CMN 142 Exam 1 Basic 88 Questions with Verified Answers,100% CORRECT

CMN 142 Exam 1 Basic 88 Questions with Verified Answers When and where was the first newspaper published? - CORRECT ANSWER Strasbourg, Germany 1605 (Printed by Johann Carolus) Four italicized characteristics of a newspaper - CORRECT ANSWER 1. published 2. periodical 3. printed 4. present-centered Four italicized characteristics of a newspaper: Published - CORRECT ANSWER Meaning intended to be circulated to multiple persons, many of whom may be unknown to the publisher (unlike a personal letter) Four italicized characteristics of a newspaper: Periodical - CORRECT ANSWER Unlike a broadside publication published to communicate news about a specific occasion without any promise or expectation of further publication Four italicized characteristics of a newspaper: Printed - CORRECT ANSWER Thereby making possible a general circulation much more difficult and expensive to achieve in handwritten form Four italicized characteristics of a newspaper: Present-centered - CORRECT ANSWER in its subject matter When and where was the first American newspaper published? - CORRECT ANSWER Boston 1690 (Publick Occurrences Both Foreign and Domestick, published by Benjamin Harris) And there was no such thing as journalism until the 1600s? - CORRECT ANSWER No, but that doesn't mean there wasn't news There was no such thing as newspapers (published, periodical, printed, and present-centered) There was no such thing as journalism: an arena of human activities differentiated from others, with its own definition; a social domain that people might understand themselves vocationally or avocationally a part of; a set of ideas and practices at least partially distinct from other fields. A field centered on regularly disseminating notice of and commentary about [topical events] has been organized as an intentional pursuit for only around four hundred years What were the early newspapers like? Who started them and why? - CORRECT ANSWER all early newspapers were published for a general audience, printed, periodical, and for the most part present-minded in content Four 18th century models: 1. The official state-issued news vehicle 2. The advertiser 3. The propaganda journal or publication guided by a strong political position 4. Literary and satirical journals and magazines Who? The government (London Gazette), City Mercury (advertiser), The Spectator by Joseph Addison (literary journal) What were early newspapers in the American colonies like? Who started them and why? - CORRECT ANSWER There were very few of them Newspapers were primarily located in population centers (Boston, New York, etc.) They were four page weekly publications generally organized like the London journals before them in two or three columns on a page Their contents: -An assortment of local advertising -Some paragraphs on local gossip -Large amounts of European political and economic intelligence reprinted directly from London newspapers In any given colonial newspaper, political news of other American colonies rarely appeared Local political news was rarely noted or discussed Printers did not typically see their newspapers as either political instruments or professional agencies for gathering news The first to be sustained beyond one issue was the Boston Newsletter What does the First Amendment mean? - CORRECT ANSWER "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech; or of the press; or the right of the people to peacefully assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances" To the founders: -Prohibition of federal laws abridging freedom of the press, not state laws -To Jefferson, this meant it was the exclusive right of the states to control the press Gitlow v. New York: (1925) first amendment applies to states Note the significance of the Sullivan case - CORRECT ANSWER Supreme Court view emerged that the first amendment permits a distinction between "high" value and "low" value speech High value speech: speech about elections, politics, and public policy, including speech critical of the government or government officials; this is the kind of speech that was most on the mind of the founders Supreme court has determined that it's very important to protect political speech but some kinds of speech are clearly unprotected (false advertising, libelous speech/defamation, speech enacting a criminal conspiracy, "fighting words") the decision certified that libel suits against news organizations by public officials would be very difficult to win. The public official would have to show not only that news organizations published false and damaging statements but also did so knowingly with "malice" how is the US different from other countries in this (Sullivan case) regard? - CORRECT ANSWER The U.S. judicial doctrine about freedom of the press, for all its variations, is less likely to approve government regulation of or limitations on wide-open free speech and free press than any other contemporary democratic country, even countries with substantial and seriously defended liberty of the press How is the US tradition of the free press different from traditions in other democracies? - CORRECT ANSWER Most democracies enforce right to reply statutes where news organizations that have critical remarks about an individual must provide a forum for the individual to respond; The U.S. supreme court has declared that such laws violate the 1st amendment Many European democracies prohibit hate speech by law; US law does not The Postal Act - CORRECT ANSWER Newspapers circulated through mail (as most newspapers were) would have a reduced postal rate Newspapers that were mailed to other newspapers could be done so for free (remember, newspapers at this time were aggregators) Postal act was thus in a way a direct government subsidy of the primary means of newspaper gathering for early American press The Sedition Act (1798) - CORRECT ANSWER By any plausible reasoning, it abridged Freedom of the press It authorized fines or imprisonment for editors who printed "any false, scandalous, and malicious writing...against the government of the United States" How could the American founding fathers have approved the First Amendment and also supported federal subsidies for newspapers and also passed the Sedition Act of 1798 that made criticizing the federal government a crime? - CORRECT ANSWER The Sedition Act came at a time of undeclared war with France when government was understood to be a vulnerable institution The founders truly believed that calling into question the government or its individual officeholders genuinely threatened the survival of an untested republican government "How did the founders reconcile the Sedition Act with the first amendment? They didn't. The Act passed narrowly" -Madison and Jefferson strongly opposed it -there wasn't yet a standard of judicial review to strike it down Contemporary understandings of the 1st amendment would not