Ch 7: Leo Bowman and Stephen McIwaine
A challenge for journalists is where information provided by news media begins and ends: what impacts, what expectations, what public responsibilities are created or ignored in converting events and processes into words and pictures.
Journalism practice must change to to accommodate this new uncertainty - just as it has adapted to the new communications systems that were the hallmark of the economic and social change of the past.
SETTING UP THE ENQUIRY:
In seeking to indicate that all good journalism requires ongoing investigation, Mencher, Itule and Anderson identify several phases of story development:
- each stage requires a different focus from journalists seeking to provide a truly comprehensive coverage.
THE THREE STAGES OF ENQUIRY:
- Level1: Reactive Reporting. Journalists rely on people to tell them or show them things; they need people in authority to or with special knowledge to supply them with information that enables them to tell the audience what is happening. Reactive reporting concentrates on information that originates from the sources and may be controlled by the source. * This level is good enough for the time being - it supplies those readers with information they only really want.
- Level2: Analytical Reporting. A need to go beyond reactive accounts and dig deeper. Journalists here are looking for the answers to how and why? This stage involves the role of institutions and authorities.
- Level3: Reflective Reporting. This looks at more deep seated social trends that might have set the stage for a particular news event. In goes beyond institutional accounts to include broad patterns and trends.
SATISFYING THE CRITICS:
Reporters are open to criticism if they:
1. treat initial reactive reports as if they were an end in themselves.
2. their enquiries become routine and their stories standard.
3. they construct a neat orderly reporting technique that imposes order on chaos
4. they do not pursue incompatible or varying accounts.
CONCLUSION:
Changes in technology and audience appear to be dictating a more accountable and more relevant form of journalism practice.
The three level enquiry helps journalists to seek and explore new stories which is a simple and sound technique for all journalists no matter the time they have been in the profession.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Chapter 6: The Truth, the whole truth, and nothing but...
Ch 6: by Sharon Tickle.
MEEA: Respect for the truth and the public's right to information are fundamental principals of journalism.
TERMS OF REFERENCE:
- The struggle between news work and entertainment as apart of the role of a journalist.
- Journalists face the task of truthfully representingh in words, numbers, sound and pictures, events that have occurred at a particular time in a particular place.
- Gratten suggests commercial pressures are causing infotainment take-over of newspapers.
- Perhaps then as Chris Mitchell said "if a journalist cant tell the difference between fact and fiction, they shouldn't be in the job".
- News media producers reject claims that they can not represent the truth in their news stories, while cultural studies theorists say its futile to try and represent the truth because it is a situational and subjective construction of reality.
TERMS OF REFERENCE:
- The struggle between news work and entertainment as apart of the role of a journalist.
- Journalists face the task of truthfully representingh in words, numbers, sound and pictures, events that have occurred at a particular time in a particular place.
- Gratten suggests commercial pressures are causing infotainment take-over of newspapers.
- Perhaps then as Chris Mitchell said "if a journalist cant tell the difference between fact and fiction, they shouldn't be in the job".
- News media producers reject claims that they can not represent the truth in their news stories, while cultural studies theorists say its futile to try and represent the truth because it is a situational and subjective construction of reality.
TRUTH FROM PLATO & FOUCAULT:
There were 3 different schools of thought about whether truth could be universal.
Plato: said a universal truth could be realised as a transcendent ideal independent of the concrete thing itself
Aristotle: argued universality was inherent in the thing or idea itself.
Thomas Aquinas: states that 'ideas has three kinds of existence: as exemplars of God, as intelligible forms of things and as concepts in humans minds cause by abstracting from things.
Postmodernism: There is no truth (which seems to be a truth, therefore the only truth is that there is no truth: confusing much?)
REASONING AND JUDGEMENT:
- Deductive reasoning: relies on inferring from general principals that are then applied to specific facts to reach logically correct conclusions.
- Inductive reasoning: based on the inference from specific facts that are then combined to draw general conclusions that have different levels of plausibility.
CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES:
Must be able to sort the chaff from the grain.
Need to be much more reactive
Ethical, critical, reflective and well trained journalists can capitalise on the new technologies to better do the job of presenting new information in a timely fashion to their audience.
AUTHORISED TRUTH TELLERS IN THE DIGITAL AGE OF CONVERGENCE:
- Digital technology and the Internet are the mass media mediums for journalists today.
- While print will never die (supposedly) the patient is ailing.
- Convergence will see the intermeshing of the interface between TV radio and the Internet so that news content produced by one medium us screen by the other two.
- One obvious concern in this scenario is that the tiered structure which existed to sift and sort news is considerably flattened.
- Fact and source checking may be skipped altogether.
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Ch 5: Journalism beyond the Business
Chapter 5
- The revolution is here. Journalists are now longer the public's watchdogs or privileged members of the fourth estate. They are business people producing a product for market.
- Michelle Gratten characterises the latest revolution to hit journalism as the seemingly unstoppable rise of 'commercialism' as a 'core value' (1998:1)
THEORISING THE COMMERCIAL DRIVERS OF MODERN JOURNALISM:
- A commercial spirit now dominates journalism
- Marx realised journalism was about more that commercial operations, yet in today's shifting society we can not be as sure about what journalism is and is not.
