Chapter 14: The Culture of Journalism: Values, Ethics, and Democracy.
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Transcript of Chapter 14: The Culture of Journalism: Values, Ethics, and Democracy.
Chapter 14:
The Culture of Journalism:
Values, Ethics, and Democracy
Some guiding questions
What key values underlie modern journalism?
What ethical issues face journalists?What legacy has print journalism left
in the era of electronic journalism?What is public journalism, and how
does it differ from conventional journalism?
Problems facing modern journalism
INFORMATION OVERLOAD: Are we producing too much information?
PUBLIC ALIENATION: Does all this news improve public or political life? Does it involve citizens in public life?
Food for thought:
What is NEWS,
anyway?
Is what we call NEWS:
Process of gathering information?
A kind of narrative storytelling?
Or both?
Criteria for NEWSWORTHINES
S
TimelinessProximityConflictProminenceHuman interest
ConsequenceUsefulnessNoveltyDeviance
VALUES IN AMERICAN
JOURNALISM
THE MYTH OF NEUTRALITY
What does it mean to remain neutral? Detached? Objective?
Can reporters be detached observers of social experience without opinions?
Doesn’t the subjective process of story-writing involve interpretation and shaping of facts?
Food for thought:
Are journalists merely neutral channels of
factual information -- or are they well-informed
citizens actively shaping public
opinion?
“Enduring values” of journalism
EthnocentrismResponsible capitalismSmall-town pastoralismIndividualism
ETHICS AND THE NEWS
MEDIA
Food for thought:
What is the moral and social responsibility of journalists -- not only for their stories, but also for the actual events or issues they shape?
ETHICAL PREDICAMENTS
Deploying deception
Invading privacy
Conflict of interest
SPJ Code of Ethics
Seek truth and report it
Minimize harmAct independentlyBe accountable
THE LEGACY OF PRINT
JOURNALISM
Rituals that underlie the practice of journalism
REPORTING RITUALS
Focusing on the present Getting a good story Getting a story first
Relying on expertsBalancing story conflictActing as adversaries
JOURNALISM IN THE AGE OF TELEVISION
Print News vs. TV News
Broadcast news driven by technologyBroadcast news must limit stories to
fit into time slots between commercials.
TV news derives its credibility from live, on-the-spot reporting, believable imagery, and viewers’ trust in reporters.
Common criticisms of TV news
Format too slick and homogenized Too much emphasis on crimes
and disastersOveremphasis on “sound bites”Overemphasis on youth and
attractiveness of anchorsDislike of chatty “happy talk”
CONVENTIONAL NEWS, PUBLIC JOURNALISM,
AND DEMOCRACY
COMPETING MODELS of JOURNALISM
INFORMATION or MODERN model: emphasizes describing events and issues from a neutral perspective
PARTISAN or EUROPEAN model: emphasizes interpretive analysis of happenings and journalistic advocacy
Alternative model: PUBLIC JOURNALISMRather than just “telling the news,” has a
broader mission of helping public lifeJournalists participate in public life rather
than being detached observersRather than just describing wrongs, tries
to imagine what society COULD be likeSees readers not as consumers but as
active public citizens
Criticisms of Public Journalism
Merely panders to what readers wantCompromises journalists’ credibilityRemoves editorial control over
storiesUndermines opposing-viewpoint
conventions by seeking community consensus and middle ground
Doesn’t address changing economic structures of news industry
Food for thought:
What are the strengths and
limitations of each model of
journalism?
MORE food for thought:
What is DELIBERATIVE DEMOCRACY, and how
does it differ from REPRESENTATIVE
DEMOCRACY?How can journalism
help?