have made much sense to the founders Why were European visitors to the US in the 19th Century so often astonished—and sometimes appalled—by the American press? - CORRECT ANSWER Astonished: there were just so many newspapers, and they could be found not only in urban areas far from political capitals but even in very small towns -Government subsidies -Newspapers as an emblem of the community Appalling: the arrogance, vitriol, and hyperbole of partisan papers of the 19th century -de Tocqueville was worried about the power of the press but also was impressed by the spread of information How did newspapers become mass market media? - CORRECT ANSWER This was not an inevitable development and it did not happen everywhere note the 2 stages discussed in the section (mass market media) - CORRECT ANSWER 1. the penny press 2. Came in the last decades of the nineteenth century when several news entrepreneurs found ways to cut costs or draw in new readers or both The penny press - CORRECT ANSWER Took off in 1830s and 1840s in the major Atlantic seaboard cities (Boston, NYC, Philly, Baltimore) Cheap Sold on the streets by newsboys rather than being sold only by subscription through the mail Leading penny papers emphasized local news, including coverage of crime and the courts Proprietors of penny papers hoped that high circulation and the advertising it would attract would make them successful enterprises This proved to be a very effective business model up until the digital age stage 2 of newspapers becoming mass market media (cutting costs and drawing in readers) - CORRECT ANSWER Joseph Pulitzer's pioneering leadership of the New York World in the 1880s and 1890s provided larger headlines, more illustrations, more lively news coverage, and more attention to topics of general interest (like sports) and topics that would draw in nontraditional newspaper readers, notably women and immigrants Publisher James Scripp cut the size of the newspaper page, reducing the cost of newsprint, and cut investment in news relayed by telegraph to reduce reporting costs (formula for reaching people of modest means) when did the number of newspapers published in the US peak? - CORRECT ANSWER 1910 (2600 daily newspapers in the U.S.) Did Karl Marx write regularly for Horace Greeley's New York Tribune? - CORRECT ANSWER YES Began when tribune editor Charles Dana was traveling in Germany and met Marx in cologne (1848) Asked Marx to write about the influence of the revolutions of 1848 in Europe on Germany Majority of Marx's columns concern European political affairs; Marx's own observations not based on interviews with sources (normal journalism of the day) Why did Abraham Lincoln spend so many hours in the telegraph office during the Civil War? - CORRECT ANSWER In 1862, the war department opened its own telegraph office right next to the white house After this, Lincoln went from sending about one telegram a month to up to 9 in a day He got into the habit of walking over the the telegraph office several times a day and reading whatever telegrams came in During major battles he even slept in the telegraph office "With the nation's very existence at stake during the war, Lincoln wanted to be as close to the front lines as he could--he wanted news as quickly as possible and he wanted his unruly general in the field to know he was watching them closely" When was the first interview? And how did interviewing become a standard practice in newsgathering? - CORRECT ANSWER Interviews did not become part of journalism until the 19th century and then in the U.S. before anywhere else It may have been James Gordon Bennett's in New York for the New York Harold in 1836 (story about the murder of Helen Jewett) OR it may have been Horace Greeley's interview with Brigham Young in 1859 (printed in the New York Tribune in Q&A format) what was the American role in the rise of interviewing? - CORRECT ANSWER The interview was a distinctly American invention Overtime interviewing became standard practice for all American journalists and increasingly many abroad -Ready acceptance is U.S. likely had to do with relative egalitarianism But interviewing was an early American export in the same informalizing direction why (and where) was there resistance to interviewing? - CORRECT ANSWER For a long time, interviewing was viewed as undignified "It was just plain unseemly" It was so impertinent (showing no respect, rude) ("public men" were normally of high status and social pedigree, journalists weren't) -Relative classlessness of America (when compared to Europe) made resistance to interviewing more feeble in the U.S. Where? Probably Europe For European critics of interviewing, journalism was a calling to be practiced by people with high literary ambitions The model form of the newspaper article was an essay, it was normally an analysis of current political and economic events Took place in private study rather than a newsroom Journalists aspired to literary flair... "Interviewing, in contrast, ironed out these high-minded intellectual and literary aspirations..." What were immigrants reading as they flocked to the US in the late 19th Century and since? - CORRECT ANSWER As immigration to the U.S. expanded, so did the foreign language press By WWI there were close to 1300 dailies and weeklies The largest foreign language press was German (but the German language press was wiped out after WWI) A foreign language press survived into the 1940s, but didn't regain the same prominence in 1910 Still with immigration reform of the 1960s and the influx of Asian and LatinX immigrants, foreign language papers serving new immigrant communities began to expand Notable is the emergence of Spanish Language broadcasting How did slaves and later free African Americans get their news? - CORRECT ANSWER Not easy for AA slaves to get news; many slaves were illiterate and in the 1830s laws in many Southern states made it illegal to teach AA's to read (5-10% literacy rate on eve of civil war) After emancipation schools began to spring up and literacy rates rose After emancipation, there was a corps of literate African Americans equipped to help former slaves The "Great Migration" was encouraged by the circulation in the south of African American newspapers from the North The Chicago Defender (widely circulated in the south, posted job notices, and opened clubs to help migrants make the transition to Urban life) The Pittsburgh Courier was also a prominent African American newspaper (promoted the "Double V campaign" Last paragraph about how African Americans got their news - CORRECT ANSWER The black press grew for a few years after WWII but in the 1950s faltered badly By the 1960s, a once thriving part of American journalism had become a ghost in itself It did not secure the same kinds of advertising base that sustained the mainstream press In many AA homes, black newspapers were the "second paper" (could still reach advertising base by