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Definition
- People crave the news out of basic instinct - they need to know about events beyond their direct experience
- Knowledge of the unknown gives security
- Exchanging information is the basis for creating a community
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Definition
- Regular Elections
- Universal Franchise
- Stable Constitution
- Independent Judiciary
- Freedom to form association, gather in public places, etc.
- Freedom of Speech
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Term
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Definition
- Definition: supreme power or authority - the authority of a state to govern itself or another state
- Journalism helps create and maintain sovereignty and self-governing
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Term
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Definition
| A method of gathering information, verifying it, and providing the most fair and accurate account possible, guided by the set principles and purpose of journalism |
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| Idealist Definition of Journalism |
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Definition
- A current reasoned reflection, transmitted via any communicative medium to members of society, of society's events, values, and needs
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Term
| Practical Definition of Journalism |
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Definition
- A commercial enterprise supported by advertising and subscription that delivers current information to a specialized or mass audience
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Term
| Journalism's Link with Community |
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Definition
- Journalism helps define our community, it's goals, heroes, and villains
- First loyalty is to citizens
- Newspeople build relationships with audiences based on: values, judgement, authority, courage, professionalism, and community to community
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Term
| Journalism's Link with Democracy |
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Definition
- Historically, More Democratic = More News & Information Available
- Freedom of Speech is a marker of Democracy and therefore plays a role in sustaining democratic life
- Democracy needs news to fulfill: presentation, deliberation, conflict resolution, accountability, and information dissemination
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Term
| Lippmann's view of Democracy and Journalism |
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Definition
- Limits of human perception mean democracy is fundamentally flawed
- Goal of Democracy:
- To manage public affairs efficiently
- Democracy is an end, a result, a product
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Term
| Dewey's View of Democracy and Journalism |
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Definition
- Dewey - your definition of democracy is what is flawed
- Goals of Democracy:
- To allow people to Develop to the fullest potential
- Democracy is a means to an end, a process
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Term
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Definition
- A product that is collected, written, and recorder
- It is the focus of Journalism and it the prompt and product of journalism
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Term
| Theory of Interlocking Public |
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Definition
- Involved Public - have a personal stake in the issue
- Interested Public - affected by the issue, but no direct role
- Uninterested Public - not paying attention
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Term
| Criteria of Newsworthiness |
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Definition
- Impact
- Proximity
- Conflict
- Prominence
- Timeliness
- Novelty
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Term
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Definition
- A criteria of newsworthiness
- The audience is impacted by the event, and therefore has meaning for the audience
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Definition
- A criteria of newsworthiness
- The distance between the event and the audience
- News caters to people by reporting news in a close proximity
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Definition
- A criteria of newsworthiness
- Conflict - a disagreement, competition, etc. - always makes news
- People are naturally drawn to conflict
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Definition
- A criteria of newsworthiness
- How well-known a company or individual are in the community of the audience
- Famous companies/people make news because people know who they are
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Definition
- A criteria of newsworthiness
- News is NEW, current - not old
- If the event or topic is old then it does not make news - people want to know what is happening now
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Term
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Definition
- A criteria of newsworthiness
- Events/People that are unusual, dramatic, emotional, or interesting
- People crave the unknown, what they do not experience in daily life
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Term
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Definition
- Journalists recognize something as news and pursue it
- What journalists discover and uncover becomes the news
- Along the way, decisions are made and judgement is being exercised
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Definition
- Focus often on the mundane information of daily life
- Has potential to trivialize a media organization's brand and further saturate news with myopic local content, perhaps at the expense of international and national news
- 3 elements:
- Entities and events that are located within a well defined, community scale area
- Intended primarily for consumption by residents of that area
- Created by a resident of the area
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Term
| The Elements of Journalism |
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Definition
- Journalism's first obligation is to the truth
- Its first loyalty is to citizens
- Its Essence is Discipline of Verificaton
- Its Practitioners must maintain independence from those that they cover
- It must serve as an independent monitor of power
- It must provide a forum for public criticism and compromise
- It must strive to make the news significant, interesting, and relevant
- It must keep the news comprehensive and proportional
- Its practitioners must be allowed to exercise their personal consience
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Term
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Definition
- Journalism's first obligation
- Accuracy and Truth are not interchangeable
- Journalistic is truth is a sorting-out process
- Journalists must report the truth of facts, not just facts
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Term
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Definition
- Routines: ways of doing things, ways of defining what is and is not news
- A process used to achieve journalistic truth
- Journalism is a process; news is a product of that process
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Term
| Journalism's First Loyalty |
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Definition
- The 2nd Element of Journalism: Journalism's first loyalty is to citizens
- It is the implied covenant with the public, which tells the audience that the coverage is not self-interested or slanted
- This allegiance to citizens is the meaning of what we call journalistic independence
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Term
| Discipline of Verification |
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Definition
- The essence of journalism
- What separates journalism from entertainment, propaganda, fiction, etc.
