Before this week I had heard of white papers, but I never really knew what they were. While there are some different types of white papers, such as a government white paper, or a marketing white paper, they all have the same basic goal in mind. They all try to inform the audience about an issue and the possible solutions.
The different types of white papers go about this in different ways though. A government white paper seems like it is more objective and seeks only to educate its audiences about an issue and its solutions. It does this by listing many of the solutions and including both the pros and cons of them. A marketing white paper also tries to help inform its audience about an issue, but instead of providing pros and cons of a viable solution, it will instead try to show potential customers why that companies product is the solution they need. A companies marketing white paper for one of its products may not be as objective and neutral as a government white paper, but ideally it should still be just as informative and insightful.
Whether government or marketing, white papers still are primarily used to give decision makers the information and analysis they need to make a decision. No matter what type of white paper it is, or what the context is, as long as it is well written, it should be a source of unbiased information and analysis.
The different contexts in which they can be used, covered in "The Steak behind the Sizzle", offers insight into the benefits a company can get from a well written white paper. It can do everything from helping sell their product, to just simply informing other employees in the company about the new product.
Government White Papers
I agree with you that government white papers seem to be more objective than marketing documents. However I think they also have the potential to steer readers one way over the others. In marketing white papers, the writer tries to steer the reader toward their own products. In government, there are no products, but the writers will have personal points of view. If an issue is important enough to write a white paper about, then the writer most likely has a strong opinion about it and could even use it to persuade others more toward his or her viewpoint. Not necessarily by lying, but possibly by leaving off some statistics that reflect positively on the non-prefered standpoint. Think about anti-abortionists sending out a white paper about abortion. How fair do you think that would be. While it isn't exactly right or accepted, I am sure that white papers attempt to steer people one way or another more often than most people believe, just because of the bias of the writers. I think this is one thing we need to watch out for when writing our white papers for this project and not include our own biases in the paper.
Bias & White Papers
I agree with you, Bill. I think that often white papers may get skewed from the writers even without them meaning to, as well. If there's a lack of information about the other side, or even if the writer has to make choices about which information to include and which to leave out (which they inevitably will), the paper can end up leaning towards one side or another. It seems as though you might run across topics where it would be unreasonable to include every scrap of information about a given topic in one document. No one would ever read it all!
Kristin
White Paper Bias
I have to imagine that some White Papers written for the government are definitely biased. I mean the government makes decisions that affect everyone in the country, and not always in a positive way. I am sure everyone in the class can think of things they would love to change about the government. Now if these people were given a chance to write a White Paper about an important issue for the government to base their decision on, there probably aren’t too many people who could write it completely unbiased. I know a government White Paper is a genre of White Papers, but it was just to illustrate that most real world White Paper will be biased in some way.
A more hidden bias
Any group or person who aims to control things will always aim to persuade people into some belief attitude or value. This is the very nature of government. You persuade someone or something into following a common ground. Then this is the person or thing you vote on, or in some sad cases are forced upon your own will to believe. So it is hard to see some sort of government paper as completely unbiased. There just always seems to be a hidden truth that is usually just a little harder to pick out as far as government papers go.