Intro to Journalism

Intro to Journalism What is news? - Events or stories of importance and relevance to people whether social, economic, or political How is news constructed - - Shaped by social expectation, public interest, sensationalism - Is in service to both society and business The press - news media - Unofficial social and political force, almost as important as official sources of power - "conflict oriented" reporting The Fourth Estate - an unofficial social and political force as important as the official sources of power The importance of news - people need accurate, reliable information. ideally, it gives people information that leads them to have discussions and make good decisions. Tension between news as a service to society and news as a business - in a democracy, the people govern. need accurate, reliable information so that they have good conversations. BUT news business is big. conglomeration and business profit logics apply. declines in readership and ads, mean industry needs to change. The ideal of objectivity - - an unattainable but theoretically conceivable condition of un-bias - Notion of the news always presenting opposing sides - Consequential because you lose the neutral middle ground - Non ideological, apolitical, non partisan news gathering Issue dualism - the idea that there are two sides, and only two sides, to every story "all news is views" - all stories come from several positions - It is impossible to produce an account from completely outside Mainstream vs minority media - - *Mainstream* serves the interest of the people - *Minority* targets smaller groups - Black Civil Rights - Native American - Ethnic Media - Dealing with the question of who is "we" Origins of the press - -Starts as business/political -Niche markets -Penny Press / wire services Partisan press - - an early dominant style of American journalism distinguished by opinion newspapers, which generally argued one political point of view or pushed the plan of the particular party that subsidized the paper - Designed for property owning, politically active users - Sold by subscription - Narrow interest Penny press - - 1830's, The Sun, sold in the public not by subscription - Narrow interest declining - General interest rising - Broadening circulation-news as a commodity - Telling stories of a different kind - Emphasis on local news and on events rather than opinions - More advertising Scoop - an item of news reported by one journalist or news organization before others, and of exceptional originality, importance, surprise, excitement, or secrecy. News agencies / Wire services - Associated Press (1848), cooperative venture among NYC papers - Instead of competing for every single story they pool resources Yellow journalism - tabloid style, fantastical journalism that downplays legitimate news in favor of eye catching headlines that sell more newspapers *Pulitizer and Hearst- intense competition for circulation - Fabricated news events - Want to professionalize the trade - Forming journalism schools and teaching objectivity Commercial era - Era of competition among news business - yellow journalism = downplays legit news for eye-catching news. - trying to get more readers: entertainment, penny press. wire services to cut costs The rise of objectivity - - makes distinctions of facts versus opinions - Disallows reporters from making judgments - Pulitzer wants to professionalize the trade so schools are formed that teach objectivity and ideals. - Only the facts in the NY Times Professionalization - In the newspaper business, Pulitzer wanted to make the industry more legitimate so he created journalism schools. Teach objectivity and other ideals. Interpretative era - limits of objectivity, reporters are acknowledging their own bias