J201 Lecture Evaluating journalism for bias continued What do we mean by good journalism production ethics news agenda truth value marketplace success What do we mean by good journalism production ethics news produced behind a solid wall between editorial and advertising or news produced as complimentary copy news produced with or without deception of sources news produced with or without anonymity of sources news produced in house or purchased secondhand news produced through investigative reporting or through expert interview news produced in reaction to official events or in analysis of unobserved trends What do we mean by good journalism news agenda informative stories that make us better citizens consumers or entertaining stories that draw us in and keep us watching diverse stories that expose us to new and or disturbing ideas or targeted stories that reinforce our preexisting views muckraking stories that watchdog actions of powerful groups or stenography stories that replay views of powerful groups sensational stories that bring in lots of revenue or eat your peas stories that most people ignore What do we mean by good journalism truth value factual stories based on evidence or opinion pieces based on ideology objective stories accurately portraying diverse POV or slanted stories misrepresenting all but one POV balanced stories including all possible POV or representative stories indicating majority minority POV analytical stories to evaluate evidence for the reader or raw stories to provide unedited details of events What do we mean by good journalism marketplace success In the marketplace of ideas is the best journalism that which is approved of by the largest audience In the economic marketplace is the best journalism that which results in the greatest revenue or profit What factors might contribute to the quality of journalism What factors might contribute to the quality of journalism time and space constraints news hole news cycle audience attention span presentation style edgy sensational accessible revenue stream public subscription advertising What factors might contribute to the quality of journalism structure of the news organization number of reporters number of bureaus process of news gathering procedures for sourcing verifying editing characteristics of news personnel demographics psychographics geographics characteristics of news audience demographics psychographics geographics What factors might contribute to the quality of journalism ownership family owned shareholder owned conglomerate stated partisan project or ideals liberal conservative etc unstated influence or affiliation Democratic Republican labor management etc What should you do when you find bad journalism What should you do when you find bad journalism Consider scale one article one journalist one newspaper one media company or all media Consider history a pattern or an isolated incident Consider intent was mistake accidental avoidable Consider effects who stands to gain from mistake Consider yourself do you harbor any biases New York Times example 2003 Jayson Blair 2004 Judith Miller 2005 Pew Research Center study 2005 Respond with a campaign to secure our accuracy fairness and accountability newspaper reading today properties about 1 500 newspapers in US circulation 55 million single newspapers sold each day readership only 54 of Americans read a newspaper sometime during the week household penetration on average only 53 of households take a newspaper down from 123 in 1950 why have so many people stopped reading newspapers generational change suburbanization free weeklies reporting cutbacks chasing demographics rather than readers competition from television Baughman who is and isn t reading newspapers age young people read less ethnicity readership lowest among fastestgrowing minority population education more education means more likely to read a newspaper comparing newspapers to TV journalistic practices 85 of newspaper front page stories are staff generated rather than attributed solely to an outside source 56 for network evening news 2 of newspaper stories use at least one blind anonymous source 14 for network evening news 52 of newspaper stories use at least four named identified sources 18 for network evening news comparing newspapers to TV believability 50 of Americans believe their daily paper in 1985 80 of Americans believed their daily paper people today trust papers less than local and network television news cultural divide journalists seen as out of touch and motivated more by profit than public interest yet people still turn to newspapers to make sense of the world especially during key events yet newspapers remain profitable cover price doesn t even pay for cost of printing 80 of newspaper revenue from advertising only place where local advertisers can reach most of local population with a single ad buy good place to reach people of means and power 2002 total revenues of 55 billion 44 billion from ads big papers earn an average pretax profit of 19
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