Conversation And Credibility: Broadening Journalism Criticism

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In the article “Conversation and Credibility: Broadening Journalism Criticism Through Public Engagement,” (2011) author Glen Feighery (Associate Professor of Communication at the University of Utah with a MA in Journalism and a PHD in Mass Communication, and member of the Society of Professional Journalists,) presents and expounds upon issues such as declining credibility and trust in the media today, the essentialness of public voice and criticism to combat declining credibility and trust, the importance of self-criticism by journalists and how to use their personal criticism to engage the public and obtain further insight as well as a relationship with their audience. Feighery demonstrates the crucial need for journalists and news organizations …show more content…

Right away he begins citing literature and research done that shows a public decline in trust of accuracy among journalists and problems that arise when journalists do not take advantage of opportunities to get feedback from their audience. Due to the irrefutable fact that there are currently many other issues in his discipline such as the death of the newspaper, Feighery draws attention to the seriousness of this separate, less discussed issue immediately to communicate that this is a topic his colleagues in the profession should pay attention to. By introducing literature and research of other scholars immediately, it heavily emphasizes that there are many problematic concerns surrounding it in the field of media and journalism and additionally creates an underlying tone of urgency once he presents his own response thereafter. Though Feighery immediately presents the problem as very serious, he transitions quickly into solutions and examples from various sources. Before he states the overall direction of the article, Feighery briefly touches on other scholar’s opinions on the importance of how technology has reshaped the field of journalism industry, but that at the same time it can allow for a better connection to be formed between themselves and their audience members if used as an effective …show more content…

The result is a plethora of different definitions of the latter as well as various recommendations for improving each individually and applying them to the two-way symmetrical communication model from the public relations field in order to foster better communication and relationships with the public and how using social media can ease this process. Instead of recommending his own solutions to the issue upfront, Feighery maintains a professional complexion and authoritative tone citing multiple experts on the three areas of problematic situations in journalism. Additionally, in doing so he creates room for the audience to figure out their own opinion on the matter by using scholarship that does not all point the same direction, but presents what some experts think as well as an alternate point of view of what other experts think, acknowledging that there is some disagreement surrounding the

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