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Key Concepts of Journalism Key Concepts of Journalism - Providing information that the public needs to know: Many publications are devoted solely to information that the public wants to know; fashion and celebrity gossip magazines are good examples of this. Ideally, however, journalists strive to write less sensational stories because they are important for readers to know about. SPJ's Code of Ethics emphasizes that good news judgment includes publishing stories because "the American people must be well informed in order to make decisions regarding their lives, and their local and national communities. - Giving a fair and truthful account of news: There is a great deal of talk about bias in the media. Many journalists believe that if a publication is being criticized for being too liberal by some and too conservative by others, it is doing a good job. On its Web site, the Associated Press defines fair and truthful as "reliability and objectivity with reports that are accurate, balanced and informed." - Emphasizing the importance of free speech: Journalists define freedom of speech and of the press in very broad terms. Many journalists have an absolutist approach to discussing free speech, meaning that they believe no limits whatsoever on speech should be imposed. Free speech and a free press are essential for journalism to exist the way it does in this country, able to criticize the government and conduct investigations. In its mission statement, SPJ refers to freedom of speech and of the press as "the cornerstone of our nation and our liberty." - Spurring people to action: Swanson said journalism is a service-oriented profession because journalism "isn't just about providing raw information. It's telling them how to use it to improve their lives and inspiring them to want to." - Having courage: Ugland said objectivity is often stressed as the key principle for journalists to live by, but they must have courage to even attempt being objective. "There are a lot of journalists who think that if they quote three Republican sources and three Democratic sourses, their stories are per se objective," Ugland said. "But all this does is simplify the issue and reinforce the shallow Red-Blue framework that has infected our public discourse." He said true objectivity requires the courage to go beyond two-sided, pro- con approaches and tell all sides of a story -- even if it angers those in power. What is Journalism? Journalism is the investigation and reporting of events, issues, and trends to a broad audience. Although there is much variation within journalism, the ideal is to inform the citizenry. Besides covering organizations and institutions such as government and business, journalism also covers cultural aspects of society such as arts and entertainment. The field includes jobs such as editing, photojournalism, and documentary. It is also a public activity involving the gathering, handling, and dissemination of news through such mass media as the press, radio, television, and motion pictures; also one of the forms through which mass propaganda and agitation are conducted. The information disseminated by journalistic means ought to have social significance for the audience, help form its opinions on public affairs and its world outlook, and give it some idea of the phenomena, processes, and tendencies of all phases of modern society. The information should also reveal the laws that determine the functioning and development of economic, social, political, ideological, and intellectual life in society. The Society of Professional Journalists provides an accurate, if somewhat optimistic definition of journalism in its Code of Ethics. The code states that SPJ believes "that public enlightenment is the forerunner of justice and the foundation of modern democracy. The duty of the journalist is to further those ends by seeking truth and providing a fair and comprehensive account of events and issues." Journalism, therefore, is serving the public interest through fair and honest news coverage. Swanson agreed that presenting information in an objective way is the core purpose of journalism. Definitions of Journalism The periodical collection and publication of current news; the business of managing, editing, or writing for, journals or newspapers; as, political journalism. The collecting, writing, editing, and presenting of news or news articles in newspapers and magazines and in radio and television broadcasts. Material written for publication in a newspaper or magazine or for broadcast. The style of writing characteristic of material in newspapers and magazines, consisting of direct presentation of facts or occurrences with little attempt at analysis or interpretation. Newspapers and magazines. An academic course training students in journalism. Written material of current interest or wide popular appeal. The occupation of reporting, writing, editing, photographing, or broadcasting news or of conducting any news organization as a business. A course of study preparing students for careers in reporting, writing, and editing for newspapers and magazines. Writing that reflects superficial thought and research, a popular slant, and hurried composition, conceived of as exemplifying topical newspaper or popular magazine writing as distinguished from scholarly writing. A Brief History of Journalism “Journalism is storytelling with a purpose. That purpose is to provide people with information they need to understand the world. The first challenge is finding the information that people need to live their lives. The second is to make it meaningful, relevant, and engaging.” The journalistic principle of engagement and relevance means exactly that – journalists are asked to present the information they find in interesting and meaningful ways, but without being overly sensational. There are two sides to this principle, however, and they must be balanced for the journalist to be successful. Engagement is what makes the story intriguing and readable. Relevance is what makes it worth the reader’s time, what makes the story important to the reader’s life. The industry has struggled to find that balance throughout its history, but studies, such as those conducted by the Project for Excellence in Journalism, have shown that in the long term journalism that tends more toward the engagement (or entertaining) side without adequately addressing the relevant side will not be as successful. During the Penny Press era, news consisted of little political debate and much human interest appeal. Stories focused on sex, violence, and features instead; they were sensational and engaging, but not always especially relevant to their readers’ lives. In 1851, however, the New York Times was founded, declaring its commitment to objective and reasoned journalism, and the swing toward the relevant side began. To aid that shift, the inverted pyramid style was developed in response to the strategic destruction of telegraph wires during the Civil War. Journalists had to transmit the most important, or relevant, information first in case the transmission was cut short. This style was then carried through into the post-war era. During the period known as the era of Yellow Journalism, newspapers became for-profit ventures. Sensationalism still had a hold on the industry, with a focus on high interest stories and attention-getting headlines rather than useful information for the public. Stories focused on the mass appeal of death, dishonor, and/or disaster. In the 1890s, however, relevance made more of a comeback. With immigrants moving into the middle classes, news became more of a commodity. Sensationalism began to give way to the sobriety and objectivity of the New York Times. Two story models were in use at that time: the story model of the Penny Press and Yellow Journalism eras, and the informational model of objectivity. At the beginning of the twentieth century, even Joseph Pulitzer’s notoriously ‘yellow’ New York Sun had become more literary. By the 1920s, though, objective style was beginning to be questioned. Objectivity presented only the facts, the relevance parts, without any commentary or color, and the world was becoming too complex for information alone. Parallel to the rise of radio, interpretive journalism was born to help explain what was happening. From the Depression through the Cold War, tabloids continued to give way to seriousness in reporting. This trend continued into the 1960s and ‘70s, as the Great Newspaper Wars whittled down the number of papers in each town. The surviving papers were not the tabloids, but the serious papers, and the same was true of television news programs. The news products that people chose in the long term were those that provided them with the more relevant information, rather than entertainment. During the USA Today era of the 1980s, news was increasingly being produced by companies outside of journalism, and a resurgence of primarily engaging news began. Radio and television had long since replaced newspapers as the dominant news sources, and papers began to add more feature-centered sections. When the industry addressed its readership losses, rather than addressing this substitution of entertainment for content, it focused on cosmetic solutions such as layout, design, and color, thus continuing the decline of relevance in newspapers. To illustrate, a study by the Project for Excellence in Journalism found that news magazines such as Newsweek and Time were seven times more likely in 1997 to share a cover subject with an entertainment magazine like People than they had been in 1977. Whereas in 1977 those covers would have contained a political or international figure 31% of the time and a celebrity or entertainment figure only 15% of the time, in 1997 political figures were down to about 10% of cover stories, and celebrities were up to about 20%. “Infotainment,” or the new version of tabloidism, is still a prevalent format for today’s news, but as a result “avoidance of local news has doubled in the past ten years,” according to data from Insite Research. The public continues to show a preference for relevant information over entertainment-centered coverage.
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