- It established a closer relationship with citizens
- Contains 5 core concepts
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Term
| 5 Core Concepts of Discipline Verification |
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Definition
- Never add anything that was not there
- Never deceive the audience
- Be transparent as possible about your methods and motives
- Rely on your own reporting
- Exercise humility
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Term
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Definition
- Original meaning: called for journalists to develop a consistent method of testing information - a transparent approach to evidence - precisely so that personal and cultural biases would not undermine the accuracy of the work.
- Today's idea of objectivity: being un-biased
- Human nature does not allow this
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Term
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Definition
- Realism: The idea that if reporters simply dug out the facts and ordered them together, the truth would reveal itself rather naturally
- This is not objectivity
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Term
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Definition
- The internet affords journalists easy access to stories and quotes without doing their own investigating
- In the age of the 24-hour news cycle, journalists now spend more time looking for something to add to existing news, rather than trying to independently discover and verify new facts.
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Term
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Definition
- Too often misconstrued to have a mathematical meaning
- Often their are more than two sides to a story
- Sometimes balancing each side equally is not a true reflection of reality
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Definition
- Misunderstood if it is seen as a goal unto itself
- Fairness should mean the journalist is being fair to the facts and to a citizen's understanding of them
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Term
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Definition
- First core concept of the Discipline of Verification
- Simply means do not add things that did not happen - including rearranging of events, characters, or words
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Term
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Definition
- 2nd core concept of the Discipline of Verification
- Means never mislead the audience
- The audience should know if one is going to engage in any narrative or storytelling techniques that vary from the most literal form of eyewitness reporting
- Closely related to "do not add"
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Term
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Definition
- 3rd concept of the Discipline of Verification: be as transparent as possible
- Requires journalists to be:
- honest and truthful to audiences
- truth presenters
- open and honest about what they do and do not know
- Transparency signals the journalist's respect for the audience, and allows the audience to judge the validity of the information, the process by which it was secured, and the motives and biases of the journalist providing it
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Term
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Definition
- Occurs when journalists pose as someone else to get a story by misleading sources
- These journalists are known as Muckrakers
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Term
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Definition
| Term used for journalists who engage in masquerading |
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Term
| Steps to evaluate masquerading |
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Definition
- The information must be sufficiently vital to the public interest to justify deception
- Journalists should not engage in masquerading unless there is no other way to get the story
- Journalists should reveal to their audience whenever they mislead sources to get information, and explain their reasons for doing so, including why the story justifies the deception and why this was the only was to get the facts
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Term
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Definition
- 4th concept of the Discipline of Verification
- Another thing for citizens and journalists to look for when judging the value of a news report
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Term
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Definition
- 5th and final concept of the Discipline of Verification
- Journalists should be humble about their own skills
- A key way to avoid misrepresenting events is a disciplined honesty about the limits of one's knowledge and the power of one's perception
- Be skeptical of what you see and hear from others, and be skeptical of your own ability to know the true meaning of those words and actions
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Term
| Accuracy Checklist: A step towards objective methods |
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Definition
- Is the lead sufficiently supported?
- Have names, places, events, etc. been verified and double-checked?
- Is background material required for understanding?
- Are all stakeholders identified? Have representatives have the opportunity to speak?
- Does the story pick sides or make value judgements?
- Is anything missing?
- Are all quotes accurate and attributed? Do they convey the intended meaning?
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Term
| Journalism as Conversation |
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Definition
- A journalist is someone who steps away and tries to see it all
- If journalism is a conversation, in the end that conversation includes discourse among citizens as well as with those who provide the news.