advertising in general circulation newspapers; black businesses were not inspired to support the black press) As civil rights became increasingly a top news story in the mid-1950s, and even after the mainstream press had long neglected the black community, it became more possible for readers to follow this important news in the general media and for advertisers to reach AA's without buying space in AA newspapers Did the "yellow press" drive America into war with Spain in 1898? - CORRECT ANSWER Short answer: no (the textbooks are wrong) Pulitzer (New York World) and Hearst (New York Journal) both published comic strips called "The Yellow Kid," hence the name yellow journalism Sensationalism in news Puffing up news of Spanish atrocities/alleged atrocities in Cuba Relevant facts for determining if these papers would have had any influence: Both papers were ardent supporters of the democratic party, while in the run up to the Spanish-American war, both the white house and congress were controlled by Republicans Senators (who at the time were elected by state legislatures) had little reason to worry about public opinion, and although the president had perhaps slightly more reason to worry, Republicans had controlled the white house basically from and president McKinley carried NY, the only places where these papers had influence, by a large margin President McKinley's staff prepared news summaries for him, but it rarely included anything from the World and the Journal (neither paper was taken seriously in Washington). Simply no historical evidence that suggest that enthusiasm to go to war had any impact on the decision to go to war So where does this myth come from? It appears to have become consensus position after WWI Lots of propaganda coming out, people read their suspicions about propaganda forcing people into war back onto the Spanish American War Pulitzer and Hearst had no detectable influence on American foreign policy How did American newspapers, largely identified with political parties for most of the 19th Century, come to pride themselves on "objectivity"? - CORRECT ANSWER Honestly, see study guide The War (WWI) brought waves of propaganda activity, and at about the same time and increasingly in the years following the war, "public relations" became an industry Reporters quickly felt themselves deluged by outsiders eager to have their perspectives on events recognized directly or indirectly in the pages of the newspaper Journalists complained that journalism schools were churning out more PR specialists than reporters It was at this point that journalists, recognizing the efforts of governments, businesses, and others to plant stories in the press to enhance their reputation, power, or profit, asserted they would not be swayed by any of it This new model of professional journalism, often called "objective" reporting at the time and after, was further institutionalized and maintained because it served newspaper editors as a kind of discipline for directing and controlling their increasingly large staffs of young reporters learning the trade on the job Is adherence to the value of "objectivity" the heart of what it means to be a "professional" in journalism? - CORRECT ANSWER No, although U.S. journalists and scholars of journalism often speak as if these terms are inseparable In journalism, it is possible to institute norms of objectivity without establishing a pervasive culture in news organizations that encourages them EX: Brazil in the 1950s Controlled news reporters by placing authority at the copy desk, not the autonomy of individual reporters "Authoritarian modernization": a kind of revolution from above that produced "professionalization without professionalism" In other words, it enabled newspapers to establish practices of objectivity without instill in reporters urgency about it If "objectivity" is not the heart of professionalism in journalism, what (if anything) is? Three characteristics of professionalism - CORRECT ANSWER 1. Members have a high degree of autonomy in their work and in judgements about the quality of their work, uncoerced by the state or marketplace 2. Members have formal codes of ethics they take seriously or informal values that orient them to public service 3. While not all occupations that are professionalized are "learned professions," they all normally take pride in the mastery of a set of skills that require significant study or experience to master "Journalism is 'professional' in the sense that it is a full-time, white collar occupation that today invariably calls for a college degree; that increasingly depends on mastering an assortment of technical skills; and that requires that one demonstrate wide-ranging curiosity and capacity to work across different domains of human activity with agility and speed" Is it true that Mark Twain, Theodore Dreiser, Stephen Crane, Willa Cather, Ernest Hemingway, and other famous novelists were all reporters before they became famous as novelists? - CORRECT ANSWER Yes. Many people who aspire to be novelists begin their careers as journalists. Journalism offers more to perspective writers than just a paycheck, "write what you know" How do you learn the world? Journalism is a good way Who were the "muckrakers"? - CORRECT ANSWER The term "muckraking" dates to 1906 when President Teddy Roosevelt criticized journalists for tearing down the country by their insistent emphasis on corruption and scandal Roosevelt insisted he was just referring to William Randolph Hearst's newspapers and magazine empire, but not responsible investigative news in magazines like McClure's The original muckrakers invariably wrote for magazines or published their muckraking works in books The end of Roosevelt's presidency was in many ways the end to the era of the muckrakers "New Muckrakers" (articulated by Washington Post editor in the 1970s) were invariably newspaper reporters like Woodward and Bernstein In terms of constructing a self-identified field of investigative reporting with a coherent and enduring legacy, the "new muckraking" that took off in the late 1960s had a much more pervasive and lasting influence on journalism than the original muckrakers and what do we call muckraking today? - CORRECT ANSWER (when it became institutionalized in the 1970s) investigative reporting "The journalism of outrage" (policing threats to public morality, exposing shortcomings in society) "a reporter that spends a lot of time doing investigations" Second coming of muckraking found its home in American daily newspapers and the culture of the newsroom Creating of specifically dedicated investigative reporting teams What kind of education did journalists typically have in the past? When—and why—did formal course work in and schools of journalism develop? - CORRECT ANSWER Journalists until the late 20th century typically learned the trade on the job Courses in journalism began to be offered at a few colleges in the