University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Departmental Papers (ASC) Annenberg School for Communication 2005 Definitions of Journalism Barbie Zelizer University of Pennsylvania,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/asc_papers Part of the Journalism Studies Commons Recommended Citation (OVERRIDE) Zelizer, B (2005). “Definitions of Journalism” in G. Overholser and K. H. Jamieson, eds., Institutions of American Democracy: The Press (pp. 66-80). New York: Oxford University Press. This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/asc_papers/671 For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Definitions of Journalism Disciplines Communication | Journalism Studies | Social and Behavioral Sciences This book chapter is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/asc_papers/671 4 DEFINITION S OF JOURNALISM Barbie Zelizer s JOURNALISM HAS COME TO BE THOUGHT OF AS A PRO- fession, an industry, a phenomenon, and a culture, definitions have A, emerged that reflect various concerns and goals.' Journalists,journalism educators, and journalism scholars all take different pathways in thinking pro- ductively about the subject, and the effort to define journalism consequently goes in various directions. Naming, labeling, evaluating, and critiquing journal- ism and journalistic practice reflect the populations from which individuals come, the type of news work, medium, and technology being referenced, and the relevant historical time period and geographical setting. No wonder, then, that the distinguished broadcast journalist Daniel Schorr noted that reporting was not only a livelihood for him but"a frame of mind.'" By extension,journalism as a frame of mind varies from individual to individual. Thinking aboutJournalism The various terms of news, the press, the news media, and information and communi- cation themselves suggestprofound differencesin what individuals consider jour- nalism to mean and what expectations they have of journalists.