[Foundation-l] Narrative vs. Selective bias

Mon Jan 30 08:22:47 UTC 2006

Narrative vs. Selective bias - the analogy

Let's say I'm an author and I'm writing a novel. I choose a style of 
storytelling in which the narrator is "neutral", i.e. the narrator does 
not make judgments about or criticize the characters or scenarios in the 
story. For example, the book will not feature statements like:

     And then Eve, with her usual unbearable manner, replied "I think 
you're just being ridiculous".

Instead:

     And then Eve replied: "I think you're just being ridiculous".

In my book, the narrator is neutral, as the narrator is not involved in 
interpreting the story. Therefore it may be correctly stated that the 
book is written from a neutral point of view. However, me, the author, 
is far from neutral, as I choose to show different aspects of the 
characters and scenarios, but not others, that might have shown them in 
a different light if I chose otherwise. Thus, me, the author, is 
selectively biased.

-

This is a critical distinction between two completely different aspects 
of unbiased writing. "Narrative bias" - bias that stems from how the 
text is narrated, regardless of what facts are presented i.e. narrating 
views. And "Selective bias" - bias that naturally stems from the 
selection of facts - selecting views.

The current formulation of the Neutral point of view policy does not 
make the above distinction clear, thus leading one to believe that 
eliminating narrative bias (judgments about views) will make the article 
itself unbiased.

To put it in another way, the policy suggests a journalist is unbiased 
in his/her reports, just because they are not making any interpretations 
of the facts they (consciously) choose to present.