late nineteenth century, but no school dedicated to journalism education existed until the University of Missouri established its school in 1908 The idea of a college education for journalists had been under discussion for some years by then 1904: Pulitzer advocated for formal journalism training In his will he donated the money that made the journalism school at Columbia university possible (founded in 1914) The heart of U.S. journalism education developed in public universities (private universities have been far less likely to establish journalism programs) Journalists in the past did not apply any sort of abstract or conceptual knowledge to their work; the expectation was the good reporting requires skills in writing and a "nose for news" and a knack for getting at the heart of it; frequently journalists were expected to have social skills The U.S. led the way in developing organized journalism education in colleges and universities What is a Pulitzer Prize? - CORRECT ANSWER It is the most prestigious of all awards or prizes for American journalists; they were established as a part of a bequest made by Joseph pulitzer There are 14 prizes in journalism Pulitzer board has full power to maintain the prizes as it determines Other awards (not pulitzers) celebrate achievement in radio and television news Different criteria for different prizes Is it unethical for journalists to be or to become friends with the people they write about? - CORRECT ANSWER he answer has changed through the years In the 19th centuries, reporters often worked also as clerks for congressional committees Intimacy between reporters and journalists didn't disappear as we moved from the "bad" journalism of the 19th century to the good "Priestly" journalist insiders like Alsop and Lippmann There is not just one acceptable model of how journalists should serve the public in journalism At the same time, American journalists have grown hostile to insider journalism when it blurs the line between reporting politics and doing politics or reporting in the interest of public understanding and participating in the formation of public policy Writing an opinion article about a politicians speech that you wrote without acknowledging that violates the implicit public trust journalism depends on Why did radio not kill off newspapers? - CORRECT ANSWER New technologies/mediums do not do just the same as the old, faster or better; they do something like the old but not exactly Radio did not have some of the important features that people enjoyed with newspapers You don't need to make an appointment for a certain hour and minute to get news from your newspaper In the U.S. (in major cities with two or more newspapers), each newspaper typically had a political affiliation or political leaning, something readers felt comfortable with and that helped them feel connected with the newspaper; The headline style of radio news, in contrast, did not produce a personal identification (Though it didn't have the same immediacy and intimacy of human voice) newspapers had features radio could not duplicate: Newspapers printed photographs (interviews conducted during newspaper strike) sense of loss in their daily routines Reading the paper was part of a daily ritual, often at a specific time of day It was a pleasure and a comfort that fit into a pattern of everyday activity and offered a familiarity that radio did not replace . . . And why did TV not destroy newspapers? - CORRECT ANSWER Television did not kill off newspapers either, but it contributed to the death of newspapers that published in the afternoons rather than in the mornings It was not that people simply preferred TV to print but that television was integrated into a broad shift in how people lived their lives It was part of the suburbanization of American cities and the afternoon newspaper did no fit into it so neatly as before Meanwhile, the signature evening television news broadcast provided a substitute good enough to make the afternoon newspaper seem to many an unnecessary family expense (stats of TV vs. print news consumption in Europe) Why have many democracies invested public funds in broadcasting? - CORRECT ANSWER BBC is the world's most influential model for broadcast news Other European nations also have substantial public broadcasting systems with much larger audiences than public broadcasting in the U.S. Research conducted found that the U.S. invested less than 4 dollars per capita per year in public radio and television A genuine political independence for the BBC began only in the mid-1950s when rivalry with the newly established commercial broadcasting service detached BBC from the strings of the state Whereas in most countries newspapers and magazines preceded national sovereignty, broadcasting appeared after the establishment of independent nation-states or was quickly appropriated by the first postcolonial governments In most societies, less gun-shy of central governmental authority than the united states, this has lead to powerful state broadcasting It has also produced in most cases successful efforts to maintain what the British call an "arm's-length" distance between the government in power and the quasi-independent boards that govern broadcasting (legislation establishing public broadcasting in many contemporary democracies promise substantial or effectively complete editorial independence from the state) note how the US differs from other countries in regard to public broadcasting - CORRECT ANSWER The US has some entities like NSF, National Institutes of Health, and National Endowment for the Humanities that, though funded by the government, preserve "peer review" as the primary mechanism for establishing scientific priorities The US sought to emulate other democracies in setting up the Public Broadcasting Service in 1967, but comparable funding never followed Why is there a Freedom of Information Act—and does it do any good? - CORRECT ANSWER (1966) The Freedom of Information Act grants "any person...the right to request information help by the federal government--and the right to take the government to court if the request is denied" Two notable limitations: 1. It does not cover congress or the courts. Only agencies of the executive branch of government are covered by law 2. The law lists nine "exemptions" (conditions justifying the refusal to release information). Among these conditions are that disclosures of the requested information bears on national security; that is violates the privacy rights of an individual; that it exposes legitimate trade secrets; or that it exposes deliberation (rather than final decisions) inside an executive agency Amendments in 1974 did make the law tighter and tougher (set time limits for agencies to respond to requests) Came out of legislative effort that began during the cold war; republicans and democrats wanted to regain some control over the executive (building a "paper curtain" between