Digital News Report 2026. Episode 6: Does the public want impartial news?

Thanks for having me.

So definitions first, as always, Rasmus.

What do we mean when we use the term impartial news?

So I think here it's important to stress, as we always do, that the digital news report is about the public's conception of news and journalism, how they use it, how they think of it, how they judge it.

So in this context, really, we're interested in people's perception of and preferences for either news sources that seek to not adopt a particular point of view or news sources that take an explicit point of view on current affairs.

So the background is a rich and deep and complicated discussion in professional journalism, in scholarly work around the ethics and philosophy and values of news and media, where I think this is the simplest way to think about it, again, is the idea that there are some news outlets that aspire to what is often called impartiality.

The term is, I think, particularly important in the UK, where it's part of the regulatory environment and it's part of the mission statement of the BBC.

But sometimes it's also expressed in other ways through, for example, the Reuters news agency's commitment to the trust principles of independence, integrity, or freedom from bias.

So these organizations that are very explicit about the desire to not take sides on major issues of the day, no matter how divisive, no matter how controversial, no matter how clear some of us individually might think the issue at hand is, morally, politically, or otherwise, versus other outlets that are very explicit and clear that they do take a side.

A prominent example of this is The Guardian, the UK newspaper that has, amongst its stated goals, to be the world's leading liberal voice.

This is not an outlet that purports to be impartial.

This is an outlet that's very clear about its editorial position and its underlying worldview.

And it's, of course, not alone.

Historically, many newspapers have been explicitly partisan in their editorial line.

In America, it's perhaps most prominently associated with cable television and talk radio, and of course, online too.

We see many voices, both journalistic news media and others that are very clear about their line and their view of the world and make no attempts to present themselves as impartial, even as others still hew to that notion or have committed to it as they entered this digital media environment.

I was going to ask what the alternatives to impartial news are, but I think you've explained that a little bit.