ABSTRACT

Using Natural Language Processing tools, the current study explores the evolution of objectivity practice in terms of attitude injection. Adopting the indicator of moral loading under the Moral Foundation Theory framework, it examined the moral judgments embedded in 20,679 culture war news articles published in five major U.S. newspapers from 1980 to 2021. Our findings revealed a distinct mixed journalistic liberal pattern and an apparent paradox in objectivity practice: the less moral judgments, the more liberal tendencies, which could be caused by journalists’ watchdog role and the increase of liberal components in U.S. democracy. We then argue that the performance of traditional objectivity has remained robust, especially when accounting for the degree to which moral judgments can be attributed to source quotations. The study contributes to the literature by bridging moral psychology and the enactment of journalistic norms, applying MFT to evaluate degrees of objectivity in news.

摘要

使用自然语言处理工具，当前的研究探索了态度注入方面客观实践的演变。采用道德基础理论框架下的道德负荷指标，研究了 1980 年至 2021 年美国五家主要报纸发表的 20,679 篇文化战争新闻文章中嵌入的道德判断。我们的研究结果揭示了一个明显的混合新闻自由模式和一个明显的悖论客观性实践：道德判断越少，自由倾向越多，这可能是由于记者的监督作用和美国民主中自由成分的增加所致。然后，我们认为传统客观性的表现一直保持强劲，尤其是在考虑到道德判断可归因于来源引文的程度时。