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Critic's Corner Discuss a review. Provide constructive feedback. Talk to the industry. |
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Critic's Corner Discuss a review. Provide constructive feedback. Talk to the industry. |
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In Reply to: "It is wired into their subconscious and in the air they breathe" posted by Rob Doorack on February 29, 2012 at 16:56:39:
I'm sorry you took a broad characterization of journalism generally (i.e. not confined to audio) as some sort of personal swipe. That wasn't my intent. While I may not be the most articulate writer in the world I would venture that reading my post as such was a considerable leap.My friend's point, and I assure you that he is quite real, was that journalism, short of straight forward recounting of confirmed facts with no editorial comments, is inherently incapable of being unbiased and objective. It is by nature interpretive and the journalist will always bring his baggage (social, cultural, political, economic, emotional, etc.) into that interpretation. John Atkinson's measurements might have some claim to objectivity (I am not suggesting that they tell the whole story only that measurements, per se, can be relatively objective). Subjective reviews are inherently and inescapably biased. Any suggestion that a reviewer can completely wall off how he feels about the company, designer or importer completely defies both common sense and all available research. To offer another example of how bias can creep in example let us say that a reviewer is assigned to review a Dynavector DV20x2 but the reviewer has heard and was mightily impressed by the Dynavector DRT XV-1t. Would you really have us believe that that impression plus thoughts that "maybe I could afford/justify an XV-1t at half retail" never colors the review of the 20x2? The reviewer obviously is aware that a bad review of the 20 might cut off his access to accommodation pricing or an extended loan of a XV-1t. The intrusion of bias doesn't have to be a conscious process.
If we contrast audio journalism with a really good food/restaurant reviewer (yes, I'm well aware that most don't meet the following description), the food critic comes into the restaurant anonymously, pays for their meal at the same price everyone else pays (yes, they may expense the meal to the publication) and doesn't hang out with the cooks, servers or owner. In the best of all possible worlds the critic will also have some fairly serious cooking experience and/or training to inform their subjective interpretation. All this doesn't make the food reviewer objective but it at least reduces some obvious avenues for bias.
Until we can measure far better than we can today there will be room for subjective audio reviewers but claims of complete freedom from bias just makes the reviewing community look either rather simple or disingenuous. Speaking only for myself I tend to credence the comments of people who post here like Duke LeJeune, Bob Neill or Ozzy as much or more than most people with an (R) after their name in part because they make no claim to not being biased and make their biases quite public.
"There are political consequences to remembering things that never happened and forgetting things that did." Ariel Levy
Edits: 03/01/12 03/01/12
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Follow Ups
- RE: "It is wired into their subconscious and in the air they breathe" - plantsman 04:14:31 03/01/12 (7)
- Congratulations! - Rob Doorack 20:33:41 03/02/12 (4)
- Okay, I'm starting to lean toward simple - plantsman 02:42:56 03/03/12 (3)
- Shorter Plantsman: "I still can't explain how trade discounts cause false reviews" - Rob Doorack 18:32:55 03/03/12 (0)
- There are no unbiased experts. - Tony Lauck 15:08:56 03/03/12 (0)
- RE: Okay, I'm starting to lean toward simple - Analog Scott 09:31:15 03/03/12 (0)
- RE: "It is wired into their subconscious and in the air they breathe" - JNS 13:31:54 03/02/12 (1)
- RE: "It is wired into their subconscious and in the air they breathe" - Rob Doorack 19:28:39 03/02/12 (0)
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