Communications Chapter 3 Homework History Fake News February Http back story radio org shows fit to print Yochai Benkler Robert Faris Hal

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Chapter 3
Newspapers to Digital Frontiers: Journalism’s Journey
CHAPTER OUTLINE
Chapter Opener: Nellie Bly reporting undercover on conditions in a mental hospital was called
“stunt journalism” in the 1880s, but it was the forerunner of modern investigative journalism.
I. The Early History of American Journalism
The first American newspapers took a number of different formats and included a variety of
topics, but each fulfilled the “need to know.”
A. Colonial Newspapers and the Partisan Press. Many of these partisan newspapers
focused on politics and were the forerunner of today’s editorial pages. Others focused
on commercial news and were the forerunner of today’s business sections.
B. The Penny Press: Becoming a Mass Medium. Cheaper paper and higher literacy rates in
the 1830s caused a wave of penny papers, which were sold at newsstands instead of by
subscription.
II. The Evolution of Newspaper Journalism: Competing Models and the Rise of
Professionalism
By the late 1890s, two types of journalism competed for readers: A story-driven model was
supported by the penny papers and the yellow press, and the facts model was advocated by
the six-cent papers.
A. “Objectivity” and Professionalization in Modern Journalism. To attract more readers,
newspapers began to strive for impartiality in reporting, letting readers interpret the
facts they presented.
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1. Adolph Ochs and the New York Times. After buying the New York Times in 1896,
Ochs reinvented the news model by emphasizing substantial news coverage and
provocative editorial pages and downplaying sensationalistic stories.
III. Journalism Evolves across Media
Nearly every new mass medium from radio to the Internet has included some form of
journalism, but the converged media of the Internet have been the catalyst for some of the
biggest changes in journalism since its earliest days.
A. Journalism on the Airwaves. President Franklin Roosevelt’s “Fireside Chats” and
Edward R. Murrow’s reporting of World War II air raids showed the unique
communication abilities of broadcast.
1. The Power of Visual Language. TV news reporters share many values with print
journalists, but the differences in the two media led them to develop a style of their
own defined by attractive, congenial newscasters skilled at getting “sound bites”
from sources.
IV. The Culture of News and Rituals of Reporting
Despite the differences among the various media, journalists share common principles and
practices for reporting and the news.
A. What Is News? Journalists have developed a set of criteria for determining whether
information is newsworthy: timeliness, proximity, conflict, prominence, human interest,
consequence, usefulness, novelty, and deviance.
B. Values in American Journalism. In the 1970s and 1980s, researchers began identifying
and critiquing the values that influences journalism.
1. Putting It in Neutral. Journalists generally believe that they should be unbiased
observers, which gives them more credibility and allows them to reach more readers
and viewers.
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4. Getting a Story First. One of the most valued achievements for a reporter is to
“scoop” the competition and get the story first.
C. When Values Collide: Ethics and the News Media. Journalists regularly face ethical
dilemmas such as deciding when to protect government secrets for national security and
when to reveal those secrets to the public.
1. Professional Codes of Ethics. Journalists use ethical guidelines produced by
professional groups like the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) to help resolve
ethical dilemmas.
2. Applying Ethics and Values Inside the Job. Many times, journalists will rely on
V. The Economics of Journalism in the Twenty-First Century
The shrinking number of newsroom employees, particularly since the beginning of the
recession in 2007, is one of the biggest challenges facing journalism.
A. A Business Model in Transition. The majority of newspaper revenue has traditionally
come from advertising, though advertising revenue fell significantly after the recession
began in 2007. Since the recession and the digital turn, newspapers have been taking
steps to generate more online revenue; some sites use paywalls, which are subscription
fees that allow access to articles.
B.
Newspaper Operations. Newspapers have to spend money on wages, supplies, and
services to be able to produce their product.
1. Salaries, Wages, and Shareholder Concerns. A major expense for most newspapers
is journalists’ salaries.
2. Wire Services and Feature Syndication. Many papers rely on wire services and
feature syndicates to supplement local coverage with national and international
VI. Changes and Challenges for Journalism in the Information Age
The guiding principle of journalismthat it provides the information citizens need to make
intelligent decisionshas been partially derailed.