- The citizens must be attentive, assertive, and ask questions - they deserve the answers
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Term
| Practitioners must maintain independence from those that they cover |
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Definition
- 4th Element of Journalism
- Two parts of independence:
- Independence from Faction
- Engaged Independence
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Term
| Independence from Faction |
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Definition
- The critical step in pursuing truthfulness and informing citizens is not neutrality but independence
- It is this independence of spirit and mind, not neutrality, that journalists must keep in focus
- It is good judgement, and an abiding commitment to the principle of first allegiance to citizens, that separates the journalist from the partisan
- However, no rigid prohibition against any kind of personal or intellectual engagement will serve to guarantee a journalist remains independent from factions, political or otherwise.
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Term
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Definition
- The journalist's role is predicated on a special kind of engagement - being dedicated to informing the public, but not to playing a direct role as an activist
- The proper understanding about the role of Engaged Independence is the understanding of the role of a responsible reporter - creating a common language, a common understanding, and being part of the glue that defines and holds a community together
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Term
| It must serve as an Independent Monitor of Power |
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Definition
- 5th Element of Journalism
- Gave cause to the Watchdog Role
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Term
| Watchdog Role & Principle |
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Definition
- Role relies on one basic assumption: those with power, especially government, tend to abuse it
- Watchdogs are supposed to 'bark' when power is abused
- The purpose elevates the press to the role of public representative
- The watchdog principle is being threatened in contemporary journalism by overuse, and by a faux watchdogism aimed more at pandering to audiences than public service
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Term
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Definition
- The roots of investigative reporting are so firmly established that they form a fundamental principle: Journalists must serve as an independent monitor of power
- This is one of the earliest principles that set journalism apart from other means of communication with the public
- 3 main forms: original reporting, interpretative reporting, and reporting on investigations
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Term
| Types of Investigative Reporting: Original reporting |
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Definition
- Original reporting: involves reporters themselves uncovering and documenting activities that have been previously unknown to the public
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Term
| Types of Investigative Reporting: Interpretive Reporting |
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Definition
- Interpretative reporting: involves the same original enterprise skills but takes the interpretation to a different level
- It is a result of careful though and analysis of an idea as well as a dogged pursuit of facts to bring together information in a new, more complete context which provides deeper public understanding
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Term
| Types of Investigative Reporting: Reporting on Investigation |
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Definition
- Reporting on Investigations: the reporting develops from the discovery or leak of information from an official investigation already under way or in preparation by others, usually government agencies
- Government investigators actively cooperate with reporters to affect budget appropriations, to influence potential witnesses, or to shape public opinion
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Term
| Journalism must provide a forum for public criticism and compromise |
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Definition
- 6th Element of Journalism
- Public discussion must be built on the same principles as the rest of journalism - starting with truth, facts, and verification
- This forum must be for all parts of the community, not just the affluent or demographically attractive
- It must include the broad areas of agreement, where most of the public resides, and where the solutions to society's problems are found
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Term
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Definition
- A reaction to the sense that the newsroom is distant and alienated
- Abandonment of independence and reaching the audience by arguing from one side or the other
- The driving force: talk is cheap, developing a reporting infrastructure is not
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Term
| Problem Features of the Argument Culture |
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Definition
- Diminished level of reporting
- Devaluing experts
- Emphasis on a narrow range of blockbuster stories
- Emphasis on an oversimplified, polarized debate
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Term
| Journalists must make the significant interesting and relevant |
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Definition
- 7th Element of Journalism
- Discussion often becomes engaging versus relevant
- Journalism is storytelling with a purpose: to provide people with information they need to understand the world, and to make it meaningful, relevant, and engaging
- Problems that stand in the way: haste, ignorance, laziness, formula, bias, and cultural blinders
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Term
| Structural Bias as Theory |
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Definition
- Structural Bias Theory allows us to explain and predict behaviors based on types of structural biases seen from individuals and/or companies
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Term
| Types of Structural Biases |
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Definition
- Temporal
- Visual
- Commercial
- Bad News
- Narrative
- Status Quo
- Fairness
- Expediency
- Glory
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Term
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Definition
- Commercial bias: The news media are money-making businesses. As such, they must deliver a good product to their customers to make a profit. The customers of the news media are advertisers. The most important product the news media delivers to its customers are readers or viewers. Good is defined in numbers and quality of readers or viewers. The news media are biased toward conflict (re: bad news and narrative biases below) because conflict draws readers and viewers. Harmony is boring.
