Journalism

Week 2.

Definition & ImportanceMar. 13, 2015

 

What is journalism? Why important? 1. The definition of Journalism - Etymological definition - Definition

2. What is news? - Definition - Newsworthiness (news value) - Function - Who affects news

3. Why important- Why people want news - News and democracy 4. Team projects- The details of team projects- Setting up teams

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1. The definition of Journalism ○ Etymological definition journalism = jour + (n)al + ism suffix forming nouns of action from verbs suffix meaning of condition, doctrine dies(day, Latin) - diary (a daily record of events), diurnal ↓jour(French) - bonjour↓jour(English radix, meaning of a day)journey: a day trip → tripjournal: a book for inventories and daily accounts → daily publication (newspaper, magazine...).

journalism: everything on journal → the press/ news gathering, processing, and dissemination of news to the audiences.

1. The definition of Journalism ○ Academic definition - The professional selection of actual news facts to an audience by

means of distribution methods.- The networked practice of producing, editing, forwarding, sharing

and debating public information - Journalism as a set of norms, values, and ideas practiced by

professionals- Journalism as an institution of ideology, culture.

-The 4th estate, a watchdog

- Objective journalism, Investigative journalism, photo journalism, Yellow journalism, hype journalism, pack journalism, data

journalism, advocate journalism, public journalism, alternative journalism, PD journalism… 

2. What is news?

What is news○ Definition- News is about events, not state-of-affairs. News aims at current rather than past or future events. News is the report of an event, not the experience of an event. (Halberstam, 1987)- News is usually defined as information that is timely. Relevant to the concerns of its audience, and presented in a form that is easy to grasp. (Bennet)

- News is what a well trained editor decides to put in his paper. (Johnson, 1926)- News is what newspapermen make it. (Gieber, 1964)- The news is what the newspaper plays up. (Mahim, 1924)

- What a dog bites a man that is not news, but when a man bites a dog that is news. (Dana)

2. What is news○ Newsworthiness - news value (Galtung & Ruge, 1965)1- Frequency An event that unfolds within a publication cycle of the news medium is more likely to be selected than a one that takes place over a long period of time.2- Threshold Events have to pass a threshold before being recorded at all; the greater theintensity (the more gruesome the murder or the more casualties in an accident),the greater the impact and the more likely it is to be selected.3- Unambiguity The more clearly an event can be understood and interpreted without multiplemeanings, the more likely it is to be selected.4- Meaningfulness The culturally familiar is more likely to be selected.5- Consonance The news selector may be able to predict (due to experience) events that will benewsworthy, thus forming a “pre-image” of an event, which in turn increases itschances of becoming news.6- Unexpectedness Among events meaningful and/or consonant, the unexpected or rare event is more likely to be selected.

What is news○ Newsworthiness - news value7- Continuity An event already in the news has a good chance of remaining in the news (even if its impact has been reduced) because it has become familiar and easier tointerpret.8- Composition An event may be included as news less because of its intrinsic news value thanbecause it fits into the overall composition or balance of a newspaper or newsbroadcast.9- Reference to elite nations The actions of elite nations are seen as more consequential than the actions ofOther nations.10- Reference to elite people Again, the actions of elite people, likely to be famous, may be seen by newsselectors as having more consequence than others, and news audiences may identify with them.11- Reference to persons News that can be presented in terms of individual people rather than abstractionsis likely to be selected.12- Reference to something negative Bad events are generally unambiguous and newsworthy

2. What is news○ Denis MacShane (1979) - Conflict- Hardship and danger to the community- Unusualness- Scandal - Individualism.

○ Harcup and O Neill s (2001) ‟ ‟- Power élite- Celebrity- Entertainment- Surprise- Bad news- Good news- Magnitude- Relevance- Follow-ups - Media agenda.

○ The Missouri group (2005)Impact, Conflict, Novelty, Prominence, Proximity, Timeliness

What is news ○ The function of news (media)The news serves a vital democratic function. The news constructs asymbolic world that has a kind of priority, a certification of legitimateimportance.