- The real problem for 'new' journalism is that there is no longer even the pretence of balance between the two forces of 'capital acquisition' vs. 'economic exercise'.
the QUESTION therefore is "what is journalism and what conceptual tools can be used to arrive at a satisfactory explanation of its modern form?"
Australian Theories of Journalism:
1. journalism as a commodity
2. journalism as an autonomous consciousness
3. journalism as a cultural activity
4. journalism as 'empirical facts'.
Which Theory of Journalism?:
Any theory of journalism must take into account:
1. That it has to be able to take account of the primarily commercial context in which journalism is practiced.
2. It has to be able to take account of the professional ideologies, beliefs, ways of doing and ways of making meaning tat operate among the practitioners of journalism.
WHY? - because the capacity to shuttle between levels of abstraction with ease and with clarity, is a signal mark of the imaginative and systematic thinker. (Mills, 1959: 43)
A NEW MARXIST THEORY OF JOURNALISM:
According to the text this 'theoretical framework delivers the conceptual tools capable of facing such rampant commercialism' that is present within journalism today.
A Marxist approach to journalism traditionally has been associated with the political economy model - which argues that because the media are owned and controlled by capitalist interests, these outlets are geared to the production of dominated capitalist ideologies, which in turn mystify class relations and produce a false consciousness among the working class.
- The Problem of Ideology::
The continuing problem however with those theory is that everyone outside the perspective is reduced to 'false consciousness'.
Herman and McChesney (1997) argue that the triumph for transnational corporation (TNC) power is not only the triumph of political and economic power but, extends to basic assumptions an modes o thought that is to ideology.
Bordieu ages that journalists wear special glasses to facilitate the incorporation of the economic imperatives of their work into a broader worldviews and their place in it.
- The Issue of Determination::
Determinism remains a controversial aspect of attempts to apple Marxist theory. It has a 'complex range of meanings' but maintains its special significance because 'it bears on several significant tendencies in modern thought'. (Williams 98)
- EhnoMarxism::
This approach emphasises the the "active involvement of men and women in making their own history, their own reality." This therefore allows far more attention given to the way news-workers construct their own meaning and ideologies and ultimately produces their own ways of doing.
The name comes from two sources:
ethnography: being the descriptive study of any society.
methods: the ways in which the members of society draw on the knowledge which that cultural places at their disposal to characterise the way they inhabit.
CONCLUSION:
- Future journalists will have to be very savvy commercial operators or very proficient small business people.
- journalism is primarily an economic activity
- Even with the high amount of commercialism driving journalism there are still acts of resistance within the profession.
- The revolution is here. Journalists are now longer the public's watchdogs or privileged members of the fourth estate. They are business people producing a product for market.
- Michelle Gratten characterises the latest revolution to hit journalism as the seemingly unstoppable rise of 'commercialism' as a 'core value' (1998:1)
THEORISING THE COMMERCIAL DRIVERS OF MODERN JOURNALISM:
- A commercial spirit now dominates journalism
- Marx realised journalism was about more that commercial operations, yet in today's shifting society we can not be as sure about what journalism is and is not.
- The real problem for 'new' journalism is that there is no longer even the pretence of balance between the two forces of 'capital acquisition' vs. 'economic exercise'.
the QUESTION therefore is "what is journalism and what conceptual tools can be used to arrive at a satisfactory explanation of its modern form?"
Australian Theories of Journalism:
1. journalism as a commodity
2. journalism as an autonomous consciousness
3. journalism as a cultural activity
4. journalism as 'empirical facts'.
Which Theory of Journalism?:
Any theory of journalism must take into account:
1. That it has to be able to take account of the primarily commercial context in which journalism is practiced.
2. It has to be able to take account of the professional ideologies, beliefs, ways of doing and ways of making meaning tat operate among the practitioners of journalism.
WHY? - because the capacity to shuttle between levels of abstraction with ease and with clarity, is a signal mark of the imaginative and systematic thinker. (Mills, 1959: 43)
A NEW MARXIST THEORY OF JOURNALISM:
According to the text this 'theoretical framework delivers the conceptual tools capable of facing such rampant commercialism' that is present within journalism today.
A Marxist approach to journalism traditionally has been associated with the political economy model - which argues that because the media are owned and controlled by capitalist interests, these outlets are geared to the production of dominated capitalist ideologies, which in turn mystify class relations and produce a false consciousness among the working class.
- The Problem of Ideology::
The continuing problem however with those theory is that everyone outside the perspective is reduced to 'false consciousness'.
Herman and McChesney (1997) argue that the triumph for transnational corporation (TNC) power is not only the triumph of political and economic power but, extends to basic assumptions an modes o thought that is to ideology.
Bordieu ages that journalists wear special glasses to facilitate the incorporation of the economic imperatives of their work into a broader worldviews and their place in it.
- The Issue of Determination::
Determinism remains a controversial aspect of attempts to apple Marxist theory. It has a 'complex range of meanings' but maintains its special significance because 'it bears on several significant tendencies in modern thought'. (Williams 98)
- EhnoMarxism::
This approach emphasises the the "active involvement of men and women in making their own history, their own reality." This therefore allows far more attention given to the way news-workers construct their own meaning and ideologies and ultimately produces their own ways of doing.
