Alex S. Jones is a man who knows the newspapers business, the deadline pressure or the crowded morning newsroom. He comes from a newspaper-owning family in Greeneville, Tennessee and worked as a reporter for the New York Times and the Daily-Post-Athenian in Athens. He is a Pulitzer price winner and is now director of the Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard. He has been gravitating in the media world for over 60 years.
In this book, Jones goes to define what is news, or rather "core news", and examines journalism's constantly evolving perspectives.
According to Jones, "The Iron Core" of journalism is a "sphere of pitted iron, grey and imperfect like a large cannonball" (page 1). This iron core would be the aggregation of all quality professional journalism done by news organizations. It would require more money, more investments, better journalists and better working conditions.
Jones believes that significance of news or an article should not be governed by the hour, the day or any given timetable. A valuable piece of news is rather the arrival of a new awareness created by constant quality
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In the final pages of the final chapter "Saving the news", Jones gives his opinion of potential solutions that could help salvage quality reporting. His point of view is that most of the change has to come from the consumers rather than the actors doing the news themselves. His statement is rather simplistic as newspapers owners need to do "the right thing", journalists must "persevere" and news consumers should "demand the news that they need" (page 221). There is no global plan, and not much effort demanded to the main decision makers. The citizen, the newspapers' buyer would be the only actor able to save the iron core. Following up on 220 pages of mostly dramatic and alarmist observations, this seems to fall a little bit
In his editorial "Words Triumph Over Images," Curtis Wilkie blames today’s media for being “reckless” and “a mutant reality show”. He believes that television and radio are “unfiltered”, which causes the quality of journalism for newspapers to be unmatched. Yet, it is unfair to label all media that is not print as lesser because the quality of any media relies on the viewers and the individual journalists, and in drastic situations like a hurricane, reporters may have many road blocks. Any of these aspects can affect the quality of journalism, which invalidates Curtis Wilkie’s claim.
In “Reporting the News” by George C. Edwards III, Martin P. Wattenberg, and Robert L. Lineberry, the main idea is how the media determines what to air, where to get said stories that will air, how the media presents the news, and the medias effect on the general public. “Reporting The News” is a very strong and detailed article. The authors’ purpose is to inform the readers of what goes on in the news media. This can be inferred by the authors’ tone. The authors’ overall tone is critical of the topics that are covered. The tone can be determined by the authors’ strong use of transitions, specific examples, and phrases or words that indicate analysis. To summarize, first, the authors’ indicate that the media chooses its stories that will air
In Partisan Journalism, A History of Media Bias in the United States, Jim A. Kuypers steers his audience on a journey from beginning to the end of American journalistic history, putting emphasis on the militaristic ideas of objectivity and partisanship. Kuypers confirm how the American journalistic tradition cultivated as a partisan root and, with only a short time for the objectivity in between, and then go back to those roots in which are today.
In the documentary film, Page One: Inside The New York Times, the inner world of journalism is revealed through journalists David Carr and Brian Stelter as the newspaper company The New York Times, struggles to keep alive within a new wave of news journalism. The film is dedicated to reveal the true inner mechanics of what modern day new journalists face on a daily basis and leaves the audience almost in a state of shock. It broadcasts news journalism as yes, an old school method of news generation, but it also highlights an important component that reveals the importance behind this “old school” methodology. We often think that progression always correlates with positive products, but the documentary insists that within the case of modern journalism, the new wave method is actually a detriment that can reap negative consequences.
It is not uncommon to hear people complaining about what they hear on the news. Everyone knows it and the media themselves knows it as well. Some of the most renowned journalists have even covered the the media’s issues in detail. Biased news outlets have flooded everyday news. We find that journalism’s greatest problems lie in the media’s inability for unbiased reporting, the tendency to use the ignorance of their audience to create a story, and their struggles to maintain relevance.