1. News provides citizens fair and full information so that they can make sound decisions as citizens.2. News provides coherent frameworks to help citizens comprehend the complex political universe.3. News serves as common carrier of the perspectives of the varied groups in society: multiperspectival.4. News represent the public and speak for and to the public interest in order to hold government accountable.5. News evoke empathy and provide deep understanding so that citizens at large can appreciate the situation of other human beings, non -elite. and learn compassion to them 6. news provide a forum for dialogue among citizens that not only informs democratic decision making but is, as a process, an element in it

2. What is news ○ Age of on-line journalism Declining the role of gatekeeper- curating service (select, organize, and look after the news)- interactivity - feed back, prosumer-customisation of content - ‘individualization, curation service - hypertextuality - offering information about information- multimediality

2. What is news ○ Who/what affects news - gatekeeper- Who select, transmit, limit, extend, and interpret a news

Reporter, editor, peer group, news organization, routines of newsroom,owner of media, government, interest group, advertisement, publicopinion, environment….

3. Why important? ○ why people want news?- The awareness of instinct: People crave news out of basic instinct. They need to know what's going on out there beyond their direct experience, to feel security, to plan, to negotiate their lives.

- Man is a social animal

- how about 引き籠もり ?

- The result of evolution

3. Why important? - Mirror neurons Subset of Neurons activates both while observing and while performing:

Actions such as grasping Emotions such as sadnessWatching someone receive painful events such as shocks

“Thus, our capacity for empathy – the ability to share another’s emotions and feelings – is based in a simple ‘mirroring’ mechanism implemented by the human MNS that allows us to use the same neural resources to represent states of the self and others in an overlapping way.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xmx1qPyo8Ks(NOVA scienceNOW : 1 - Mirror Neurons)

Empathy, learning, self awareness, language

3. Why important? News and Democracy - Representative democracy

3. Why important? ○ News and DemocracyNews shapes the way we see the world, ourselves and each other. It is the storiesof journalists that construct and maintain our shared realities (Carey, 1989). News can become a singularly important form of social glue; our consumption ofstories about current events large and small binds us together in an “imaginedcommunity” (Anderson, 1983)

Imagined communityActual community - FtFImagined community - by news media.

a nation is a socially constructed community, imagined by the people who perceive themselves as part of that group. After inventing print, after newspaper disseminated

"The modern nation, no matter how small or socially homogeneous, can only be an imagined community. And, as an imagined community, it needs its members to feel as if they have an intimate knowledge of one another. It needs constantly to be narrated through structures that are resonant and familiar to all (Anderson, 1991)

3. Why important? ○ 2 views of democracy in relation with News1. classical view of democracy Rational and active citizens who seek to realize common good through the collective initiation, discussion, and decision of policy questions concerning public and who delegate authority to agents to carry through the broad decisions reached by the people through majority vote.

- role of newsThe education of an entire people to the point where their intellectual, emotional and moral capacities have reached their full potential and they are joined, freely and actively, in a genuine community.

New England town meeting

3. Why important? ○ 2 views of democracy in relation with News

2. realist model (Lippmann)- Elite rule in a democracy Citizen is not sovereign but lives in a world which he cannot see, does not understand and is unable to direct. The public is merely those persons who are interested in an affairs and can affect it only by supposing or opposing the actors.

- role of news serve as guides to reasonable action for the use of uninformed people. good machinery of record.

3. Why important? Education for democracy

Tocqueville, What sustains democracy are the intermediary groups or associations that bring people together, that formulate, articulate, and crystallizeopinion, and that provide collective bases for political action.

4. Team Projects More details on TP○ Making a news program - duration: 10 ~12 minutes. - program style pick one of them 1. ordinary news program an anchor delivers 5~6 reports, each report's duration is about 2mns. the topic of news is free (common in subjects or not). team members discuss their topics and news order 2. In-depth news program one topic (ex, problems and solutions of college lectures given in English) There is no anchor person the whole video clip is about 10 team members discuss the topic and allocate each member's role - PM has to keep a diary of team project. (when/where/who/how long/topic… the team project progress)