COMMENT | You skim the headlines. You see the photos. Then you read the news. But do you think about what you have read? Or how journalists decide what to write, and what to ask?

The fact is journalists know more than what they are able to write about to set the agenda. Due to space limitations, they highlight certain issues and underplay others. They seek reactions from sources – often returning to familiar contacts. You see this routine in the political stories.

But journalists are not infallible observers and interpreters. Their power to raise the quality of current public discourse is limited. Like us, journalists are swayed by their unspoken inclinations and inherent biases.

These are reinforced by the commercial/political affiliation and culture of the news organisation they work for. Hence, you see variations of emphases in the headlines, news content, news sources and editorial slants in the mainstream media and alternative news outlets.

From past government clampdowns on the media, our journalists have also learned to self-censor on the job. It, therefore, falls on media users to force the issues and do the extra legwork to arrive nearer to the ‘truth’...