the government and the public) Even later, after several amendments were passed to strengthen it and streamline its use, reporters, historians, and others who attempted to use it have found it slow and frustrating It affords the government all kinds of ways to defer and delay an, even when releasing information, to release far less than requested Still, many important stories could not have been possible without it. FOIA processes are both frustrating and indispensable It has also been one of the great legislative exports of the US What was New Journalism? - CORRECT ANSWER New journalism began with reporters who wrote for magazines with literary pretensions like Esquire and for magazines with scarcely any pretensions at all, like the "Sunday Supplement" magazine in daily newspapers They (the reporters of new journalism) were reporters who were writing "features" for newspapers but who tried to publish as much as they could in the magazines that would take longer pieces They were attracted to experiments with POV and other literary devices And they believed that in non-fiction, as long as it was genuinely reported observation, they could use any literary device "to excite the reader both intellectually and emotionally" What made New Journalism "new" was literary freedom; what made it "journalism" was that it was reported Wolfe: value--go beyond normal journalism and stay with the subject longer In retrospect, the impact of New Journalism was limited and it did little to make newspapers more literary Sparkle in the eye of aspiring reporters Did the press uncover the Watergate scandal? (And what was the Watergate scandal?) - CORRECT ANSWER Reporting took place from summer 1972 - summer 1974 Watergate forced Nixon to resign from his presidency (he would've certainly been impeached it he hadn't) Nixon used his position to mount attacks on those he considered his personal enemies (the press, the movement against the war in Vietnam, the democratic party) Approved plans to burglarize democratic candidates offices, democratic headquarters, and the official who leaked the pentagon papers psychiatrist's office "Smoking gun" that lead to Nixon's downfall was recording of him that proved he had ordered his aides to cover up burglaries and other petty crimes he supported in his election campaign Outside of the Washington Post, it took the press a long time to climb aboard the watergate express Meanwhile, much was revealed by non-media agencies of investigation As time passed, the greatest revealer of secrets was Richard Nixon himself, once it became known that he had secretly tape-recorded his many meetings in the Oval Office (leading prosecutors to subpoena the tapes) The Post's efforts alone could not have pushed Nixon from office, but their dogged dedication to the story secured investigative reporting at the moral center of what is best in journalism What is the legacy of "the 60s" in journalism? - CORRECT ANSWER Changes can be seen both in the way news is written and in the attitudes and self-images of the journalists who produce it note the limitation of investigative journalism discussed early in this section - CORRECT ANSWER It is too expensive, risky, and time consuming to color much of daily newspaper production note the points on authority & sources (60s legacy) - CORRECT ANSWER The sixties created an enduring set of doubts that authority can be trusted "Question authority" Journalists came to question the authority of government officials and other sources, and news stories in major daily newspapers grew longer and more analytical Sources came to be more carefully and fully identified Not only did reporters show a new skepticism of their sources, but they no longer also assumed their audiences would accept their work without question Reporter's voice of intellectual judgement Not the reporters personal judgement, but rather the reporter reflecting an attitude that politicians and other authorities are human, fallible, self-interested, and that their statements are political actions rather than descriptions of reality Reporters weren't necessarily naive about this earlier, but they weren't reflective about the ways their own practices contributed to perpetuating the view that "the people in charge" basically knew what they were doing and wished only for the public good what led to the questioning of authority? - CORRECT ANSWER So why the change? There is no simple answer, but we suspect that the growing prevalence of college education among journalists and a growing insistence on news professionalism had a lot to do with it. This was coupled with a new democratizing trend that took politicians several steps down from their pedestals Are the terms "contextual" or "analytical" or "explanatory" or" interpretive" news just euphemisms for biased news? - CORRECT ANSWER There is a difference between opinion that is shaped by evidence, even evidence inconvenient for the perspective the author would like to take, and opinion so set in stone that no accumulation of evidence can dislodge it There is a difference between exploring a subject and preaching about it Most of the world's currents are not easy to present simply This does not mean that journalists should be confined to just presenting official reports and speeches and quoting leaders from the top parties and calling it a day This practice is itself biased: biased towards to established The reporter can and to some extent must think through, analyze, frame, and interpret--regardless about his or her own wishes about what the evidence should mean (what does the evidence actually mean) Did people ever trust the press? - CORRECT ANSWER Short answer: no Delves into the Walter Cronkite thing (was he actually the most trusted man in America) This comes from a poll the was gauging the trusted-ness of politicians (other polls reveal he wasn't even the most liked news anchor of his day) This example in itself doesn't mean that journalists were ever distrusted, but it does discredit a big piece of evidence regarding news in the pre-Vietnam and civil rights era () The idea that the press had been a perfectly trusted pillar of mainstream, neutral, moderate, responsible news reporting is largely an illusion If you go back, the news media were understood to be and understood themselves to be advocated for one party or the other, not neutral truth-tellers Readers trusted their own favored paper and distrusted others Has Fox News ushered in the return of the partisan press? - CORRECT ANSWER Fox News: 1996 It was NOT the first news outlet to revive partisanship Credit for that must go to talk radio (not news reporting but news commentary, more often than not conservative) This and later partisan TV news programming was made possible by the 1987 withdrawal of the "fairness doctrine," a Federal Communications Commision regulation that required broadcasters covering controversial issues to do so giving various viewpoints