Review of NPR: The Trials and Triumphs of National Public Radio by Michael p. mccauley

This article looks at the news production practices surrounding letters to the editor as a case study in the difficulties of creating a civil public debate in multicultural societies. It examines how letters editors make decisions about publishing uncivil letters—letters that are sexist, racist, homophobic, or generally intolerant. If letters contribute to the public debate, editors are reluctant to reject them, even if they challenge norms of propriety. Editors reject only letters that fall into one of two categories: (1) personal attack letters that might result in libel suits and (2) letters that are openly racist, sexist, or homophobic and do not in any way contribute to the public debate. They justify their decisions in common sense theories sympathetic to deliberative democracy. Editors thus see a policy of limited editorial intervention as the only way to ensure an open and honest debate about the varied issues that face the citizens of a multicultural society.     

Air Mail: NPR Sees "Community" in Letters From Listeners

This study of National Public Radio's "letters from listeners" segments applies two theoretical frameworks–imagined community and news work–to suggest that the practice of "imagining community" is a distinct practice of journalism. The findings suggest that NPR producers use letters segments to encourage listeners to feel as if they are part of a community. In selecting and packaging those comments, producers construct an imagined community that reflects the producers' own journalistic values, such as balance, accountability, and accuracy. The conclusion suggests that community-imagining might be especially difficult and abstract for large news media organizations serving massive and dispersed audiences.     

“Now We Can Talk”

This paper explores debate within Puerto Rico's journalistic community regarding the journalistic role of La Comay, a full-sized puppet host of the popular information and entertainment show SuperXclusivo, which faced a boycott in late 2012 and cancelation in early 2013. Calls to boycott and shutter the daily TV show came from the island's LGBT advocates because of comments made by La Comay that they considered homophobic. This analysis of 58 texts from four of Puerto Rico's island-wide news outlets provides an opportunity to examine how a region's dominant cultural archetype—that of the motherly and controversial comadre, after which La Comay is named—appeared in boundary work conducted by local journalists as they determined whether La Comay should have been awarded journalistic status. This paper is not meant to be yet another examination of satirical journalism as much as it is a chance to explore the appearance of a region's culture in the construction or maintenance of its journalistic community.     

Indigenous cultural values and journalism in the Asia-Pacific region: a brief history of Māori journalism

A number of scholars in the Asia-Pacific region have in recent years pointed to the importance that cultural values play in influencing journalistic practices. The Asian values debate was followed up with empirical studies showing actual differences in news content when comparing Asian and Western journalism. At the same time, such studies have focused on national cultures only. This paper instead examines the issue against the background of an Indigenous culture in the Asia-Pacific region. It explores the way in which cultural values may have played a role in the journalistic practice of Māori journalists in Aotearoa New Zealand over the past nearly 200 years and finds numerous examples that demonstrate the significance of taking cultural values into account. The paper argues that the role played by cultural values is important to examine further, particularly in relation to journalistic practices amongst sub-national news cultures across the Asia-Pacific region.     

“硬化”与“软化”——中美新闻文化表现形态的差异性比较

新闻文化的表现形态 ,取决于参与新闻实践活动的主体的新闻价值观念体系。新闻文化主体———传者和受者对某些价值的特别看重或追求 ,构成了新闻文化表现形式的主要特征。现实的新闻选择过程 ,实质上是新闻从业者的新闻价值取向和受众需求共同作用的结合。从国际传媒业的宏观发展态势看 ,传媒高度成熟的市场化和产业化 ,都会带来不同程度的“软化”新闻、“非新闻”倾向     

Journalism as institution and work in Europe,circa 1860

This article presents a comparative historical analysis of the relationship between journalism as institution (i.e., a particular set of organizations in society) and journalism as work (i.e., an activity practiced by individuals) in four European countries: Britain, Sweden, Germany, and Estonia. The analysis compares the institutional context of journalistic work in these four countries around 1860, focusing in particular on the organization of journalistic labor at the national newspaper of record. The historical comparison reveals how exceptional the British case is. The study finds that British journalism circa 1860 exhibited a high division of labor, high labor specialization, and was increasingly focused on news gathering and production. Swedish and German journalism exhibited an emerging division of labor and labor specialization, and was focused on political debate (rather than news gathering and production). Estonian journalism exhibited hardly any division of labor or labor specialization, and was focused on raising national awareness.     

