JOSHUA MAHLER

COMM 351-001/ August 30, 2003

jmahler1@gmu.edu

Chapter 1 Notes

 

Convergence – the coming together of media in the same newsroom, even for journalists.  This is take advantage of the different strengths of print, television, and online. 

-convergence today includes such media conglomerates as NBC, Microsoft, and AOL Time Warner.

 

What news is?

  1. Relevance
  2. Usefulness
  3. Interest

 

Important Elements in a News Story:

  1. Impact
  2. Conflict
  3. Novelty
  4. Prominence
  5. Proximity
  6. Timeliness

 

The audience influences what is important or newsworthy; they change and influence the demands of journalists

 

What Readers Want as stated by the American Society of Newspaper Editors:

  1. Reader want news in their newspapers
  2. Readers want relevant news and for that news to focus on their community
  3. Readers do not want newspapers to ignore national and world news
  4. Readers are not fooled by gimmicks or fancy designs
  5. Readers want practical and useful information

 

-Richard Saul Wurman, Information Anxiety, classifies news into hope, absurdity, and catastrophe.  Journalists emphasize and focus on absurdity and catastrophe, while the audience hungers for hope.

 

The New Journalism:

Public or Civic journalism is based on two ideas…

  1. Democracy isn’t working as well as it should
  2. Journalists have a responsibility to try and do something about that

-Davis “Buzz” Merritt enacted these principles. 

-Journalists need to be aware of major issues such as biology, sociology, and statistics.

 

 

Accuracy, Fairness, and the Problem of Objectivity:

“The best obtainable version of the truth.”  --Bob Woodward

 

Two questions every responsible journalist should ask:

  1. Is it accurate?
  2. Is it fair?

 

Putting Frames around Stories:

-the viewpoint, or perspective, from which you tell a story, serves as a frame for that story.  Every reporter should choose the frame that seems to reveal that story most fully and fairly.

 

Objectivity:

-the best journalists keep objectivity in minds, along with any questions pertaining to the story and any other limitations.

-in 1947, the Hutchins Commission on freedom of the press concluded that what a free society needs from journalists is “a truthful, comprehensive and intelligent account of the day’s events in a context which gives them meaning.”