The world is a hectic mess today. News is happening all around us, and the only source that acts as a filter between the chaos and ourselves is the media. The media, journalists especially, must hold upon themselves a great responsibility when they are acting as this filtering apparatus between the ordered and unordered. But is that the only thing journalism does: make sense of the news? No, it does much more than that. Good journalism is working, with help from the citizenry, to create an enlightened Republic filled with citizens who will be well informed of the events which intersect their lives. There are a number of measures, though, that journalists must take before they can go from simply making sense of the news to creating an enlightened Republic.
At the core of any republic is its citizens. They are also those to whom journalists must first be loyal (Kovach and Rosenstiel 52). What then does this mean? How are journalists supposed to make citizens their number one loyalty? The First Amendment allows the press a certain freedom from government control. This is because, as Justice Black writes, journalists were “to serve the governed, not the governors” (New York Times Co. v. United States). In this aspect, journalists act as servants to the citizenry. However, it could be argued that their paychecks come from certain companies, and perhaps their loyalties go first to their jobs and not the citizens. Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel argue against this by pointing out that "people who gather news are not like the employees of other companies. They have a social obligation that at times overrides their employers' immediate interests, and yet this obligation is the source of their employers' financial success" (53). Kovach and...
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...better, more enlightened Republic. Justice Stewart writes in New York Times Co. v. United States that "without an informed and free press there cannot be an enlightened people." and, it should be noted, without an informed and free speaking society there cannot be an enlightened press. The process is reciprocal and it is going in an upwards spiral towards greater truth. Hopefully this spiral will not act as a Tower of Babel of sorts where absolute truth is ultimately lost only after it is finally found and achieved. However, this outcome is highly doubtful: a truly enlightened people will find one way or another to stabilize their tower.
Works Cited
Kovach, Bill, and Tom Rosenstiel. The Elements of Journalism. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2007.
Miami Herald Publishing Co. v. Tornillo, 418 U.S. 241 (1974).
New York Times Co. v. United States, 403 U.S. 713 (1971).
Trager, Robert, J. R. (2010). The Law of Journalism & Mass Communication. Washington D.C.: CQ Press.
The authoritarian theory of the press developed in 16th and 17th century England. England lived under a monarchy and the people were never to question the monarchy’s right to rule. Truth and wisdom were reserved for the few divinely appointed authorities. Under the authoritarian state, all people and privately owned operations were to serve the state and the truth as dictated by the wisdom of the monarchy. The authoritarian theory was also influenced by the Roman Catholic Church, which did not allow dissent or true independent thought from its parishioners. Mass media mirrored these societal rules. Privately owned industries were controlled by the state through a system of patents and licenses. The press was also controlled through a patent and license system, preventing it from having full freedom to question the monarchy’s right to rule, though minor dissent about independent issues was allowed. Ultimately, the press’ job was to support the state (the monarchy) without questioning the state’s right to rule, in the same manner that a citizen’s job was to support the state by working in the fields without questioning the state’s right to rule.
In the documentary film, Page One: Inside The New York Times, the inner world of journalism is revealed through journalists David Carr and Brian Stelter as the newspaper company The New York Times, struggles to keep alive within a new wave of news journalism. The film is dedicated to reveal the true inner mechanics of what modern day new journalists face on a daily basis and leaves the audience almost in a state of shock. It broadcasts news journalism as yes, an old school method of news generation, but it also highlights an important component that reveals the importance behind this “old school” methodology. We often think that progression always correlates with positive products, but the documentary insists that within the case of modern journalism, the new wave method is actually a detriment that can reap negative consequences.
Theses and Professional Projects from the College of Journalism and Mass Communications. Paper 2. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/journalismdiss/2
The author provides a rough timeline of the objective norm emerging in American journalism, and explains the inner origin of these co...
In “Reporting the News” by George C. Edwards III, Martin P. Wattenberg, and Robert L. Lineberry, the main idea is how the media determines what to air, where to get said stories that will air, how the media presents the news, and the medias effect on the general public. “Reporting The News” is a very strong and detailed article. The authors’ purpose is to inform the readers of what goes on in the news media. This can be inferred by the authors’ tone. The authors’ overall tone is critical of the topics that are covered. The tone can be determined by the authors’ strong use of transitions, specific examples, and phrases or words that indicate analysis. To summarize, first, the authors’ indicate that the media chooses its stories that will air
It is not uncommon to hear people complaining about what they hear on the news. Everyone knows it and the media themselves knows it as well. Some of the most renowned journalists have even covered the the media’s issues in detail. Biased news outlets have flooded everyday news. We find that journalism’s greatest problems lie in the media’s inability for unbiased reporting, the tendency to use the ignorance of their audience to create a story, and their struggles to maintain relevance.
News is often described as the ‘window of the world’, but sometimes what we see on the news isn’t necessarily the true facts of what is happening around the world. News is often very subjective, especially in television, and sometimes the best pictures are picked over the best story. As journalists, we are responsible for society and frequently news leads viewers to a narrow-minded view of the world, often showing them what we want them to see rather than what they need to see. As Harcup explains (2009, P3) ‘Journalism informs society about itself and makes public that which would otherwise be private.’
= = [ IMAGE] Major Essay Topic: [ IMAGE ] Journalism and the Code of Ethics Introduction = = =
... small media reforms (like public journalism) will be enough to reduce the commercial and corporate imperatives driving our existing media systems (Hackett and Zhao, 1998, p. 235). Instead, a fundamental reform of the entire system is needed, together with a wider institutional reform of the very structures the media systems work within, our democracies. This will be a difficult task, due to powerful vested interests benefiting from the status quo, including media, political and economic elites. Reforms will need to be driven by campaigns mobilising public support across the political spectrum, to enable the citizens of the world to have a media system that works to strengthen democratic principles as opposed to undermining them. This task is challenging, but it will become easier once people begin to understand the media’s role in policymaking within our democracies.
Americans look to the press to provide the information they need to make informed political choices. How well the press lives up to its responsibility to provide this information has a direct impact upon Americans: how they think about and act upon the issues that confront them.
"Journalism Ethics Online Journalism Ethics Gatekeeping." Journalism Ethics for the Global Citizen. Web. 05 Dec. 2010. .
“Power is the ability to define reality and to have other people respond to your definition as if it were their own (Nobles).” People fail to see responsible journalism as a crisis because it is so convenient to have news media make up your mind for you. The foundation of our personal philosophies stems from irresponsible journalism through the major news sources we consume, the exposure to less responsible entertainment, and the biased reporting enforcing negative stereotypes.
(QUINN, S., & FILAK, V. F. (2005). Convergent journalism: an introduction. Burlington, MA, Elsevier/Focal Press.
McLoed and Hawley (as cited in Wilson, 1995) elucidated appropriately, "a recurrent journalistic controversy has involved the question whether journalism is a true profession or merely a craft." Sparked primarily by Lippmann and Dewey, extending into the age of the penny press (mid 1980s) and later, the attempt to commercialise the news (late 1980s) to our present era, there has existed a contentious debate on journalism being distinguished as a profession (Wilson, 1995). Encapsulated in a democratic homeland since the advent of time, media systems are habitually acclaimed as the “fourth power,” with its journalists often hailed as the “watch-dogs” of such a society. Lending itself to act as ‘gatekeeper’ for the wider society and performing the traditional role of journalism, the media (overall) exist as powerful “instruments of knowledge” that perform the function of providing information to the masses in a public sphere, where issues may be discussed, justified and contested (Scannell, 1995, p. 17). Evidently, media workers play a pivotal role in our society; however, their status in the realm of professions is not definite.