978-1305580985 Chapter 12

Chapter 12 – News and Information: Staying

Connected

Chapter Outline

• Early News Organizations Cooperate to Gather News

• Civil War Brings Accreditation and Photojournalism

Government Accredits Journalists

Photojournalism is Born

• Tabloid News Takes Over

• Newsreels Bring Distant Events to American Moviegoers

• Newspapers and Radio Personalize World War II

• TV News Enters Its Golden Age

TV and the Cold War

TV News as a Window on the World

• TV News Changes the Nation’s Identity

Vietnam Coverage Exposes Reality

Watergate Hearings Reveal Politics at Work

• TV News Expands and Contracts

• Iraq War Produces “Embedded” Reporters

• Reality Shows and Advertorials Blur the Line

• Internet Transforms News Delivery

• Information Access Creates a News Evolution

• Social Media Spread the News

• Journalists at Work

• Journalists Channel the Public’s Attention

• How the Public Perceives the Press

• Credibility Draws the Audience

Suggested Activities, Discussions, and Exercises

1. The Pew Center for Civic Journalism (www.pewcenter.org) does intriguing

research about issues in journalism. Have your students access the site

and look up a study or survey about the news media that interests them

and bring that information to class or write a brief paper about their

findings.

2. Have each student select a different news story. Then compare how that

story was covered in print, on TV, on the radio, and on the Internet.

Discuss the differences in class or in an online discussion forum.

3. Show your class comparable news (not discussion) segments from at

least two cable news outlets. Discuss as a group the class’ perceptions of

each network’s (a) agenda-setting function of a news organization and (b)

how complete the issues in the newscast are covered. Does the reporting

leave any unanswered questions?

4. Ask students to discuss which news sources they find most believable,

and why. Ask them to discuss which news sources their parents find most

believable. Then ask students to discuss whether the news sources they

use most are the ones they find most believable, and if not, why not.

5. Ask each student to find a news publication picture they consider to be

great photojournalism. The pictures may be from current publications or

older, even historic publications, but each student should select a different

picture. Ask each student to develop and turn in a list of what he or she

considers to be important criteria for good photojournalism. Discuss some

of the lists in class on in an online forum.

Activity Pages

Use the following activity pages as class handouts for exercises and to

accompany some of the classroom ideas described above.

Learning about Journalists and Journalism: A Questionnaire

Interview two local journalists and ask them these questions. Then tabulate and

compare your results with those of the rest of the class.

1. First, establish some basics:

• How old are you?

• Male ___ Female____

• Do you work for a weekly newspaper, a daily newspaper, a magazine, a radio station,

or a television station?

• How long have you worked in journalism?

• Did you attend a public or private college, if any?

• If you did attend college, did you major in journalism? If not, what was your major?

• Do you have a bachelor’s degree? If so, in what field? A master’s degree? In what

field?

• Do you work at a group– or chain–owned organization or an independent company?

• How many people work in your company?

• How many more years do you plan to work in journalism?

2. How do you rank your job satisfaction?

a. Very satisfied

b. Fairly satisfied

c. Somewhat dissatisfied

d. Very dissatisfied

3. Rate your organization’s performance in informing the public.

a. Outstanding

b. Very good

c. Good

d. Fair

e. Poor

4. How important is it to get information to the public quickly?

a. Very important

b. Fairly important

c. Somewhat important

d. Not very important

5. How important is it to analyze complex problems?

a. Very important

b. Fairly important

c. Somewhat important

d. Not very important

6. How important is it to be an adversary of government?

a. Very important

b. Fairly important

c. Somewhat important

d. Not very important

7. How important is it to provide entertainment?

a. Very important

b. Fairly important

c. Somewhat important

d. Not very important

8. Is it acceptable to:

• become employed in a firm to gain inside information?

• use confidential business or government documents without authorization?

• badger unwilling informants to get a story?

• use personal documents, such as letters and photographs, without permission?

• pay people for confidential information?

• claim to be somebody else?

• use hidden microphones or cameras?

