Most purveyors of news have claimed the values impartiality, neutrality, and objectivity, despite the inherent difficulty of reporting without political bias.[19] However, perception of these values has changed greatly over time. Michael Schudson has argued that, before the era of World War I and the concommitant rise of propaganda, journalists were not aware of the concept of bias in reporting, let alone actively correcting for it.[20] News is also sometimes said to portray the truth, but this relationship is elusive and qualified.[21]
Paradoxically, another property commonly attributed to news is sensationalism, the disproportionate focus on, and exaggeration of, emotive stories for public consumption.[22][23] Thus news is also not unrelated to gossip, the human practice of sharing information about other humans of mutual interest.[24] A common sensational topic is violence; hence another news dictum, “if it bleeds, it leads”.[25]
