Is there anything that is truly “objective” in our world?  Can a news organization really be “fair and balanced”?  These may seem like noble ideals for reporting on the world around us, but if the standards are often a bit out of reach for most mortals it’s probably better to try for a more human approach.  That’s what I’m going to suggest works best for internet based reporting of any kind.

Many people will tell you that Citizen Journalists must adhere to the same standards as professional journalists, the most important of which is Objectivity.  The basic operating principle is that you must provide your reader with all of the information on a topic, not just one side.  In practice, this has come to be a formulaic process where exactly two sides are written up for every topic no matter how otherwise obvious or mundane it appears to be.  Every left has a right, every scientist has a faith-based counter, every up has a down.

Why shouldn’t everyone use this standard?  The main reason why some people will tell you not to bother is that it gets boring.  The internet thrives on spicy details and inflammatory writing that incites.  That may seem like reason enough to abandon the standard, but the real reason I think that Objectivity is not worth attempting is that it’s almost never achieved.  If you claim you are being “objective” without actually hitting the mark, aren’t you just buying your own BS?  It seems to me that “objectivity” is a judgment in itself, a mark that your readers can give you but you cannot give yourself.

Most reporting in pro media isn’t really all that objective.  If, for example, there is a traffic accident, you don’t have much to report other than the details of the incident.  You can only tell the world what you saw, and any attempts at creating controversy by bringing in another side are not actually “objective” – they insert the reporter deeper into the story than they should be.

If you write just what you see and hear, keeping in mind the details that make a story useful, you are more of a Blank Slate than any kind of “objective” reporter.  Yes, this will necessarily be from your perspective – but if you are honest about where you are coming from it shouldn’t matter.  If you clearly state your perspective, which is usually why you care about the topic in the first place, it should be enough.  If there’s any value to the internet it’s that perspectives not usually heard from are added to a larger mix of news.

This standard may seem ridiculous when it comes to “writing to convince”.  If you want to bring people over to your side, isn’t your opinion what really matters?  No, not at all.  You developed the opinion you have for a reason – why not trust your readers to reach the same conclusion once you lay everything out as you saw it?

Think of it as “Show, don’t tell,” which makes the point all the more obvious when done properly.  If your opponents are loons, let them say their own piece in a way that any reasonable person would see it just the way you do.  Give the world what you know, but do it in a way that invites people to be on your side.  Always trust that your audience will write the story in their head, assuming you have the craft of writing down well.

The principle of being a “Blank Slate” might also seem boring, of course, but it doesn’t have to be.  Presenting just what you see and hear should make the reader want to know even more about the topic.  Focus on what was interesting about the story or, if you can, where the situation took a terrific left-turn away from reality and shot off into Bizarro World.  That’s what many situations which genuinely need Citizen Journalism have at the heart of them in the first place.

Writing as a Blank Slate is a good approach to take because it is, first of all, completely honest.  Telling it as you saw it and where you are coming from means that you have nothing to apologize for, even if the obvious conclusions seem a bit slanted or skewed.

Sometimes there just isn’t anything that makes any sense from where you are standing than how you feel about a topic.  If nothing else, your readers probably aren’t all that different from you.  If they are, it’ll make a good discussion in your comments or other interactive parts of your blog – but that’s what ultimately makes for good writing on the internet.