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76-‐101 Interpretation and Argument | Fall 2015 | M. Goss Breaking Down Lippmann and Dewey1 Refer to this handout as you read Alterman and bring a hardcopy of it, along with the reading, to class on Wednesday, September 2nd.
Walter Lippmann (1889-‐1974)
John Dewey (1859-‐1952)
-‐Committed elitist -‐Believed crucial events have grown too complex for the average citizen to understand. -‐Assumed that people or a public (i.e. Average citizen or “outsider”) is “’slow to be around and quickly diverted…and is interested only when events have been melodramatized as a conflict’” (7). -‐Thought public opinion was just sum of the views of each individual. -‐Concluded that journalism would never really be able to report on more complicated and subtle conditions if the Average citizen is in charge. -‐Proposed solution = “intelligence bureaus” (7) -‐Public’s role diminished -‐Journalists’ role = link between policymakers and the public, who then form a public opinion. -‐Top-‐down model
-‐Believed in democracy -‐Called for society to cultivate public discussion and deliberation to move toward consensus -‐Criticized Lippmann’s trust in “knowledge-‐based elites” (8). -‐Believed Journalism should foster conversation and the generation of knowledge among individuals in order to form communities -‐“Dewey’s confidence in democracy rested in significant measure on his ‘faith in the capacity of human beings for intelligent judgment and action if proper conditions are furnished.’” (8) -‐Yet, it’s unclear whether or not Dewey thinks “these conditions” were ever met in his lifetime.
1 Excerpts and quotations taken from Eric Alterman’s “Out of Print: The Death and Life of the American Newspaper.”
