism

Advocacy journalism is a term used to describe the use of journalism techniques to “advocate” for a specific point of view. It deliberately promotes a particular social or political cause with the use of legitimate facts, unlike propaganda. As opposed to objective journalists, advocacy journalists are completely open about their opinions and do not present the material to the readers in an objective fashion. “Arguably, advocacy journalists serve the public interest in a similar way to muckrakers or whistle-blowers." 

In Western Europe, advocacy journalism is the norm, and while in the United States objective journalism is what is expected of reporters, it is safe to say that no piece of written political material is ever entirely neutral in nature. Take CNN and FOX for example, these are news outlets that claim to be objective, but it is clear that each of these lean towards a certain political party. 

Although advocacy journalism comes into conflict with objective journalism, which is a key focus in American journalism,  objectivity is certainly found in Western European media also.  Some examples of advocacy journalism in Western Europe include the Italian newspaper called Il Manifesto, which openly recognizes that it is a “communist newspaper philosophically but does not associate with any party and operates as a workers' cooperative”.

Spain has guaranteed freedom of the press for a relatively short time and many news sources have yet to isolate themselves from the influence of the government. As I mentioned above, it is almost impossible to present news in a completely neutral way without some kind of bias. The current situation in Spain with The protests and riots taking place in important cities of Spain regarding the government and it effects among the people have given advocacy journalists much to write about.

Educational television programs and public news are funded by the state in the majority of Western European countries. Disputes over the independence of public broadcasting are frequent and it is inevitable that all public broadcasting systems are subject to some kind of political influence. So much so, that in some countries the political party with the most influence over the people can directly control what is being broadcasted to the extent of broadcasting material that is directly beneficial to that particular party at crucial moments.

**References:

http://www.markfoster.net/sociosphere/aj.html

"Advocacy Journalism : The International Encyclopedia of Communication : International Encyclopedia of Communication Online." International Encyclopedia of Communication Online: Home. Web. 29 June 2010. http://www.communicationencyclopedia.com/public/tocnode?id=g9781405131995_chunk_g97814051319956_ss29-1.