To standards in journalism-'objectivity,' and so on-they are really talking about a set of conventions that have been created in this country over the past fifty years or so. These conventions tell the journalist how to write, and the reader how to read, a news story in an American newspaper. They set out what sort of information should go in the lead, who should be quoted in reference to what, and so on. As newspaper readers, we are so accustomed to these conventions that we barely notice them anymore. But their effect is to allow the reporter and the reader to share certain markers. You as the reader cannot be certain that what you are reading is 'the truth'; you cannot be certain that it is 'objective' in any real sense. But you can be sure that the reporter will interview certain people and ask certain questions, that he will go about constructing the written account in a certain way, and that certain standards of accuracy and, if you like, fairness will be observed" (Lapham et al. 1985, pp. 40-41).

XREF: Connects to debates about media criticism and the socially constructed nature of objectivity, echoing similar claims by scholars of journalism studies.

Shapiro, Susan P., The Social Control of Imper…, loc. 74