The name comes from two sources:
ethnography: being the descriptive study of any society.
methods: the ways in which the members of society draw on the knowledge which that cultural places at their disposal to characterise the way they inhabit.
CONCLUSION:
- Future journalists will have to be very savvy commercial operators or very proficient small business people.
- journalism is primarily an economic activity
- Even with the high amount of commercialism driving journalism there are still acts of resistance within the profession.
Picture reference:
Journalists get their fiction on.
Often journalists will use real life events in order to create a roman a clef - this is french for a 'novel with a key' meaning that it is a novel describing real life events through a facade of fiction.
One such journalist is Hunter S. Thompson and his well known work Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Fear and Loathing is the story of Journalist Raoul Duke and his attorney Dr. Gonzo as they travel to Las Vegas in a drug induced haze. Thompson who is presume to be the main character of Duke in this fiction novel is believed to have drawn inspiration for the novel when he traveled to Las Vegas to interview Oscar Zeta Acosta a Mexican activist and attorney. It was decided that Las Vegas would be a more comfortable atmosphere for their interview and discussion of Ruben Salazar who had been recently killed.
Gonzo Journalism which Thompson is said to have coined and popularised is a guerrilla style of reporting that practically requires no rewriting. William Faulkner stated the "the best fiction is far more true than any kind of journalism — and the best journalists have always known this", it is this which Thompson has said his idea for Gonzo journalism came from.
While novels such as this may seem irrelevant they are an interesting source from which to examine the role of journalism with our cultural context. The way in which these novels are constructed is no less real than what a journalist would go through to research an article and may then even be more involved than creating a simple article as we are aware that often these can be a product of media releases straight from P.R individuals.
One such journalist is Hunter S. Thompson and his well known work Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Fear and Loathing is the story of Journalist Raoul Duke and his attorney Dr. Gonzo as they travel to Las Vegas in a drug induced haze. Thompson who is presume to be the main character of Duke in this fiction novel is believed to have drawn inspiration for the novel when he traveled to Las Vegas to interview Oscar Zeta Acosta a Mexican activist and attorney. It was decided that Las Vegas would be a more comfortable atmosphere for their interview and discussion of Ruben Salazar who had been recently killed.
Gonzo Journalism which Thompson is said to have coined and popularised is a guerrilla style of reporting that practically requires no rewriting. William Faulkner stated the "the best fiction is far more true than any kind of journalism — and the best journalists have always known this", it is this which Thompson has said his idea for Gonzo journalism came from.
While novels such as this may seem irrelevant they are an interesting source from which to examine the role of journalism with our cultural context. The way in which these novels are constructed is no less real than what a journalist would go through to research an article and may then even be more involved than creating a simple article as we are aware that often these can be a product of media releases straight from P.R individuals.
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Ch 4: Journalism n Australia
Chapter 4: Hard Yakka?
Despite the different look the media has adopted in the 21st century it is still regarded as a business 'essentially a moneymaking scheme, dependant on one hand upon it popularity with the public, on the other hand the monkey maker' (Rodgers 1995)
Carey suggests that the communications cycle follows the pattern of business cycles in the capitalist economy.
Debates of the media being News medium of entertainment industry? where stories of which interest the public are replacing whats in the public interest.
Franklin cites three 'unprecedented and significant' signposts that show a new age of infotainment journalism.
1. the shifting balance in favour of entertainment in the news media
2. the disappearance of foreign and political news in some media.
3. the trend toward infotainment affecting broadsheets as much as tabloids and the public. as well as the private broadcasting sector. (1997)
FROM FOURTH ESTATE TO FORTRESS WAPPING.
'tax on knowledge' was imposed on news during French and American revolutions
'freedom of the press' is well documented
'mechanisation' began to affect journalists. News workers were increasingly borded and in turn valued by their technological place in the production process of gathering, writing and producing news. - Industrial Revolution.
Shultz has argues that the journalistic values of democratic liberalism fourth estate - are compromised by the need of the media industry to show a profit for those who invest in the news.
News agencies have always been active players in the introduction of new technologies to news gathering and dissemination.
CONTROLLING THE MARKET FOR NEWS:
The nature of journalists work changes in response to new technologies and mass media marketing strategies. (Shultz 1994)
The media production process has an unusual relationship with the market - this shows itself as on the one hand news is clearly a commodity as newspapers are sold, magazines have a cover prices etc but the real commodity that the media sells is its audiences and in turn they are sold to advertisers.
Social control - affects news agenda in a way that structures editorial policy so that it 'usually protects property and class interests, and thus the strata and groups holding these interests are better able to retain them' (Breed 1955)
The media as an industry has the same electronic development and structures as any other commodity-producing enterprise.
JOURNALISM AS WORK:
Class location and class consciousness are central to the proposition that journalists are workers rather than middle class professionals.
Class location denotes the objective location a member of the workforce occupies in the class structures of capitalism.
Class-consciousness is define as 'that state of social cohesion reflected in the understand and activities of a class of portion of a class'.
For journalists the ideology of professionalism plays a significant role in how news workers construct their social identity. It justifies a reporters solid perception that she or he is not a workers but rather a member of the white collar middle class.
THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL ATTITUDES OF JOURNALISM:
Why is the Ideology of professionalism so important within journalism?