At the RTNDA conference Murrow arguably deliver his most famous speech, which included his hopes and fears of the news media industry in years to come. Although much of today’s news media industry would be held in disdain in the mind of Murrow his practices are still referred due and held in high regard by his contemporaries and fellow aspiring journalist. Edward R. Murrow set the standard of American journalism, and had the largest individual impact on the news media industry in history. Loading the Gun
Weinstein, Adam, and Mojo News Team. Mother Jones 18 Mar. 2012: 1-2. Mother Jones and the Foundation for National Progress. Web. 15 Mar. 2014.
Public journalism has changed much during its existence. Papers are striving to actively involve readers in the news development. It goes beyond telling the news to embrace a broader mission of improving the quality of public life. The American style of journalism is based on objectivity and separates us from the bias found in most European partisan papers. American journalism is becoming too vigilant in being objective that the dedication to investigating stories tends to be missing in the writing. Public journalism works to incorporate concepts from partisan and objective writing to increase the flow of information and improve the quality of public life.
An argument can be made that Journalism is one of the very few professions in the world of media that is handled with some sort of dignity and pride. After reading “The Elements of Journalism” by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel, I realized how important journalism is to each and every one of us. Whether you’re a writer or a reader, the back and forth exchange between provider and consumer is extremely important in pushing society forward. Journalism after all is designed to challenge society, promote new ideas and spark conversation between one another. Despite the positives of journalism, there are issues that exist within the profession that cannot be excused and cannot be ignored.
This class is based on an ideology that suggests “everyone can be a journalist in the digital age” (Splichal, 2015) (Dahlgren, Splichal 2016). Along with
I recently read an article somewhere, in which BBC journalist Sigrun Rottman said that objectivity in journalism is an illusion and the media should think more of being balanced than being objective. According to her, objectivity in the media does not really exist. This hit home for me because before being a journalism student I believed that objectivity in journalism was undoubtedly the focal point of the profession and that the business of every journalist was to be objective. The truth and the reality of this belief as we know it and as I have come to understand is that objectivity in journalism really doesn’t exist or to put it in better terms, it doesn’t exist to the extent that we perceive it should. So, the oft-stated and exceedingly desired goal of modern journalism is objectivity - the ‘disconnected’ gathering and dissemination of news and information; this allows people to arrive at decisions about the world and events occurring in it without the journalist’s subjective views influencing the acceptance and/or rejection of the information. It’s a pity that such a goal is impossible to achieve! As long as humans gather and disseminate news and information, objectivity is an unrealizable dream.
Print media is on the decline, this can be seen in the U.S.newspaper industry as it is facing “its worst financial crisis since the Great Depression” (Kirchhoff). A few huge newspaper chains declared their bankruptcy, while many others have shut down (Kirchhoff). This has lead to many reporters and editors to be out of the job, lesser pay and even becoming web-only publications (Kirchhoff).
It’s a question that keeps floating around in the public sphere: is print advertising and newspapers dead? The world is becoming more and more fast-paced and although, our want and need for the up-to-date news and breaking stories has not changed, the way in which we consume it has. This background report investigates and explains the downfall of the newspaper and the technological shift to online news. It will also discuss differing opinions of this relevant topic of the future of journalism from a range of reliable primary sources and investigative data.
In trying to attract new audiences, news media have begun to transition from reporting to becoming a form of entertainment. With the meteoric rise of social media’s role as a news source, the fight for an increase of diversity in the media, and the ever-growing desire of immediate content, the future of responsible journalism is more important than ever. Ask yourself, why do I think the way I do? Where do my political views originate? How do I prove them? Most likely, it is due to the biased portrayal of issues in the media and the politicization that accompanies what we consume. Now, compare your views to your preferred news reporting entity. More than likely, they are the same.
Journalism: a profession under pressure? Journal of Media Business Studies, 6, 37-59. Scannell, P. (1995). The 'Secondary'. Social aspects of media history, Unit 9 of the MA in Mass. Communications (By Distance Learning).