a hearing The trend to partisanship in radio and cable TV is significant but it does not reproduce for the present anything like the partisan press that dominated American media in the 19th century FOX and MSNBC have equivocal influence Not clear if people with conservative beliefs seek out fox news or if watching fox news makes people more conservative A partisan press in the 19th century when there was very little else, and a few partisan outlets in the wake of the development of strong, professional, contextual journalism are very different things Journalism norms are all dominated by professional-style, not partisan-style, news They could make break some ground if they were breaking important stories Television news for the most part follows print (rarely breaks stories or does investigative work of the sort that make waves or set patterns) This is mostly the work of print orgs Cable channels including Fox have not equaled the audience of size of CBS, NBC, or ABC (although it's difficult to calculate viewership bc Fox runs around the clock) Basically people exaggerate Fox news's place in the total array of television news programming The largest impact of cable television is not to poach viewers from the three major broadcast news networks but to divert tens of millions of viewers from all TV news outlets toward sports channels, home shopping channels, movie channels, and other What was the main issue of contention between the Rolling Stone writer and the subject "Jackie," and how did the publication's editors resolve the issue? - CORRECT ANSWER Generally, Jackie was a "challenging" source because she would not respond to the reporters communication (making the reporter fear she was going to withdraw) Ultimately, though, the biggest point of contention was that she would not disclose the name of the lifeguard who organized the rape, stating that she still feared him The Rolling Stone's editors decided to go ahead without knowing the lifeguard's name or even verifying his existence (and after that Jackie was cooperative) How widely viewed was the magazine's story? - CORRECT ANSWER The story attracted more than 2.7 million views, more than any other feature not about a celebrity the magazine had ever published Review the developments that occurred from the day after Thanksgiving to December 4, 2014. - CORRECT ANSWER Day before Thanksgiving (a week after publication): reporter calls Jackie, she thanks her many times, reporter tries to press Jackie about the name of the lifeguard again, she finally gives his name, but she doesn't know how to spell his last name...reporter becomes alarmed by this: how could she not now his name? Concerned, reporter investigates this guy she's named, but cannot confirm that he worked at the pool, was in the frat, or had any connections to Jackie / the assault she described Writers at Slate challenge Erdely's reporting in a podcast interview, learns that a Washington Post reporter is was preparing a story involving interviews at UVA that would seriously call into question Rolling Stone's reporting Dec. 4: Jackie and reporter have a telephone call that causes the reporter to seriously doubt Jackie's story; Reporter contacts her editor saying she has lost confidence in the description of Jackie's assault; Rolling Stone publishes an editor's note that retracted Rolling Stone's reporting on Jackie's alleged assault at UVA The first paragraphs of this section summarize the entire claim of the article. - CORRECT ANSWER The Rolling Stone's rejection of the main narrative in the story was an avoidable failure. The failure encompassed reporting, editing, editorial supervision, and fact checking. The magazine disregarded/rationalized as unnecessary practices of reporting that, if pursued, would likely have led the magazine's editors to reconsider publishing Jackie's story so prominently, if at all. The published story glossed over gaps in the magazine's reporting by using pseudonyms and by failing to state where important information had come from What does CJR claim that Rolling Stone's failure makes clear? - CORRECT ANSWER "The need for a revitalized consensus in newsrooms old and new about what best journalistic processes entail, at an operating-manual-level of detail" Was the failure of the article caused by lack of resources? Or something else? - CORRECT ANSWER No (even though it is true that Rolling Stone does have fewer editors than it once did), "the problem was methodology, compounded by an environment where several journalists with decades of collective experience failed to surface and debate problems about their reporting or head to questions they did recieve from a fact-checking colleague" (CJR's argument) Shereen's summary: their methods were incorrect, which was made worse by the fact that they weren't critical of their sources or willing to debate information, or even seriously consider questions about accuracy proposed by fact checkers (From a Rolling Stone source) Both an individual failure and a procedural failure: a whole chain of people had the opportunity to press harder and uncover the cracks, but nobody did (still, most people at Rolling Stone claim the real failure of the article was being too accommodating of Jackie because she described herself as a victim of sexual assault, but CJR argues that this explanation cannot adequately account for what went wrong) But reporting records and interviews make clear that the magazine did not pursue important reporting paths even when Jackie had made no request that they not refrain. "The editors made judgements about attribution, fact-checking, and verification that greatly increased their risks of error" but had little to do with protecting Jackie's position What does the article claim about journalistic practice when publishing derogatory information about anyone?—this question refers to Jackie's three former friends. Beyond fairness, what is a practical reason for checking derogatory information with subjects? - CORRECT ANSWER "Journalistic practice--and basic fairness--require that if a reporter intends to publish derogatory information about anyone, he or she [or they] should seek that person's side of the story" Checking derogatory information with subjects is a matter of fairness, but it can also produce surprising new facts (Jackie claimed that three friends had seen her after the attack, she alleged two of them told her not to come forward. Their names in the article were Ryan (sympathetic), Alex, and Kathryn) What is "front-running"? - CORRECT ANSWER "There are cases where reporters may choose to withhold some details of what they plan to write while seeking verification for fear that the subject might 'front run' by rushing out a favorably-run version preemptively" So basically I gather front-running is when a source, upon knowing too much situation, twists their account to reflect positively on themselves rather than telling the truth and verifying