A. Social Media. One of the fastest growing areas of research among those who study
journalism has been trying to determine the impact of social media’s rise.
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1. Social Networking. Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter have changed the
way journalists report the news and consumers receive news, but the long-term
impact is still unknown.
2. Blogging. Widely read blogs have challenged newspapersauthority, and in
response, many newspapers have added blogs by their reporters.
B. Citizen Journalism. Many news organizations are using the work of amateur journalists,
often concerned citizens or activists who use the Internet and blog sites to disseminate
news and information.
VII. Journalism in a Democratic Society
Journalism is central to democracy because it provides information that citizens need to
make informed decisions. Critics, though, say that journalists should work to improve daily
life and encourage public debate as well as report facts.
A. Social Responsibility. Some journalists have acknowledged that the profession has a
responsibility to think about sources as more than characters in their stories and that
readers have a responsibility as well to confront the problems in society.
LECTURE TOPICS
1. Discuss your local newspaper market. How does it correspond to the general history of
newspapers in the United States, especially in terms of types of newspapers, such as daily,
weekly, alternative, and minority-owned publications?
2. Discuss how newspapers adjusted to radio and television, and compare that to their reaction
to the Internet. Compare your local print newspaper to its online edition and online editions
of other national and international news organizations (see Lecture Spin-Offs).
3. Discuss the use of deceptive, invasive, and ethically conflicting practices that plague
American journalism.
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LECTURE SPIN-OFFS
The Underground Press
Politically alternative newspapers have a long history in the United States. In the early
twentieth century, the country’s largest-circulation weekly newspaper was Appeal to Reason,
a socialist paper. Circulation peaked at more than 760,000 copies in 1913, and its readers
were largely among the working class and immigrants. During World War I, though, the
government suppressedsometimes violentlyleftist newspapers.
During the 1960s and 1970s, underground newspapers were popular on college campuses,
The Culture of News and Rituals of Reporting
Brent Cunningham, managing editor of the Columbia Journalism Review, offered a pertinent
discussion of the principle of objectivity in “Re-thinking Objectivity” (CJR, July/August
2003, http://archives.cjr.org/feature/rethinking_objectivity.php). A failure of the press,
Cunningham writes, is “allowing the principle of objectivity to make [journalists] passive
recipients of news, rather than aggressive analyzers and explainers of it.” He argued that the
principle of objectivity can become an obstacle on the way to finding “truth” for several
reasons:
Objectivity excuses lazy reporting; most reporting ends when a reporter has “both sides
of the story.”
It exacerbates journalists’ tendency to rely on official sources, which makes it easier and
Here’s what Jim Lehrer told Columbia Journalism Review Daily’s Liz Cox Barrett about
objective news reporting on June 6, 2006:
I don’t deal in terms like blatantly untrue”…that’s for other people to decideI’m not
in the judgment part of journalism. I’m in the reporting part of journalism.
Here’s what fake reporter Rob Corddry said to Jon Stewart on The Daily Show on August 23,
2004:
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Stewart: Doesn’t objectivity mean objectively weighing the evidence and calling out
what’s credible and what isn’t?
Corddry: Whoa-ho! Well, well, wellsounds like someone wants the media to act as a
filter! [high-pitched, effeminate] “Ooh, this allegation is spurious! Upon investigation
In 2007, Washington Post reporter William M. Arkin took notice of the press box when he
went to a Red Sox game. He saw seven tiers of desks filled with reporters. In fact, it dawned
on him that more reporters were covering a baseball game than were covering the entire
Pentagon.
Considering the fans at the ballpark, Arkin also noted that they respected and depended
on sports reporters “for commentary and amplification and insight; they study and memorize
the statistics.” Arkin continued, “I’ve often thought if we could cover the military like sports,
with transparency and intimate knowledge and a play-by-play that was both affectionate and
Here are some examples of journalism’s integrity problems:
The failure of journalists to assess public opinion during the 2016 presidential campaign
has led to disillusionment among readers, listeners, and viewers. News organizations
consistently underestimated the appeal of Donald Trump during the Republican
primaries, and most news organizations predicted that Hillary Clinton was all but certain
to win the general election.
