Kendra Rae’s Ramblings

J. Patrick Coolican from the Las Vegas Sun explored the dangers of groupthink in his article, “The Perils of Political Narrative: One Reporter’s Story.” Coolican explores how groupthink has evolved and become a form of narrative, which has had both positive and negative impacts on the world of journalism from personal experience.

According to Coolican, groupthink as narrative is developed when: “A bunch of reporters and editors read on another’s dispatches, talk at events and on planes, and come to a rough consensus about where things stand and what’s important.”

I think this idea of groupthink is significant because it allows reporters to gather and ultimately print the same information so that no one is singled out for printing the wrong information; however, if all newspapers print the same thing, people will no longer have a need for a variety of news sources. Not only would most newspapers go out of business, but I believe our Democracy would be put at stake because there would be less diversified information available for people to interpret and formulate their own opinions.

It is imperative that journalists avoid joining the groupthink craze. This is because it is our job as journalists to remain skeptic, until we have several sources that prove our statements are true. If we fail to do so, we may be caught in the same predicament that Coolican was when he printed that Obama would likely win Nevada’s caucus, when in the end Clinton was the winner.

So what should political reporters of the future do to avoid being sucked into journalistic groupthink? Besides remaining skeptic, I think Coolican has provided an adequate solution to this issue.

“We out to be analyzing what the candidates propose and whether they possess the skills and character traits to get it done,” Coolican said. “The rest should be left to voters. It’s their groupthink that matters.”

How can reporters look beyond the political narrative to create new and interesting topics that have not already been covered?

How can political journalists make themselves stand out as individuals in the groupthink culture? How are journalists individually recognized for their achievements if they are apart of a group think culture?