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Term
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Definition
- Temporal bias: The news media are biased toward the immediate. News is what's new and fresh. To be immediate and fresh, the news must be ever-changing even when there is little news to cover.
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Term
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Definition
- Visual bias: Television (and, increasingly, newspapers) is biased toward visual depictions of news. Television is nothing without pictures. Legitimate news that has no visual angle is likely to get little attention. Much of what is important in politics--policy--cannot be photographed
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Term
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Definition
- Bad news bias: Good news is boring (and probably does not photograph well, either). This bias makes the world look like a more dangerous place than it really is. Plus, this bias makes politicians look far more crooked than they really are
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Term
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Definition
- Narrative bias: The news media cover the news in terms of "stories" that must have a beginning, middle, and end--in other words, a plot with antagonists and protagonists. Much of what happens in our world, however, is ambiguous. The news media apply a narrative structure to ambiguous events suggesting that these events are easily understood and have clear cause-and-effect relationships. Good storytelling requires drama, and so this bias often leads journalists to add, or seek out, drama for the sake of drama. Controversy creates drama. Journalists often seek out the opinions of competing experts or officials in order to present conflict between two sides of an issue (sometimes referred to as the authority-disorder bias). Lastly, narrative bias leads many journalists to create, and then hang on to, master narratives--set story lines with set characters who act in set ways. Once a master narrative has been set, it is very difficult to get journalists to see that their narrative is simply one way, and not necessarily the correct or best way, of viewing people and events.
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Term
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Definition
- Status Quo bias: The news media believe "the system works." During the "fiasco in Florida," recall that the news media were compelled to remind us that the Constitution was safe, the process was working, and all would be well. The mainstream news media never question the structure of the political system. The American way is the only way, politically and socially. In fact, the American way is news. The press spends vast amounts of time in unquestioning coverage of the process of political campaigns (but less so on the process of governance). This bias ensures that alternate points of view about how government might run and what government might do are effectively ignored.
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Term
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Definition
- Fairness bias: No, this is not an oxymoron. Ethical journalistic practice demands that reporters and editors be fair. In the news product this bias manifests as a contention between/among political actors (also re: narrative bias above). Whenever one faction or politician does something or says something newsworthy, the press is compelled by this bias to get a reaction from an opposing camp. This creates the illusion that the game of politics is always contentious and never cooperative. This bias can also create situations in which one faction appears to be attacked by the press. For example, politician A announces some positive accomplishment followed by the press seeking a negative comment from politician B. The point is not to disparage politician A but to be fair to politician B. When politician A is a conservative, this practice appears to be liberal bias.
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Term
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Definition
- Expediency bias: Journalism is a competitive, deadline-driven profession. Reporters compete among themselves for prime space or air time. News organizations compete for market share and reader/viewer attention. And the 24-hour news cycle--driven by the immediacy of television and the internet--creates a situation in which the job of competing never comes to a rest. Add financial pressures to this mix--the general desire of media groups for profit margins that exceed what's "normal" in many other industries--and you create a bias toward information that can be obtained quickly, easily, and inexpensively. Need an expert/official quote (status quo bias) to balance (fairness bias) a story (narrative bias)? Who can you get on the phone fast? Who is always ready with a quote and always willing to speak (i.e. say what you need them to say to balance the story)? Who sent a press release recently? Much of deadline decision making comes down to gathering information that is readily available from sources that are well known.
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Term
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Definition
- Glory bias: Journalists, especially television reporters, often assert themselves into the stories they cover. This happens most often in terms of proximity, i.e. to the locus of unfolding events or within the orbit of powerful political and civic actors. This bias helps journalists establish and maintain a cultural identity as knowledgeable insiders (although many journalists reject the notion that follows from this--that they are players in the game and not merely observers). The glory bias shows itself in particularly obnoxious ways in television journalism. News promos with stirring music and heroic pictures of individual reporters create the aura of omnipresence and omnipotence. I ascribe the use of the satellite phone to this bias. Note how often it's used in situations in which a normal video feed should be no problem to establish, e.g. a report from Tokyo I saw recently on CNN. The jerky pictures and fuzzy sound of the satellite phone create a romantic image of foreign adventure
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