• use re–creations or dramatizations of news?

• reveal the names of rape victims?

9. Are you required to do more than one type of reporting simultaneously? If so, which

types?

• print

• radio

• TV

• Internet

• photography

• video

10. What is the story you’re most proud to have reported? Which story gave you the

biggest challenge?

Exploring World News Services

Use the Internet to locate four different international English–language news

services. Answer the following questions for each. Print out the home page and at

least one story from each and bring them to class for discussion. Which service(s)

did you find most useful or interesting? Why?

News Service #1

Name/Internet address:

Three top stories of the day:

How this news service differs from the

others you’ve looked at:

News Service #2

Name/Internet address:

Three top stories of the day:

How this news service differs from the

others you’ve looked at:

News Service #3

Name/Internet address:

Three top stories of the day:

How this news service differs from the

others you’ve looked at:

News Service #4

Name/Internet address:

Three top stories of the day:

How this news service differs from the

others you’ve looked at:

Chapter 12 Quiz

Multiple Choice

1. During the Civil War:

a. reporters were accredited for the first time as war correspondents by the

government.

b. journalists were not allowed access to the soldiers.

c. reporters were embedded with the troops.

d. the government strictly censored news reports.

2. Which event led to what has been called television’s finest four days?

a. the Cuban Missile Crisis

b. the JFK assassination

c. the Cold War

d. the premiere of network news broadcasts

3. Agenda-setting, as the term is typically used, refers to the flow of

information from:

a. audiences to advertisers.

b. news organizations to their audiences and one news organization to another.

c. advertisers to their audiences.

d. assignment editors to the news reporters.

4. Which term describes journalists who were allowed to cover the Iraq war

on the frontlines, supervised by the US military?

a. cooperative news gathering

b. front line war reporting

c. photojournalism

d. embedded

5. The tendency of journalists to report similar quick conclusions about an

event is called:

a. muckraking.

b. moderatism.

c. consensus journalism.

d. agenda-setting.

6. The Watergate Hearings in 1973:

a. was an important television news story for more than a year.

b. were broadcast live from New York.

c. led to a televised presidential trial.

d. were ignored by most viewers, who preferred entertainment TV.

7. Which of the following is not true of The Associated Press?

a. It was the country’s first cooperative newsgathering association.

b. It was founded overseas by six international news organizations.

c. It is today the nation’s primary news service.

d. Its major early competitor was The United Press.

8. Mathew Brady

a. was the nation’s first war correspondent killed in action.

b. photographed the war over the objections of President Lincoln.

c. took 3,500 photographs of the Civil War.

d. took photographs for the Confederate Press Association.

9. In the age of the Internet, who bears an increased burden to seek reliable

information?

a. reporters

b. news consumers

c. newspaper editors

d. website developers/managers

10. According to the Impact / Society box, “Top 10 Digital-Only News

Sites,” the Internet news site visited most often is:

a. BuzzFeed

b. CNet

c. Mashable

d. Huffington Post

True/False

1. The first TV network newscasts were an hour long.

2. Reality shows make it difficult for an audience to distinguish true news footage

from recreated drama.

3. During the Cuban missile crisis, President John F. Kennedy confronted

Russian Premier Nikita Khrushchev with a live challenge on television.

4. Live coverage of the Vietnam War made viewers shy away from war reporting

because it was too graphic.

ANS: F

5. In general, in the 1990s the American public read more newspapers and

watched more news on TV.

ANS: F

Essay Questions

1. The Pew Research Center identified six major trends that are affecting

how people get their news today. Discuss four of these trends and explain

how the report says the news industry might respond.

2. Why are the 1960s known as the golden age of television news? Name at

least three events covered by television news in the 1960s that justify the

term.

3. Summarize the early development of cooperative newsgathering and

continuing role of news services.

4. Discuss the work of journalist Ernie Pyle in bringing the reality of World

War II news to the American people. What was the primary strength or

technique of each? For what medium did each report?

5. List and explain three ways in which the Internet has transformed news

delivery.