1. capitalism is a resilient social system
2. ideology can exert a string grip over the minds and actions of even the most rational human being.
The ideology of professionalism can help mask the raw economic relationships that bind journalists to the production process.
CONCLUSION:
The difference between journalists as labourers over middle class professionals is important because if journalists are conscious of themselves as workers it could have important implications for their own world view.
As conscious members of the working class journalists might decide that there is a news value of 'class interest' that should be taken into account in the writing process. This therefore has implications for example in the way politics might be reported.
A class based view of journalism might also have implications for the very way journalism and the public sphere are 'theorised'. It would undermine the 'fourth estate' view of journalism in favour of a more radical view of politics.
Which may lead to what has been coined 'organic' journalism - that is news reporting tat is intrinsically tied to the life experience of the working class audience.
Despite the different look the media has adopted in the 21st century it is still regarded as a business 'essentially a moneymaking scheme, dependant on one hand upon it popularity with the public, on the other hand the monkey maker' (Rodgers 1995)
Carey suggests that the communications cycle follows the pattern of business cycles in the capitalist economy.
Debates of the media being News medium of entertainment industry? where stories of which interest the public are replacing whats in the public interest.
Franklin cites three 'unprecedented and significant' signposts that show a new age of infotainment journalism.
1. the shifting balance in favour of entertainment in the news media
2. the disappearance of foreign and political news in some media.
3. the trend toward infotainment affecting broadsheets as much as tabloids and the public. as well as the private broadcasting sector. (1997)
FROM FOURTH ESTATE TO FORTRESS WAPPING.
'tax on knowledge' was imposed on news during French and American revolutions
'freedom of the press' is well documented
'mechanisation' began to affect journalists. News workers were increasingly borded and in turn valued by their technological place in the production process of gathering, writing and producing news. - Industrial Revolution.
Shultz has argues that the journalistic values of democratic liberalism fourth estate - are compromised by the need of the media industry to show a profit for those who invest in the news.
News agencies have always been active players in the introduction of new technologies to news gathering and dissemination.
CONTROLLING THE MARKET FOR NEWS:
The nature of journalists work changes in response to new technologies and mass media marketing strategies. (Shultz 1994)
The media production process has an unusual relationship with the market - this shows itself as on the one hand news is clearly a commodity as newspapers are sold, magazines have a cover prices etc but the real commodity that the media sells is its audiences and in turn they are sold to advertisers.
Social control - affects news agenda in a way that structures editorial policy so that it 'usually protects property and class interests, and thus the strata and groups holding these interests are better able to retain them' (Breed 1955)
The media as an industry has the same electronic development and structures as any other commodity-producing enterprise.
JOURNALISM AS WORK:
Class location and class consciousness are central to the proposition that journalists are workers rather than middle class professionals.
Class location denotes the objective location a member of the workforce occupies in the class structures of capitalism.
Class-consciousness is define as 'that state of social cohesion reflected in the understand and activities of a class of portion of a class'.
For journalists the ideology of professionalism plays a significant role in how news workers construct their social identity. It justifies a reporters solid perception that she or he is not a workers but rather a member of the white collar middle class.
THE SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL ATTITUDES OF JOURNALISM:
Why is the Ideology of professionalism so important within journalism?
1. capitalism is a resilient social system
2. ideology can exert a string grip over the minds and actions of even the most rational human being.
The ideology of professionalism can help mask the raw economic relationships that bind journalists to the production process.
CONCLUSION:
The difference between journalists as labourers over middle class professionals is important because if journalists are conscious of themselves as workers it could have important implications for their own world view.
As conscious members of the working class journalists might decide that there is a news value of 'class interest' that should be taken into account in the writing process. This therefore has implications for example in the way politics might be reported.
A class based view of journalism might also have implications for the very way journalism and the public sphere are 'theorised'. It would undermine the 'fourth estate' view of journalism in favour of a more radical view of politics.
Which may lead to what has been coined 'organic' journalism - that is news reporting tat is intrinsically tied to the life experience of the working class audience.
Public Journalism - Thoughts.
"This movement is concerned to steer journalism towards reinvigorating public life which many see as excluding ordinary citizens and devaluing the need to inform them."
"Journalism has a major stake in a healthy public life and this has lead to the movement for public journalism."
The article discusses how public journalism challenges key values held by journalists now.
- David McKnight.
Phillip Meyer gives a useful guide to what public journalism actually is, it is of course hard to define this type of journalism given the fact that it is constantly changing and therefore many are unwilling to define.
The article furthermore talks about conflict between core values and their current application which is helpful in recognising the role public journalism is taking within communities.
Ch 11: Putting the Public back into Journalism.
Chapter 11:
People power has been an important part of journalistic vernacular since the dying days of the Marcos era, when reporters bought the world pictures of the Filipino runs forming human barricades in the path of oncoming tanks, and other dramatic images of mass political activism.
Proponent of a new style of journalism, public journalism have challenged such attitudes ["tell it as it is and let the chips fall where they may"] in an attempt to respond to the declining audience levels and increasing community alienation from old-style news and traditional political processes.
WHY REPORTING NEEDS REFORM:
Public disengagement with the media has consequences not only for the media profitability but also for public participation in a wider political process.
Australians do not get involved in politics.
