Transcript How Journalists Report the News, Bennett

In-Class Discussion
• Compare Petersen’s and Mead’s websites
• Image and style
• Issue stances
• Presentation, framing, communication strategies
• Newspaper portrayal of candidates
• Opinion
• Which website is better? More organized? Visually appealing?
More informative?
• If you had to vote just based on websites, who won?
• Who will win the election and why?
HOW JOURNALISTS
REPORT THE NEWS
Bennett, Ch. 5
Dr. Kristen Landreville
Mon. 9/20, Wed. 9/22, Fri. 9/24
Reporting Patterns
• Report official lines of the day
• Play “gotcha” with newsmakers
Explanation for Reporting Patterns
1. Economics: Moneymaking in the news business (Ch. 7)
2. Dependence: Reliance on newsmakers and
communication strategists (Ch. 4)
3. Organizational routines: Routine news-gathering
practices (Ch. 5)
4. Professional norms: Codes of conduct (Ch. 6)
Benefits of Organizational Routines
• News is defined in similar ways across media
• News sources cooperate
• Daily information sharing with coworkers
• News organizations produce a product on schedule
• News reports moral issues with diversity
3 Pitfalls of Organizational Routines
1. Cooperation: Reporters are pressured to cooperate with
news sources.
2. Standardization: Reporters are pressured to
standardize.
3. Pack Mentality: Reporters are pressured to agree.
1. Reporters & Officials:
Cooperation and Control
Pressures that Reporters Feel
• Short deadlines
• Demanding editors
• Reliance on officials
• Persuasive news sources
• Sympathetic relationships
with officials
• Punishment by officials for
failing
Result = Insider Journalism
• Pseudo-events: Formulaic
plot for most political
stories:
Which official did what official
action?
in what official setting?
for what officially-stated
purpose?
and with what officially
proclaimed results?
2. Reporters & News Organizations:
Pressures to Standardize
Pressures that Reporters Face
• Editors’ watchful eyes
Result = Standardized Practices
• Coverage of pseudo-
• Mysterious decisions from
editors
• Need to fill the “news
hole”
• Closing bureaus and firing
reporters to cut costs
•
•
•
•
events
Reliance on PR
Fluff stories on slow news
days
Beat reporters
Breaking news events
reported with formulas
3.Reporters & Packs:
Pressures to Agree
Social Pressures Reporters Face
Result = Pack Journalism
• Reporters eat, travel,
• Compare notes
drink, and socialize
together.
• Waiting, waiting, waiting
• Tight deadlines
• Editors question
departures from formula
• Corroborate story angles
• Formulaic plotlines
• Feeding frenzies
HOW JOURNALISTS
REPORT THE NEWS
Bennett, Ch. 5
Dr. Kristen Landreville
Mon. 9/20, Wed. 9/22, Fri. 9/24
In-Class Assignment #7
• Let’s review the benefits and pitfalls of organizational
routines that journalists follow.
• Benefits team
• Pitfalls teams
• Go to board and list the respective reasons under each
Review of Organizational Routines
Benefits
Pitfalls
• Fawn
• Alexa
• Chris
• Casey
• Britney
• Grant
• Michael
• Andrew
• AJ
• Jeremiah
• Zak
• Kelsey
• John
• Dalton
• Matthew
• Max
Benefits of Organizational Routines
• News is defined in similar ways across media
• News sources cooperate
• Daily information sharing with coworkers
• News organizations produce a product on schedule
• News reports moral issues with diversity
3 Pitfalls of Organizational Routines
1. Cooperation: Reporters are pressured to cooperate with
news sources.
2. Standardization: Reporters are pressured to
standardize.
3. Pack Mentality: Reporters are pressured to agree.
The Paradox of Organizational Routines
• Goal: Garner an audience
• Strategy: Use organizational routines
• Result: Hundreds of media outlets that look and feel the
same
• Paradox: Want an audience, but not unique!
• Result: Use media celebrities, branding, style, and image
to create a niche
• Reality: Marketing surveys show human-interest stories
rule
In-Class Discussion
• Should the market rule the news?
• Should media increase human-interest stories because
they garner the most ratings?
• Does this mean people want more of these stories?
• Does the media do a good job at explaining relevance
and importance of major political issues?
• Is the media being elitist when they tell the public what to
care about?
