Case Study 5: Afghan

USA Today and The New York Times both reported on a poll conducted by the Asia Foundation in Afghanistan in 2006. Paid for by the U.S. Agency for International Development, over 6,000 Afghans were polled on their concerns for their country and government. These two publications, however, took very different views on the poll's results: USA Today's was positive while The New York Times' view was negative. I believe both of these stories, while having positive aspects, lacked balance because of their overwhelmingly prevalent views on the results. The obvious views in these stories interest me because the type of reporting that was done to get this information was very similar: Both publications had the results of the poll, but USA Today also includes the thoughts of experts. I believe these insights are helpful to the reader because they give readers a basis for interpretation of all the numbers listed by USA Today. The average reader probably does not have a wide range of knowledge about Afghanistan, so these quotations are warranted. However, both of the experts have very negative views of the survey. A balanced news story would have both positive and negative views quoted from experts. Even though the voice of the USA Today reporter is positive concerning the survey, this does not balance out the negativity from the experts.
The New York Times article does not include any information from outside sources other than the results of the survey itself. The voice of the story is on the negative side, but I believe this article does a better job at deciphering the statistics for readers, rather than listing the results like USA Today did. The New York Times made the numbers tell a story rather than just telling the numbers to readers. Another positive of the story in the Times was the graphic that was included. Not everyone can interpret numbers simply by reading them, so adding this element made the interpretation of the survey easier for many readers.
Compiling these stories in class posed quite the challenge for me. I hadn't ever combined stories of this nature, and the fact that their views were completely opposite made the task that much more difficult. This challenge, however, turned into a learning experience for me. I had known about the importance of balanced reporting before, but completing this assignment truly highlighted the issue for me. Even large, successful papers such as USA Today and The New York Times have difficulty with this concept. As an editor and a reader, balanced reporting will definitely be at the forefront of my mind from now on.