News audiences can regularly expect that journalists will serve up a cacophony of contradictory claims from compete ting sources.
MORE THAN STYLE:
It is relatively easy to train journalists to improve their style and content of the reporting but it may require a major shift in organisational and professional culture to address the root of the problem - the relevance and interests of news topics to audiences.
Conventional rules help journalists make value judgements about which event or problem should be further examined and published.
Innumerable sociological studies have shown that, to a large degree, news agendas revolve around the agendas set by public servants, politicians and businesses leaders, rather than those of the ordinary person on the street. This is because most news organisations base this journalists at the centre of political and economic power, where they can guarantee the authoritative sources will provide regular flows of information.
Public journalism differs from the standard approach to news in 3 major ways:
- it allows he pubic to drive the agenda of what is reported
- it attempts to include the public in a discussion rather than merely throw information at the audience as it come to hand.
- This it aims to help the public in decision about significant community issues.
SOURCE OF INSPIRATION FOR PUBLIC JOURNALISM:
Public journalism similar to development journalism which was promoted in this world countries since the 1960's.
Development journalism: aims to allow journalists to cover complex development processes in languages simple enough for the poorly educated to understand.
Hostility of US journalists to development journalism.
Public Journalism emerged in the US in the late 1980's.
Davis Buzz Merritt and Jay Rosen helped initiate the public journalism concept.
Rosen credit 3 key figures in helping with the movement.
- Knight-ridder INC.
- Dallas Morning news editor
- Washington Post columnist
PUBLIC JOURNALISM IN PRACTICE:
Public journalism may involved a variety of market research techniques:
- focus groups
- qualitative and quantitative opinion polls
- public forums
- other survey instruments.
Public journalism prioritises background and content that enable the public to dip into a story and follow the currents of the debate without being experts on the issue.
CRITICISMS:
- Despite the positive outcomes of public journalism the journalistic community has not been unanimously supportive of this new approach.
- The underlying philosophy has been questioned, blaming public journalism for excessive political correctness and erosion of basic journalistic standards.
- Other have condemned the public journalism technique claiming it to be sloppy.
- Finally some have noted how public journalism does not suit the commercial needs of some news organisations, which need to gather information quickly from sources seen as reliable experts.
CONCLUSION:
Public Journalists techniques must still be understood as experimental.
There is yet to be a perfect journalistic formula.
There are however five key suggests which may make successful public journalism:
1. Establishing the Agenda: public journalism should be user friendly as it defines issues that are important to the community and should structure the arguments on these issues in a meaningful way.
2. Dedicating the resources: there must be a willingness to commit significant editorial resources to the project/.
3. Setting the timetable: a program should be established.
4. Obtaining feedback: members of the public should be able and feel free to express their opinions and give feedback on articles and issues.
5. Analysing the activities ans Outcomes: measuring public satisfaction if a difficult task but one which should be attempted in order to gauge an appropriate public response.
People power has been an important part of journalistic vernacular since the dying days of the Marcos era, when reporters bought the world pictures of the Filipino runs forming human barricades in the path of oncoming tanks, and other dramatic images of mass political activism.
Proponent of a new style of journalism, public journalism have challenged such attitudes ["tell it as it is and let the chips fall where they may"] in an attempt to respond to the declining audience levels and increasing community alienation from old-style news and traditional political processes.
WHY REPORTING NEEDS REFORM:
Public disengagement with the media has consequences not only for the media profitability but also for public participation in a wider political process.
Australians do not get involved in politics.
News audiences can regularly expect that journalists will serve up a cacophony of contradictory claims from compete ting sources.
MORE THAN STYLE:
It is relatively easy to train journalists to improve their style and content of the reporting but it may require a major shift in organisational and professional culture to address the root of the problem - the relevance and interests of news topics to audiences.
Conventional rules help journalists make value judgements about which event or problem should be further examined and published.
Innumerable sociological studies have shown that, to a large degree, news agendas revolve around the agendas set by public servants, politicians and businesses leaders, rather than those of the ordinary person on the street. This is because most news organisations base this journalists at the centre of political and economic power, where they can guarantee the authoritative sources will provide regular flows of information.
Public journalism differs from the standard approach to news in 3 major ways:
- it allows he pubic to drive the agenda of what is reported
- it attempts to include the public in a discussion rather than merely throw information at the audience as it come to hand.
- This it aims to help the public in decision about significant community issues.
SOURCE OF INSPIRATION FOR PUBLIC JOURNALISM:
Public journalism similar to development journalism which was promoted in this world countries since the 1960's.
Development journalism: aims to allow journalists to cover complex development processes in languages simple enough for the poorly educated to understand.
Hostility of US journalists to development journalism.
Public Journalism emerged in the US in the late 1980's.
Davis Buzz Merritt and Jay Rosen helped initiate the public journalism concept.
Rosen credit 3 key figures in helping with the movement.
- Knight-ridder INC.
- Dallas Morning news editor
- Washington Post columnist
PUBLIC JOURNALISM IN PRACTICE:
Public journalism may involved a variety of market research techniques:
- focus groups
- qualitative and quantitative opinion polls
- public forums
- other survey instruments.
Public journalism prioritises background and content that enable the public to dip into a story and follow the currents of the debate without being experts on the issue.