Some reporters, often spurred by raw ambition, but sometimes also simply overwhelmed
by pressure, have either invented stories or plagiarized the work of others. Jayson Blair
and Stephen Glass are probably the most notorious perpetrators.
On May 11, 2003, the Sunday New York Times revealed that reporter Jayson Blair,
who had written for the Times for four years, had fabricated and plagiarized many of his
more than six hundred articles. The self-proclaimed “newspaper of record” stated that
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Refer to the many issues raised by the paper’s public editors at:
Stephen Glass was a twenty-five-year-old associate editor at the New Republic who
had a reputation for being a whiz kid with the ability to track down the most unusual
stories. But he was forced out of his job in 1998 when it was revealed that he had
elaborately fabricated dozens of stories written for the New Republic, George, Rolling
Stone, Harper’s, and Policy Review, inventing quotes and characters to make his stories
more interesting. To cover his made-up work, Glass carefully created phony phone
messages, voice mails, fax numbers, notes, and letterheads to get past magazine fact-
Changes and Challenges for Journalism in the Information Age
In addition to the coverage of fake news in the text (both in this chapter and in Chapter 13), a
number of interesting and informative articles and analyses on this topic were published in
late 2016 and 2017. Here are several that you may wish to touch on in the classroom:
Backstory, “Fit to Print? A History of Fake News,” February 20, 2017,
Yochai Benkler, Robert Faris, Hal Roberts, and Ethan Zuckerman, Study: Breitbart-led
right-wing media ecosystem altered broader media agenda,” Columbia Journalism Review,
Scott Shane, The Fake Americans Russia Created to Influence the Election,” New York
Alexander Smith and Vladimir Banic, “Fake News: How a Partying Macedonian Teen Earns
Thousands Publishing Lies,” NBC News, December 9, 2016,
Laura Sydell, We Tracked Down a Fake-News Creator in The Suburbs. Here’s What We
Learned,” NPR, November 23,
David Uberti, “The real history of fake news,” Columbia Journalism Review, December 15,
Claire Wardel, “Fake News. It’s Complicated,” First Draft, February 16, 2017,
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Solo journalism (also called sojo or backpack journalism) is an increasing trend in reporting.
“Sojos” are journalists who perform, singlehandedly, the combined functions of a journalist,
photojournalist, videographer/editor, and blogger. Most often working in field locations,
sojos transmit stories, photos, and video via satellite phone, doing the work that is typically
At many dailies, reporters are working across platforms, writing breaking news for their
paper’s Web site, posting blog items, adding video journalism to the mix, and making audio
slide shows. See www.interactivenarratives.org for examples of interactive features produced
by newspaper sites.
Crog is a shorthand term for “carefully researched weblog.” Although these sites tend to look
like blogs, they take a more analytical, serious approach and cover nearly every public issue,
Nathan Lemann, in an August 7, 2006, New Yorker article called “Amateur Hour,” noted
some interesting parallels between pamphleteering in eighteenth-century England and
blogging. The printing press made pamphleteering easily affordable, so all of a sudden
Key moments for bloggers:
Matt Drudge, who created the protoblog The Drudge Report in 1995, broke the Clinton-
Bloggers doggedly researched the 2005 CBS News report about George W. Bush’s
National Guard service and proved that the story was based on falsified documents. Their
persistence in covering this story ended with Dan Rather resigning. In 1968, Walter
Mainstream journalists have blamed blogs for lowering journalistic standards, being
irresponsible with facts, and coarsening public discourse. Bloggers claim that they are the
“fifth estate,” monitoring journalists and raising standards by fact-checking mainstream news
reports. Rebecca Blood, author of the Weblog Handbook: Practical Advice on Creating and
Maintaining Your Blog (2002), notes that good journalism and good blogging are both
dependent on establishing trust.