information? But, this shouldn't have been a worry in this case because even if that frat had bad motivations (which I'm sure most frats do), had they been given complete information factual discrepancies would've come up that would've called the article into question before publication Who was "Drew"? - CORRECT ANSWER "Drew" was the pseudonym used to refer to the man Jackie said orchestrated her attack There was a guy who worked at the aquatic center names Drew, but he wasn't in the frat and there was no evidence to link him to Jackie's assault. Had Rolling Stone found this pool guy who had the same name, this may have led Erdely to reconsider some things What did author Erdely see as the "overarching point of [her] article"? - CORRECT ANSWER The overarching point was not Jackie but "the culture that greeted her and so many other UVA women I interviewed, who came forward with allegations, only to be met with indifference" (According to the reporter) it was supposed to be an examination of how colleges handle these types of things, just with Jackie as a striking example Note the comments about the author's editor in the first paragraph. - CORRECT ANSWER Sean Woods (the primary editor) might have prevented the retraction by pressing the writer the close the gaps in her reporting Sure, he started out in music journalism but had been editing features for a long time Writers working on complicated stories often have blind spots, and it's up to their editors to order more phone calls, travel, time, etc. until the reporting is complete Woods did not do enough What was "the most consequential decision" the magazine made in this story? - CORRECT ANSWER To accept that Erdely had not contacted the three friends who spoke with Jackie on the night she was raped That was the reporting path that, if taken, would've certainly led the magazine's editors to change plans What does the CJR article suggest as a solution for journalists when all sources cannot be reached? - CORRECT ANSWER To be transparent with readers about what is known or unknown at the time of publication Failures of transparency in this case cannot be attributed to writing style; they obscured important problems with the story's reporting What is the CJR point about Confirmation Bias? - CORRECT ANSWER Confirmation bias definition: the tendency of people to be trapped by preexisting assumptions and to select facts that support their own views while overlooking contradictory ones Confirmation bias seems to have been a factor in the RS reporting "Erdely believed the university was obstructing justice. She felt she had been blocked. Like many other universities, UVA had a flawed record of managing sexual assault cases. Jackie's experience seemed to confirm this larger pattern. Her story seemed well established on campus, repeated and accepted" Read the first paragraph to get a sense of fact-checking in journalism. - CORRECT ANSWER At newspapers, frontline reporters and editors are responsible for stories' accuracy and completeness Magazine fact-checking departments usually employ younger reporters or college graduates Their job is to review a reporter's story after it has been drafted To double-check details like dates and physical descriptions They look at issues such as attribution and whether story subjects who have been depicted unfavorably have had their say Checker's will speak with writer's sources, sometimes including confidential ones, to verify facts within quotations and other details To be effective, checkers must be empowered to challenge the decisions of writers and editors who may be much more senior and experienced How do the Jayson Blair and Brian Williams cases differ from this one? - CORRECT ANSWER It does not involve the kinds of fabrication by reporters Jayson Blair of the NYT had invented entire stories Brian Williams of NBC "told tall tales" about his wartime reporting in Iraq There is no evidence in Erdely's materials or from interviews with her subjects that she invented facts; the problem was that she relied on what Jackie told her without vetting the accuracy Review the points about pseudonyms, checking derogatory information, and confronting subjects with details. pseudonyms - CORRECT ANSWER Pseudonyms are inherently undesirable in journalism, the introduce fiction and ask the reader to trust that this is the only instance in which a publication is inventing details at its discretion In the Jackie case, the use of pseudonyms was a crutch, it allowed the magazine to evade coming to terms with the gaps in its reporting Suggestion: RS should consider banning them If editors believe that pseudonyms are an indispensable tool, the magazine should consider using them much more rarely and only after robust discussion about alternatives, with dissent encouraged Review the points about pseudonyms, checking derogatory information, and confronting subjects with details. Checking derogatory information - CORRECT ANSWER If the fact checking department had understood that not checking with subjects who were depicted in a derogatory manner (in this case, the three friends) was unacceptable, the outcome would've almost certainly changed Review the points about pseudonyms, checking derogatory information, and confronting subjects with details. Confronting subjects with details - CORRECT ANSWER When the reporter sought "comment" she missed out on the opportunity to hear challenging, detailed rebuttal from the frat The fact checker relied on the reporter's communication with the frat and did not independently confirm with the frat the account RS intended to publish about the assault If both reporter and checker had understood that by policy they routinely share specific, derogatory details with the subjects of their reporting, RS might've veered in a different direction Balancing sensitivity to victims and the demands of verification - CORRECT ANSWER Because questioning a victim's account can be traumatic, counselors have cautioned journalists to allow survivors some control over their own stories. This is good advice. Yet it does survivors no good if reporters documenting their cases avoid rigorous practices of verification. That may only subject the victim to greater scrutiny and skepticism Shereen's take: because victims can easily become retraumatized it's good advice to allow victims some control over their stories, but this doesn't excuse reporters from rigorous verification, which can actually be an even greater disservice Problems arise when the terms of the compact between survivor and journalist are not spelled out Example of Kristen Lombardi, who made clear the victims she interviewed that she believed them but it was in their best interest to make sure there were not questions about the reliability of their accounts She allowed the victims some control (including the time and place of their interviews) Shereen's note (not for study purposes): I'm...a little lukewarm on this, like, this