CRITICISMS:
- Despite the positive outcomes of public journalism the journalistic community has not been unanimously supportive of this new approach.
- The underlying philosophy has been questioned, blaming public journalism for excessive political correctness and erosion of basic journalistic standards.
- Other have condemned the public journalism technique claiming it to be sloppy.
- Finally some have noted how public journalism does not suit the commercial needs of some news organisations, which need to gather information quickly from sources seen as reliable experts.
CONCLUSION:
Public Journalists techniques must still be understood as experimental.
There is yet to be a perfect journalistic formula.
There are however five key suggests which may make successful public journalism:
1. Establishing the Agenda: public journalism should be user friendly as it defines issues that are important to the community and should structure the arguments on these issues in a meaningful way.
2. Dedicating the resources: there must be a willingness to commit significant editorial resources to the project/.
3. Setting the timetable: a program should be established.
4. Obtaining feedback: members of the public should be able and feel free to express their opinions and give feedback on articles and issues.
5. Analysing the activities ans Outcomes: measuring public satisfaction if a difficult task but one which should be attempted in order to gauge an appropriate public response.
Ch 3: A return to practice.
Ch3: Reclaiming Journalism as Public Conversation.
The Western form of journalism emerged around the turn of the century, coming of the public sphere activities where disparate members of the emerging entity called 'the public' met to discuss politics, sports, gossip - in other words, experiences of the everyday.
Gathered in public places:
- houses
- pubs
- cafes
and these in turn became the sites where newspaper reporting pubic conversation emerged.
Journalism indistinct forms other forms of writing such as fiction and public relations (Carey 1997a p.329)
Modern journalism form public opinion rather than reports on it.
Carey: important elements that influenced the shift of journalism from previously a public accountable form -
- national media
- growth of minority of alternative media
- creation of the professional communicator.
Journalism should be seen a part of the broader process of making culture - or imaging, to use Benedict Anderson's term.
Journalism and Fourth Estate:
19th century.
Acknowledges the media as a part of an institution, independent of the other 'three' estates:
- judiciary
- executive
- Parliament.
'custom and status' have affronted this status according to Shultz even though it may not be formally recognised.
It is the independent status of the idea of the Fourth estate that has paced modern journalism in so much conflict with its audiences.
Carey (1997c p.337) suggests that this fourth estate has 'stitched the citizen into a passive role as spectator'. He furthermore argues that this results in a further removed sense of journalism from the public realm.
Carey links journalism, politics and democracy.
The Media as a Cultural Resource:
Ideology: refers to the ideas and assumptions about society and its practice that tend to predominate at a particular time.
Powerful role of media legitimating ideas and assumptions
Gramsci same journalism as a cultural practice that could act to draw out and elaborate elements of critical awareness and good sense. By good sense he mean the best ideas of an era or populace.
'Integral Journalism' - this idea by Gramsci aims yo not only satisfy all the needs of its public but also create and develop these needs, to arouse the public and to 'progressively enlarge it' (1988)
By considering journalism a cultural practice we can examine, and re-examine its cultural role.
Anderson " the convergence of capitals and print technology on the fatal diversity of human language created the possibility of a new form of imagined community, which in its basic morphology set the stage for the modern nation. (1984 p49)
Therefore journalism and journalists played a crucial role in the process of 'imagining' through the cultural form of print technology, which has been superseded in the 20th century by broadsiding and now information technology.
Journalism plays a pivotal role in the strategic management of cultural goods, like the media. in the process of the formation of the 'imagination' and thus, consensus and culture.
Journalism as a cultural Practice:
Journalism as a cultural practice manages the flow of the formation and ideas in society.
Adam suggests that journalism embraces and give a place to notions of commentary, judgement and criticism.
Journalism is often define in relation what it produces: news.
We must then however dwell on what the notion of news entails.
Journalists As Intellectuals:
The intellectual in society.
The age of information technology has brought with it not only to possibility of extending global power structures but also the opportunity to subvert them by increasing the possibility of global democratisation. (Holub, 1992)
Conclusion:
Journalists need to learn how to communicate more effectively with the public as Paul Chadwick (1998a) suggests.
Public journalists professes admirable aims, but how effective can these aims be when journalists and journalism maintain perceptions that naturally set them apart from 'the public'?
Modern journalism must therefore move past this fourth estate status and its accompanying watchdog role, establishing a relationship with audiences based upon something new..
The Western form of journalism emerged around the turn of the century, coming of the public sphere activities where disparate members of the emerging entity called 'the public' met to discuss politics, sports, gossip - in other words, experiences of the everyday.
Gathered in public places:
- houses
- pubs
- cafes
and these in turn became the sites where newspaper reporting pubic conversation emerged.
Journalism indistinct forms other forms of writing such as fiction and public relations (Carey 1997a p.329)
Modern journalism form public opinion rather than reports on it.
Carey: important elements that influenced the shift of journalism from previously a public accountable form -
- national media
- growth of minority of alternative media
- creation of the professional communicator.
Journalism should be seen a part of the broader process of making culture - or imaging, to use Benedict Anderson's term.
Journalism and Fourth Estate:
19th century.
Acknowledges the media as a part of an institution, independent of the other 'three' estates:
- judiciary
- executive
- Parliament.