On the other hand, bloggers are significantly affecting journalism by demanding more
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Major news outlets are responding to demands for transparency by hiring public editors,
adding “how we got the story” links to their online articles, encouraging journalists to start
blogs to add more background to their reporting, and developing online features that
encourage citizen feedback. Former NBC anchor Brian Williams had a blog called “The
MEDIA LITERACY DISCUSSIONS AND EXERCISES
IN BRIEF: NEWSPAPER ANALYSIS
Bring a variety of newspapers to the classroom or examine newspaper Web sites and blogs on the
Web. Compare their coverage of a specific event, such as a presidential press conference. Is there
any bias in the way the sites and newspapers report the news?
IN BRIEF: QUESTIONABLE/ILLEGAL REPORTING PRACTICES
Make a short list of questionable or illegal methods that a reporter might use to get a story, like
concealing his or her identity. Discuss the circumstances under which these methods might be
justified.
IN DEPTH: THE SWEETER EXPERIENCE: PRINT VERSUS ONLINE NEWSPAPERS
(Note: A version of this activity is now available on LaunchPad for Media Essentials. See the
Media Literacy Practice Activity for this chapter.)
"
Pre-Exercise Question: Media critic Jon Katz wrote:There’s almost no media experience
sweeter . . . than poring over a good newspaper. In the quiet morning, with a cup of coffeeso
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1. Description. Look at the same day of the print and Web versions of a chosen newspaper.
Describe the content, style, organization, advertisements, and experience of reading both
types of newspapers.
2.
Analysis. Is the Web version organized in a similar way, with the same section topics? Are
the stories the same, and are they edited in the same way? Does either version offer unique
elements that couldn’t be duplicated in the other format? Which version was more interesting
or easier to read? Is either version more information-based or more interpretive?
3. Interpretation. Does the Web version of the newspaper duplicate the print content and
reading experience (a practice called shovel-casting)? How does the medium (print versus
computer-based) affect the design, content, style, and reading experience of the newspaper?
IN DEPTH: EXAMINING EXPERT SOURCES
The purpose of this project is to extend your critical approach to the news. With a partner, choose
for reading and viewing two newspapers (a local daily paper and the New York Times) and one
TV outlet (a major network, Fox News, or a CNN newscast), all from the same weekday. Devise
a chart on which you list every expert source who is quoted in the stories for that particular day.
Column heads might include “News Event,” “Expert Source,” “Occupations,” “Gender,” “Age
(approximate),” and “Region.” Throughout this project, limit your focus to local, national, or
international news.
1. Description. Count the total number of expert sources used by each newspaper or network
program. Do the sources work in jobs that require professional degrees, or do they work in
blue-collar jobs? Look for quotes in news articles and for sound bites on television. Are all
3. Interpretation. Write a one- or two-paragraph critical interpretation of your findings. How are
the sources used? Why do you think certain sources appear in this day’s news more
frequently than others? Why do reporters seek out certain types of sources rather than others?
Does the gender of sources mean anything?
4. Evaluation. Discuss the limitations of your study. Compare how print and television handle
sources. Did circumstances on the particular day you chose suggest why one type of expert
appears more often than another type?
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5. Engagement. Contact a print reporter, a TV reporter, or an editor responsible for your
CLASSROOM MEDIA RESOURCES
VIDEOS/DVDS/CDS
All the President’s Men (1976, 135 minutes). Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman play
Washington Post investigative reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, who uncovered
the Watergate scandal that led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon.
Beyond the Frame: Alternative Perspectives on the War on Terrorism (2004, 120 minutes).
Interviews with leading scholars, experts, and activists about the U.S. media’s coverage of the
war on terrorism. The interviews were (and continue to be) available free of charge via
The Black Press: Soldiers without Swords (1998, 86 minutes). The first film to chronicle the
Citizen Kane (1941, 119 minutes). The story of a publishing magnate based on the life of
newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst. Although critics excoriated this film in 1941,
it was eventually heralded as one of the century’s best films.
The Fifth Estate (2013, 128 minutes). The story of WikiLeaks and the power of the
whistleblower. Directed by Bill Condon.
