week 1-2: intro/preface and what is journalism for?
TRANSCRIPT
Week 1-2: Intro/preface and what is journalism for?
Introduction/preface
The digital revolution has transformed journalism and also has exposed its vulnerabilities.
Technology has fomented tension between journalists and management.
It has also created tension between citizen journalists publishing on the web and journalists formed by tradition and training.
“The news is becoming less of a prepared lecture and more of an open-mike conversation, with all the pluses and minuses that implies.” (TEOJ preface)
Plagiarism at the PNJ
Plagiarism at the PNJ
http://www.pnj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2011108260318
For your tweeting assignment this week: What are other media saying about
Reggie Dogan's plagiarism and firing at the Pensacola News Journal and/or what your research into plagiarism by columnists such as Mike Barnicle, formerly at The Boston Globe. What's being done to combat plagiarism in journalism anyway?
Dogan and the commenter
Intro/preface
The landscape for journalism today: Corporate ownership Economic uncertainty Public attitudes New technology Government censorship Citizen journalism
Intro/preface
Segments of the old news industry (newspapers, network news) see audiences disappearing.
Business pressures and corporate ownership seem to be minimizing journalism in pursuit of a better bottom line.
Government/politicians using journalism or ignoring it to craft policy and control
“[Journalists] are in what we call the reality-based community…That’s not the way the world works anymore …When we act, we create our own reality.” (page 30 TEJ)
Intro/preface
Journalists are under intense scrutiny by bloggers… competition for news audiences and sometimes devastating criticism.
http://video.app.msn.com/watch/video/dan-rather-leaves-cbs/6eo3stn?cpkey=dc8d248b-a802-4ce1-abdb-6becb5fcddcf
The news is going online: The web, YouTube, smartphones, Twitter, IM, text alerts.
We are wired today. Journalists must be wired too. Like this student newspaper:
http://www.redandblack.com/
Free press in electronic age Journos traditional gatekeeping role is
challenged by social media, the Internet… no longer can dictate what’s news…
Consumers are no longer passive… they are producing news products… I-journalists
But do they have the time, the skills, the ethics, tenacity… to survive over time?
Access to independent information allows citizens to make informed decisions
Government will plant “news” and set its own press agenda… it will use tech to dilute its influence and discredit its integrity.
http://youtu.be/3oUofEvgNYI
Corporations will set an agenda stressing certain news and eliminating others… promoting consumerism.
http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/186475/september-30-2008/prescott-oil-loves-the-earth
Scandals, ethics, controversy
Scandals, ethics
False photographs
Changing quotes Manipulating
video sound bites Messing with
chronology Fudging facts http://www.thedailyshow.com/
watch/tue-november-10-2009/sean-hannity-uses-glenn-beck-s-protest-footage
http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200906090028
Pew Research Center survey
The purpose of journalism ‘The primary
purpose of journalism is to provide people with the information they need to be self-governing.” (page 12 TEOJ)
To fulfill this task:
The Element of Journalism
The Elements of Journalism “This book is the fruit of that
examination. It is not an argument. It is, rather, a description of the theory and culture of journalism that emerged from three years of listening to citizens and journalists, from our empirical studies, and from our reading of the history of the profession as it evolved in the United States.” (TEOJ intro page 5)
The Elements of Journalism Journalism's first obligation is to the truth. Its first loyalty is to the citizens. Its essence is discipline of verification. Its practitioners must maintain an independence from those
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 significant interesting, and
relevant. It must keep the news comprehensive and proportional. Its practitioners must be allowed to exercise their personal
conscience. Citizens, too, have rights and responsibilities when it comes
to the news
An instinct to want to know Definition of news consistent among
cultures Hunger to know what the hell-is-going-
on Call it the Awareness Instinct When the feed stops… darkness falls If journalism fails, what will replace it? Who would provide accurate, reliable,
uncensored and comprehensive information?
The purpose of journalism ‘The primary
purpose of journalism is to provide people with the information they need to be self-governing.” (page 12 EOJ)
What is journalism for?
Here are some key questions/concepts that you are expected to know from Chapter 1 in The Elements of Journalism.
What is the primary purpose of journalism?
How did journalism "free" Poland and other Soviet-bloc nations?
What is Journalism For?
What's the problem with trying to define journalism today?
Define the Awareness Instinct.
What is the first task of the new journalist/sense maker given the mind-boggling amount of information and news-delivery technology available today?
What is journalism for?
What is the role of the press in a democracy?
Define the theory of the interlocking public and give a pertinent example.
What happens when journalism focuses on the expectations of the expert elite or writes stories aimed at the largest possible audience?
What is journalism for?
List the "three major forces" that the book's authors say are eroding journalism's ability to build community, promote the interest of citizens and monitor the activities of government and powerful special interests?
What's the danger to a free press posed by each of these forces?
What is journalism for?
How has journalism's traditional role of gatekeeper of information changed in the wake of the Internet and digital technology?
Is journalism obsolete in a world of "I-reporters" and "We Media" options for news delivery?
Your moment of journo Zen http://youtu.be/ZY8dlhkoO8E