'custom and status' have affronted this status according to Shultz even though it may not be formally recognised.
It is the independent status of the idea of the Fourth estate that has paced modern journalism in so much conflict with its audiences.
Carey (1997c p.337) suggests that this fourth estate has 'stitched the citizen into a passive role as spectator'. He furthermore argues that this results in a further removed sense of journalism from the public realm.
Carey links journalism, politics and democracy.
The Media as a Cultural Resource:
Ideology: refers to the ideas and assumptions about society and its practice that tend to predominate at a particular time.
Powerful role of media legitimating ideas and assumptions
Gramsci same journalism as a cultural practice that could act to draw out and elaborate elements of critical awareness and good sense. By good sense he mean the best ideas of an era or populace.
'Integral Journalism' - this idea by Gramsci aims yo not only satisfy all the needs of its public but also create and develop these needs, to arouse the public and to 'progressively enlarge it' (1988)
By considering journalism a cultural practice we can examine, and re-examine its cultural role.
Anderson " the convergence of capitals and print technology on the fatal diversity of human language created the possibility of a new form of imagined community, which in its basic morphology set the stage for the modern nation. (1984 p49)
Therefore journalism and journalists played a crucial role in the process of 'imagining' through the cultural form of print technology, which has been superseded in the 20th century by broadsiding and now information technology.
Journalism plays a pivotal role in the strategic management of cultural goods, like the media. in the process of the formation of the 'imagination' and thus, consensus and culture.
Journalism as a cultural Practice:
Journalism as a cultural practice manages the flow of the formation and ideas in society.
Adam suggests that journalism embraces and give a place to notions of commentary, judgement and criticism.
Journalism is often define in relation what it produces: news.
We must then however dwell on what the notion of news entails.
Journalists As Intellectuals:
The intellectual in society.
The age of information technology has brought with it not only to possibility of extending global power structures but also the opportunity to subvert them by increasing the possibility of global democratisation. (Holub, 1992)
Conclusion:
Journalists need to learn how to communicate more effectively with the public as Paul Chadwick (1998a) suggests.
Public journalists professes admirable aims, but how effective can these aims be when journalists and journalism maintain perceptions that naturally set them apart from 'the public'?
Modern journalism must therefore move past this fourth estate status and its accompanying watchdog role, establishing a relationship with audiences based upon something new..
Monday, August 6, 2007
Chapter 2: Comfort or Curse??!!
Chapter 2: Comfort or Curse?
Perceptions about Journalists.
Underwood: Journalists are little more than process workers manipulating information for commercial purposes.
Must hit the ‘right button’, ‘heat up’ audiences, while keeping with the ‘comfort zone’.
Role vs. Actual Job.
Fictional: the independent fearless writer armed with truth
Modern: mere cogs in the mass production of public consent.
Someone who resists all attempt at control (Underwood, 1993: 170)
McManus not independent professionals but employees, therefore not as free.
McManus and Kock propose that in the past 10 years market-driven journalism had fundamentally changed the role of journalists in making news.
Role of media as political watch dog in western communities.
Journalists as Entertainers.
Newspapers have mostly always existed for profit. (Gratten, 1998)
Newspapers sell audiences to advertisers.
Market vs. Journalism Theory.
Both models share a central and abiding concern for the audience size.
Conclusion.
Journalists are an influential selection of individuals, whether or not people think their opinion is influence by media journalists still have the responsibility to stay as neutral and objective as possible. This may seem good in theory but idyllic and impossible in practice. Non the less the responsibility remains largely with the journalist to present the news as ethically as possible without the influence of surrounding editorial staff and outside factors such as commercialisation.
Perceptions about Journalists.
Underwood: Journalists are little more than process workers manipulating information for commercial purposes.
Must hit the ‘right button’, ‘heat up’ audiences, while keeping with the ‘comfort zone’.
Role vs. Actual Job.
Fictional: the independent fearless writer armed with truth
Modern: mere cogs in the mass production of public consent.
Someone who resists all attempt at control (Underwood, 1993: 170)
McManus not independent professionals but employees, therefore not as free.
McManus and Kock propose that in the past 10 years market-driven journalism had fundamentally changed the role of journalists in making news.
Role of media as political watch dog in western communities.
Journalists as Entertainers.
Newspapers have mostly always existed for profit. (Gratten, 1998)
Newspapers sell audiences to advertisers.
Market vs. Journalism Theory.
Both models share a central and abiding concern for the audience size.
Conclusion.
Journalists are an influential selection of individuals, whether or not people think their opinion is influence by media journalists still have the responsibility to stay as neutral and objective as possible. This may seem good in theory but idyllic and impossible in practice. Non the less the responsibility remains largely with the journalist to present the news as ethically as possible without the influence of surrounding editorial staff and outside factors such as commercialisation.
Questions.
1. Does the public see a difference between journalists and political commentators/on-air radio hosts like laws and Alan Jones? Should programs and publications, which deal seriously with news and current affairs issues be required to adhere to journalistic standards and practice?