Making Changes
Local News
• Experiment in Austin, TX
• Local news does best when it is either:
• All human-interest, celebrity, scandal
OR
• All serious informational
• Audiences are segmenting their attention
Web 2.0
• Blogging, discussion forums, iReports, Facebook, Twitter,
Digg
• Will this help journalism?
INSIDE THE PROFESSION:
OBJECTIVITY AND THE POLITICAL AUTHORITY BIAS
Bennett, Ch. 6
Objectivity Defined
• Accuracy
• Fairness
• Balance
• Truth
• Comprehensiveness
• 10 Reporters, 1 Story
A Brief History of Objective Journalism
• Early US News
• Funded by political parties
• Events were interpreted
• Audience aware of filter
• Mid 1800s
• Country and cities growing
• Technology improving
• Creation of AP wire
• Late 1800s to Early 1900s
• Commercialization of news
• Required broad appeal
• Inverted pyramid
Questioning Objectivity
• Business practices of objectivity came first
• Later adopted objectivity as a professional norm
• But is it fair to…
• Limit reporting to two sides?
• Give equal time to both sides?
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFX7kr6Y3Po
Objectivity as Bias
• Objectivity requires authority and official sources
• Facts are disputed because officials have biases
• Objectivity leads to forcing balance of an issue
• Global Warming
• Objectivity leads to neglecting the “other side” when no
officials can represent it
• Iraq War
Blog Post #5
• What do you think?
• Is objectivity a worthy cause?
• Or is it unrealistic and harmful to democracy?
• See instructions, due Mon. 9/27
INSIDE THE PROFESSION:
OBJECTIVITY AND THE POLITICAL AUTHORITY BIAS
Bennett, Ch. 6
6 Standards of Objectivity in Journalism
1. Be a politically neutral adversarial
• Critically examine both sides
• Ensures detachment
2. Observe social standards of decency and good taste
3. Document facts, do not interpret
4. Use a standardized format
• Inverted pyramid
5. Reporters should be generalists
•
Helps minimize interpretation
6. Use editors to ensure objectivity
1. Politically Neutral Adversarial Role
• Intended for detachment
• Reality: Symbiotic relationship
• Press: Need appearance of 4th estate
• Government: Need appearance of control
• Outcome: Both attack the personal, rather than institutions
• Examples:
• Watergate – Deep Throat
• Obama White House – Glenn Beck and conservative pundits
• Tag-team adversarial journalism out of control: Crossfire
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmj6JADOZ-8
• Little respect, rudeness
2. Decency and Good Taste
• Intended to keep news serious
• Recent downturn. How and why?
• Tension between dual goals:
• Morality Police vs. Sensationalism and Profit
• Examples
• Morality Police: Trent Lott
• Sensationalism: Janet Jackson
• Yet, news avoids what public wants to ignore
• AIDS information
• Images of war, death, famine, abuse
• Why?
• What do you think?
3. Documenting “Just the Facts”
• Intended to avoid embellishment, advocacy, interpretation
• Reality:
• Documentation requires officials
• Officials exploit this with pseudo-events
• Journalists complain, but don’t attack institutions
4. Standardized Storytelling
• Intended to distribute facts efficiently
• Reality:
• Stories need characters, plots, climax, drama
• Hence, 4 information biases
• Media receptive to pseudo-events
• Reoccurring themes: America first, America-the-generous, Americathe-embattled, responsible capitalism, individualism
5. Reporters as Generalists
• Intended to make complex information accessible to
average person.
• Intended to prevent closeness to sources.
• Reality:
• Deadlines, editors
• Reliance on official angle
• Rarely ask critical questions
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLUvP9ycDx0
• But what about beats?
• “You scare me with your information; I think we’ll put you on
another beat.”
6. Editorial Review
• Intended to promote professional norms.
• Reality:
• Editors reinforce and promote biases
• Editors “play it safe”
• Reliance on theme music, celebrity anchors and pundits, bold
headlines
Review of Objectivity Norms
Benefits
Pitfalls
• Alexa
• Fawn
• Casey
• Chris
• Grant
• Britney
• Andrew
• Michael
• Jeremiah
• AJ
• Kelsey
• Zak
• Dalton
• John
• Max
• Matthew
For Next Time…
• Read Bennett Ch. 7 on The Political Economy of News
• Complete Blog Post #5 by Mon. 9/27