Journalism

``Journalism Three Functions of Mass Communication that Journalism Is Part Of - surveillance, correlation, and cultural transmission, also mobilizing the public -- carried out by the coverage of news News - something that occurs that is out of the orginary, about an event that affects the public in some way or at least has some element of public interest, includes coverage of recent evens, discoveries of events that have already taken place Issues with Examination of the Basic Definition of News - news concentrates too much on negative events (crime, accidents, wrongdoings, etc), news can be predictable even though that might seem surprising (ex: annual holidays or events means news stories on those holidays or events) - news is manufactured and influenced by a variety of people, organizations and forces Pseudo Events - Daniel Boorstin, ex: press conferences or other staged events like marches and rallies -- ways that groups can influence what is covered in the news, often known about in advance and are held specifically to attract media coverage Soft News Day - when editors feel not much has happened that is news-worthy and therefore will air programming or include articles such as human-interest stories, determine what to air based on what is of most interest to their readership, agenda setting function Agenda Setting Function of Journalists - they can influence through their coverage what is deemed as important by their audience and what is therefore more likely to be discussed by the public Advertising in Journalism - most newspapers and magazines are funded by advertising revenues, majority of most newspapers and magazines is advertising (more than news itself), Historical Development of Journalism - penny press allowed for mass distribution of newspapers in the early 19th century, James Gordon Bennett founded the New York Herald and created the financial page, editorial commentary, and public affairs reporting Editorial Sections of Newspapers - a special page for opinion/point of view news - subjective news, provide valuable service to the public and help guide opinion on matters of public importance Objectivity - impartiality of news, arose in news/journalism because of the newswire service in the 1840s and the Associated Press Associated Press - 6 new york news papers organized it to take advantage of the capabilities of the telegraph as a high speed communications medium, telegraphy was too expensive for each individual newspaper so they combined together to make it economically possible and affordable -- because the associated press collected news for 6 newspapers with varying political viewpoints they had to publish news reports that were politically neutral (objective) and thus acceptable to all its member Minority Newspapers - served the needs of niche, ethnic minority audiences, Frederick Douglass published an antislavery paper called the North Star, Provincial Freeman was a newspaper founded and edited by Mary Shadd Cary (the first african american woman in north america to edit a weekly newspaper) Sensational Journalism - popular in the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries, news that exaggerated or featured lurid details and depictions, William Randolph Hearst (San Francisco Examiner and the New York Journal) and Joseph Pulitzer (published of the New York World and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch) Joseph Pulitzer - focused his journalistic papers on city news, encouraged his reporters to seek out original, dramatic, and compelling stories, sensasionalism journalist, especially focused on humorous, odd romantic or thrilling stories - writing with accuracy and attention to detail still, mixing good solid reporting with sensational photographs, comic strips, and crusades against corrupt politicians -- later switched to an emphasis on pubic service journalism and accurate reporting, one of his most successful undertakings was the introduction of color printing of comics in his sunday papers, The Yellow Kid - innovative color style, created during the Pulitzer-Hearst newspaper circulation war of the 1890s Pulitzer-Hearts Newspaper Circulation Wars - 1890s, pulitzer was focused on using frequent illustrations, a racy style, and colorful headlines in his newspaper circulation, hearst stole the cartoonist of the Yellow Kid (Richard Felton OUtcalt) from Pulitzer's newspaper The World which was the main battle of the wars, Yellow Journalism - reference to the "yellow kid's" well known yellow shirt, described the sensational style of the newspapers of Pulitzer and his competitor Hearst William Randolph Hearst - main competitor of Joseph Pulitzer, sensationalized the news by printing colorful banner headlines, splashy photography, inventing the news even, his stories didnt always capture the truth and the readers probably knew it but they enjoyed reading his stories anyways, criticized for sensational tactics, hearst castle provides important support for journalism education today Muckrackers - magazine journalism, ex: Ida Minerva Tarbell, Joseph Lincoln Steffens, Upton Sinclair, pioneered investigative reporting of corrupt practices and problems in government or business Electronic Journalism - increased in popularity when radio became a medium of mass communication in the 1920s, no more waiting for delivery of newspapers/magazines anymore, it was also free because it was entirely advertising supported, the 1940s and 1950s was the beginning of televised news Edward R. Murros and News in TV's Golden Age - broadcasted dramatic radio news reports from London during WWII, produced popular TV program at CBS news, said TV is used to distract, delude, amuse, and insulate the viewers Changes in Television News Coverage - electronic news gathering equipment allowed journalists in the field to capture and send videotapes news to the network where it could be edited and broadcast much more quickly than film - influenced the nature of video storytelling, video cameras changed everything Hutchins Commission - published the Free and Responsible Press which offered a critique of the state of the press in the United States, it argued that the public has a right to information that affects it and that the press has a responsibility to present that information- the press has a moral duty to fulfill this responsibility because they have constitutional guaranteed freedom, recommended the govt. recognize that all media have the same constitutional guarantees traditionally enjoyed only by print media, also they recommended that agencies of mass communication assume the responsibility of financing new, experimental activities in their fields - mutual criticism, called on the public to create academic professional centers of advanced study, research, and publication in the field of communications, recommended that existing schools of journalism exploit the total resources of their universities to the end that their students obtain the broadest and most liberal training, lastly it recommended the establishment of a new and independent agency to appraise and report annually on the performance of the press