As to the difference between journalist and political commentators in the publics eye I think we like to believe we can distinguish between what we see and hear in the news verses what is suggested by commentators such as Jones and laws. Realistically however it seems as though we we take to heart what they say just as much as what we see and hear through such mediums as print and broadcast journalism. If this we not the case the events such as cash for comment would not have been so obscene. If all they were was entertainers the ethically line would not have been seen to be crossed in the same way it was. Catherine Lumby asks while discussing media ethics in Media and Communications in Australia -
"Is it even relevant to draw those lines when attracting and entertaining audiences are the guiding principals behind almost all media production?" (Lumby in Cunningham & Turner, 2006: 311)
I think it is still relevant, especially in situations where the line of journalist may be blurred in the eyes of the audience as it was in the cash for comment debate, it is in the best interest of the public that this distinction be made and thus they are aware of any bias or agenda behind the news they consume.
Reference:
Lumby, C, 2006. "Media Ethics" in Cunningham & Turner Media and Communiactions in Australia. Allen & Unwin: Australia.
As to the difference between journalist and political commentators in the publics eye I think we like to believe we can distinguish between what we see and hear in the news verses what is suggested by commentators such as Jones and laws. Realistically however it seems as though we we take to heart what they say just as much as what we see and hear through such mediums as print and broadcast journalism. If this we not the case the events such as cash for comment would not have been so obscene. If all they were was entertainers the ethically line would not have been seen to be crossed in the same way it was. Catherine Lumby asks while discussing media ethics in Media and Communications in Australia -
"Is it even relevant to draw those lines when attracting and entertaining audiences are the guiding principals behind almost all media production?" (Lumby in Cunningham & Turner, 2006: 311)
I think it is still relevant, especially in situations where the line of journalist may be blurred in the eyes of the audience as it was in the cash for comment debate, it is in the best interest of the public that this distinction be made and thus they are aware of any bias or agenda behind the news they consume.
Reference:
Lumby, C, 2006. "Media Ethics" in Cunningham & Turner Media and Communiactions in Australia. Allen & Unwin: Australia.
Chapter 1 - What is a journalist??!!
Chapter 1 – What is a Journalist?Until recently the stereotypical view of a journalist was:
-Male
-Hard-living
-Hard-drinking
-Larrikin type
-Fingers stained by nicotine and typewriter ink
-Pencil stuck behind one ear
-There is no longer a typical journalist or a definition of what their job is.
Why Define?
-Journalists need a definition to know is they are doing their job appropriately or acing ethically.
-Technological innovation means that journalists need to be constantly adapting their skills for fear that they will become outdated
-Public needs to care about the journalist otherwise news consumers may not be able to recognize or distinguish between good, bad or no news.
-In defining a journalist there are two approaches
1. Either failing to progress beyond the doing
2. Addressing elements of news practice in such theoretical terms that it is difficult to relate to practice.
Hartley [1995] describes journalism as the ‘sense making practice of modernity’ proposing that journalists go out into the ‘external real world… find out what’s going on… do empirical investigation… then try and report as truthfully and as objectively as you can’.
The MEAA [1999] sates: “Journalists describe society to itself. They convey information, ideas and opinions. They search disclose, record, questions, entertain, comment and remember. They inform citizens and animate democracy. They give practical form to freedom of expression. They scrutinize power, but also exercise it, and should be responsible and accountable.”
Who Are Journalists Responsible to?
-Employers [60% surveyed for Definition: Journalist selected this option]
-Public/community – 20%
-Audience – 15%
-More than 90% believed they should be responsible to the public or community then to themselves and next to their audiences.
-Walsh suggests that there is ‘not a lot of conflict’ between responsibility to the public and to the employer, although this may depend on the publication and its definition of audience.
-The public service nature and function of public broadcasters is more explicitly understood. As a result this type of journalist is less likely to find a gap between their responsibility to their employer and the public.
Skill and Attributes.
-Communication
-Questioning, curious and inquisitive mind
-Writing abilities
-News sense
-Knowledge of computers
-Listening skills
-General knowledge
-Empathy, patience, understanding
-A sense of working for more than self
-Language skills
-Interviewing skills
-Ability to meet deadline
-Thinking analysis skills
-Resourcefully/persistence
-Truthfulness/accuracy/integrity.
-Richardson [1998] a ‘hunger to get information, a hunger to find out the truth to always get more’.
Pressures.
-Commercialisation of news: dial-a-quote, spokespersons that are used because they quickly deliver a promising sound bite on the topic of the day.
-Journalists struggle with falling audiences for their news.
-A combination of trends threatens future of journalism.
Technology.
-Richardson [1998] technology has changed hugely altering the practice of journalism.
technology has introduced a new layer of tools
-Regional Print newsrooms – technology has: Reduced the layers of filters between gathering and writing of news.
-Increasing computerisation and digitisation of news systems have brought forward deadlines, reducing the margin for late breaking stories.
-As to broadcast journalism – satellite phones, laptops, the internet and digital audio recorders and camera allow instantaneous field-to newsroom contact from most parts of the world.
-The Internet provides worldwide publications, information and communication.
Challenges.
-Generalist vs. Specialist.
-Today’s average newspaper appeals to a ‘confederation of different constituencies” (Walsh, 1998) rather than a single audience.
Conclusion
-Ultimately the essence that distinguished journalists from other information brokers might be the commitment to the public good.
-Needs to be balances with truthfulness, accuracy, and personal and professional integrity, and a realistic appreciation of the current dependence of journalists on the news organisations bottom line.
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