in my head is standard practice for any cooperating source in an investigation that doesn't have extreme time constraints, doesn't really seem like her allowing the victims some control Also, if a woman was not ready for this process, Lombardi was prepared to walk away Corroborating survivor accounts - CORRECT ANSWER Looking for every shred of corroborating evidence (911 calls, emails sent directly after attacks, possibly even footage) Esp with college rapes there is often a lot of bystanders If there are inconsistencies, explain those inconsistencies. Trauma can often impair a victim's memory and produce contradictory accounts Lombardi: I've often found that the people most willing to talk are the front line staff (admins, counselors, residence hall people) Talked to them on background to avoid privacy issues FERPA is strict, but students are also allowed to access their own records or sign privacy waivers that could allow reporters to obtain their records FERPA has one exception: in sexual assault cases that have been finalized and the student has been found responsible, campus authority can release the name of the student, the violation, and any sanction imposed Holding institutions to account - CORRECT ANSWER Journalists are rarely in a position to prove guilt or innocence in the case of a rape; what's more valuable is analyzing the response of institutions to accusations This approach can actually make it easier to persuade both victims and perpetrators to talk To succeed at such reporting, it is necessary to gain a deep understanding of the web of rules and guidelines on campus sexual assault (title IX, clery act, violence against women act, directives from the Office of Civil Rights, recommendations from the white house, congress and state legislatures proposing laws) "The responsibilities that universities have in preventing campus sexual assault - and the standards of performance they should be held to - are important matters of public interest. Rolling Stone was right to take them on. The pattern of its failure draws a map of how to do better." where does the majority of original reporting come from - CORRECT ANSWER In the U.S. 85% of original reporting comes from newspaper newsrooms Understanding the indispensable role of journalism in a representative democracy - CORRECT ANSWER Overestimating the power of news But it does provide a place for information to be exchanged "It's not that powerful, but we still can't do without it" 5 Standards of Newsworthiness - CORRECT ANSWER Consequence Timelines Parochialism (localism) Prominence Human Interest The Big Short? - CORRECT ANSWER I think the big take away was newsworthiness. The reporter doesn't want to look into the story because he'd burn important wall street ties 5 Reasons Why news is important - CORRECT ANSWER 1. To sort truth from lies 2. to signify weakness in the social order 3. To develop and maintain a public record 4. To promote informed decision making 5. Provide accountability Timelines of watergate - CORRECT ANSWER 6/1972: break in Later 1972: prosecution of break-in, government investigation 1/1973: Nixon's 2nd inauguration 3/1973: high profile firings (Holdeman) 6-9/1973: Senate Select committee on watergate Late 1973/early 1974: house investigation spring/summer 1974: house impeachment hearing 8/9/1974: Nixon resigns 9/1974: Nixon pardon ATPM important take aways - CORRECT ANSWER Press played a vital role, but they didn't solely bring down this "very powerful man" (as often is the perception) Much of this story really isn't a media story "Power of the press" is not the same thing as power through the press Don't confuse the conduit with what's being conveyed through that Journalists have a major attraction to stories of scandal Political Bias (?) -There's definitely a political dimension, but prof. Argues that political bias explains the story as much as scandal does conventions of sourcing -Who is a legitimate source? -High up-ness of the source -Unreliability of people disconnected from the source of power (Scene in the newsroom) "It's a dangerous story; I don't believe it" It's not just all the unnamed sources, it's that other newspapers aren't re-running our stories Even within the press they weren't believing it Credibility--External, Internal Internal: you have to convince each other independent of external credibility Think of the press as a place through which power flows Who's doing the investigating here (besides the news media)? 5 Ideal Traits of Journalism (lecture) - CORRECT ANSWER 1. Public service 2. Objectivity 3. Autonomy 4. Immediacy 5. Ethics Broad observations of news in American societies - CORRECT ANSWER Government officials at various levels are heavily overrepresented as sources in media Deferential to American institutions (Argument) Relatively narrow range of political opinion in American media (compare to most European nations) Notion of Bias / Problems with the concept of bias - CORRECT ANSWER Prof. doesn't think it's possible for news media to be objective "Window" metaphor is meaningless Bias continuum: Bias Most people take this to mean that media outlets are intentionally slanting their product Fighting term in journalism Slanted Emphasizing this and not that Tendency Not as "sharp" in its connotation as bias Pattern Ok, there's a pattern, what are you noticing? Practice Suggests there's certain ways you do things The higher you are on this bias continuum the more pejorative you're viewed as But aren't the terms sort of overlapping? Problem with political bias as a concept A "radical" would likely see a "centrist" newspaper as "conservative" Hard to be consistent Perceived leanings say more about the people who observed them These terms are limiting because they really have little general applicability If the focus in on reporters, inclination to say that the news media is liberal If the focus is on institution/owner → conservative Think beyond political bias Ex: class bias Any time you have standards it equals some sort of slanted news Ex: decency standards Fantastic lies: what the media needs to do in cases like this - CORRECT ANSWER Expectation Dangers of a case conforming to one's expectations From FL, journalists saying that it's not surprising that they'd do something like this This type of thing could cloud reporting Verification Allegations of crime warrant demanding standards of verification Sometimes it can be difficult to investigate bc investigators might not want to release info Corroboration Obtaining corroborating evidence becomes important Rolling Stone: sourcing looks thin Accountability Powerful/respected institutions making a claim; to believe something contrary is difficult Notable DA's office, universities University attacked for not going far enough Holding people accountable is a job for journalists Thought they're not necessarily the only people who can do it Neutrality Avoiding emotional involvement with the story