Transcript The Culture of Journalism - Journalism School @ SJSU

The Culture of Journalism
Chapter 14
“The government’s power to censor the
press was abolished so that the press
would remain forever free to censure the
government. The press was protected
so that it could bare the secrets of the
government and inform the people.”
—Justice Hugo Black, 1971
“A journalist…is there to watch over the
safety and the welfare of the people
who trust him.”
—Joseph Pulitzer
Information Glut

Social critic Neil Postman
–
As a result of developments in media
technology:


Too much information
Too many channels
–
Causes stress
– News comes too late for people to act
– Public alienation
– Public passivity
“The ‘information’ the modern media
provide leaves people feeling useless
not because it’s so bleak but because
it’s so trivial.”
—Susan Faludi
Newsworthiness

What is news and what is not?
–
Gatekeeper function of media







Conflict
Prominence
Human interest
Consequence
Usefulness
Deviant...the bizarre
News in the 20th century helps the public make
sense of prominent people, important events,
and unusual happenings in everyday life.
American Journalism Values




General belief that journalists should present
news from neutral standpoint
Herbert Gans: media sociologist
Media claims for balance
Gans offers four subjective beliefs that shape
news judgments:
–
–
–
–

Ethnocentrism
Responsible capitalism
Small-town pastoralism
Individualism
Reporters as neutral “channels” of information
–
As opposed to citizens actively involved in public life
Journalism Ethics
Absolutist ethics
Situational ethics
Role of deception (Nellie Bly)
SPJ code
Ethical Dilemmas

Deploying deception
–

Invading privacy
–
–

Is truth the only goal?
Microphone in the face of the bereaved
Going through someone’s trash
Conflict of interest
–
Any situation where a journalist may stand to benefit
personally from the story he produces

SPJ code warns against accepting gifts or favors.
Society of Professional
Journalists (SPJ)
Code of Ethics on p. 496
Reporting Rituals

Cult of the new
–
–
–

Old news doesn’t run.
–




Immediacy of the present
Origins in print
1840s rise of telegraph
Thus, news often lacks historical context.
Don Hewitt: “Tell me a story.”
Getting the story first (scoop)
Herd journalism
Reliance on experts
Rituals (cont.)


“Balance”
– Two-dimensionality of news
– Helps generate story conflict
– Misrepresents the multifaceted complexity of social issues
Adversarial relationship between prominent leaders and major
institutions
– Gotcha story
– Tough-questioning style
 Becomes an end in itself
– Reporter located between “them” and “us”
 Might be better to improve the quality of political
discussions by asking, “Why is this going on?” and “What
ought to be done about it?”
Print vs. Television

TV journalism’s origins in print
–

TV driven by its technology
–
–



Edward R. Murrow
Going “live for live’s sake”
The image is everything
Broadcast format forces compression
TV journalists become celebrities
Sound bite news
Bias and the News

A June 2006 Harris Poll found 38 percent of
adults detect a liberal bias in news coverage,
while 25 percent sense a conservative bias.

Can a news story ever be truly unbiased?
Public Journalism






News accepts broader mission
No longer detached
Suggests policy alternatives
Recasts public as actors alive in the process
Intended to combat alienation
Not a substitute for investigative work
Critics






Fear that public journalism panders
Fear losing credibility built up over decades
of “objective” reporting
Removes traditional editorial role
Changes reporting style to conversational
No balance
Just a marketing facade
Fake News and Satiric Journalism


Appeals to many cynical young people
Critiques the unimaginative quality of traditional
news stories
–
–

The Daily Show and The Colbert Report
Is it time for journalism to break free from tired formulas?
“There’s no journalist today, real or fake, who is
more significant for people 18 to 25.”
–-Seth Siegel, advertising and branding consultant, on Jon
Stewart
Online News

“Mainstream media need to search for the
right business model that integrates the
online experience into what they do.”
—John Horrigan, Pew Internet & American Life Project,
2006
Role of Reporting


Social responsibility: James Agee, Let Us
Now Praise Famous Men
Deliberative democracy: journalists should
be activists for public life
–
–
Representative democracy
Deliberative democracy