Legacy of a Kidnapping (2000, 56 minutes). Lewis Lapham, editor of Harper’s, argues that
today’s tabloid journalism evolved from the Lindbergh kidnapping case. Media coverage of
The New Pamphleteers: Entrepreneurs, Watchdogs and Citizens in the Digital Age (2008, 78
minutes). An informal video view of the motivations, operations, and challenges faced by
Page One: Inside the New York Times. (2011, 92 minutes). Explore the New York Times
Spotlight (2015, 128 minutes). Film about the work of Boston Globe reporters to expose sexual
abuse in the Catholic Church and the subsequent cover-up of the scandal by the Archdiocese
of Boston.
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Television Media: Headlines or Hype? (1998, 30 minutes). This program profiles the history of
the electronic media, revealing its biases and its tendencies toward sensationalism and
exploitation and highlighting the challenges it faces (part of The Media under Siege, a two-
Veronica Guerin (2003, 98 minutes). Starring Cate Blanchett, this feature film is based on the life
of a devoted Irish journalist who wrote about organized crime and was ultimately gunned
down in her car. The movie was directed by Joel Schumacher.
WEB SITES
An independent nonprofit organization committed to promoting freedom of the press
worldwide.
Journal covering all aspects of the newspaper industry.
A part of the American University School of Communications dedicated to using new
technologies in the newsroom.
The Voice of the Black Community.
Labor union of the newspaper industry.
Deals primarily with the production aspects of the newspaper industry.
Formed in 1992 by the merger of seven other newspaper associations, the NMA represents
more than 90 percent of the daily circulation in the United States.
A research organization specializing in the use of empirical methods to evaluate the
performance of the media.
The Web presence for the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Investigative journalism in the public interest.
Journalists association. Local chapters organized throughout the country.
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Global network of publishing companies and technology entrepreneurs.
Blogs:
Buzzmachine serves as the online home of Jeff Jarvis, a famed media critic who once worked
for TV Guide and Entertainment Weekly.
Liberal blog site founded by Markos Moulitsas Zuniga.
The Web site of law professor Glenn Reynolds, which has a particular focus on how the
worlds of technology and law intersect.
A blog run through Slate with a focus on politics, authored by journalist Mickey Kaus.
Rosen, a press critic and a strong supporter of citizen journalism, runs this site through New
York University, where he also works as a professor.
E-newsletter and blog tracking daily headlines.
Conservative political commentator and best-selling author Mark Steyn publishes his
thoughts on current events on his own Web site.
Founded during the Florida recount during the 2000 presidential election, Talking Points
Memo serves as a liberal political site, particularly focused on U.S. foreign and domestic
policy.
FURTHER READING
Alterman, Eric. What Liberal Media? The Truth about Bias and the News. New York: Basic,
2003.
Avlon, John P., et al. Deadline Artists: Americas Greatest Newspaper Columns. New York:
Overlook Press, 2012.
Bozell, L. Brent, III. Weapons of Mass Distortion: The Coming Meltdown of the Liberal Media.
New York: Crown, 2004.
Brendon, Piers. The Life and Death of the Press Barons. New York: Atheneum, 1983.
Carey, James W., and Stuart G. Adam. Communication as Culture. New York: Routledge, 2009.
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Kaplan, Richard L. Politics and the American Press: The Rise of Objectivity, 18651920.
Cambridge: Cambridge U, 2002.
Kovach, Bill, and Tom Rosenstiel. The Elements of Journalism: What Newspeople Should Know
and the Public Should Expect. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2014.
Lasch, Christopher. “Journalism, Publicity and the Lost Art of Argument.Gannett Center
Journal (Spring 1990): 111.
Lippmann, Walter. Liberty and the News. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Howe, 1920.
Merritt, Davis. Public Journalism and Public Life: Why Telling the News Is Not Enough.
Mahwah, NJ: L. Erlbaum, 1998.
Meyer, Philip. Precision Journalism: A Reporter's Introduction to Social Science Methods.
Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2002.
Mott, Frank Luther. American Journalism, A History: 16901960. 3rd ed. New York: Macmillan,
1962.

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