Letters to the Editor as a Forum for public deliberation: modes of publicity and democratic debate

–This paper traces, through in-depth interviews with San Francisco Bay letters editors, the criteria editors use to select letters, and examines how these criteria contribute to constructing the public by privileging certain forms of expression, and suppressing others. In constructing a theoretical framework, the paper draws on political philosophy to distinguish between three prevalent modes of publicity: Exhibitionist publicity, focused on the display of individual greatness; dialogist publicity, emphasizing democratic dialogue between groups and individuals; and activist publicity, which entails the confrontation between groups that seek to advance political goals. With this framework in mind, it is argued that editors' policies on letters selection bring about two orientations toward public debate: First, editors privilege individual expression over the expression of activist groups. Secondly, editors prefer the emotionally charged stories of individuals. These orientations challenge the ideals of rationality and deliberation that underlie the practice of dialogist publicity, as well as the contestatory nature of activist publicity. Instead, editors' principles favor an exhibitionist publicity. The paper explores the political philosophical implications of this orientation, arguing that while it does not square with democratic ideals, we must be cognizant of how such display can bring about social solidarity.     

THE JOURNALISTIC GUT FEELING

What goes on in editorial conferences and how do news journalists decide what is newsworthy? The journalistic “gut feeling” is an important part of the professional self-understanding of journalists and editors expressing how news judgements seem self-evident and self-explaining to the practitioners. This article presents an analysis of everyday news work drawing on the theoretical framework of Pierre Bourdieu and using ethnographic material from observations of editorial practices in a Danish television newsroom as a case study. The analytical concepts “journalistic doxa”, “news habitus” and “editorial capital” are put to empirical work on close-up observations of journalistic practices in editorial conferences and two types of news values are identified as part of the journalistic “gut feeling”: the explicit orthodox/heterodox news values which are part of the sphere of journalistic judgement, and the implicit, silent doxic news values which are part of the sphere of journalistic doxa. An important task for future studies of journalistic practice is to investigate the seemingly self-evident orthodox news values as well as making visible the doxic news values imbedded in journalistic practice.     

News Selection Within Customer Magazines

Customer magazines blur the boundaries between journalistic reporting and organizational information. On the one hand, customer magazines are intended to communicate the interests, brands, products, and services of an organization. On the other hand, their topics, style, and layout resemble those of journalistic publications, from which readers expect independent and objective reporting. While customer magazines are distributed in high numbers throughout different industries and play an increasingly important role in the media landscape, they have hardly been the focus of researchers to date. It is therefore quite unclear how editorial decisions are made within these publications. This study investigated the relevance of journalistic news factors for topic selection in customer magazines and the extent to which these factors differ from those of journalistic publications. We conducted a quantitative survey of customer magazines’ editors-in-chief in Germany (N?=?143). We compared their responses on the relevance of news factors to the findings of a survey of senior journalists. The findings revealed clear differences in the use of news factors between the two groups.     

PRACTICE REVIEW: JOURNALISM ETHICS AND CONFESSIONAL JOURNALISM

Confessional journalism has become a staple of contemporary journalism, either in the form of first-person real-life experiences (often ghosted by journalists) or regular columns by journalists detailing intimate details of their lives. The form is now recognised as a distinct genre but what has not received attention, except as an internal debate within journalism itself, are the consequences of this form of writing for journalism and journalists. There is mounting evidence that editors are exerting pressure towards this form of writing, favouring particular types of writers. This review investigates the compelling ethical implications for writers and their subjects within the genre and argues that these implications are producing distinctive journalistic responses and strategies.     

从理论到实践,从课堂到媒体——新闻专业实践教学的系统思考

目前我国新闻专业实践教学还存在诸多问题。要解决这些问题,在教学理念层面应该把新闻专业实践教学看作为一个系统工程,深入把握这个系统内部各个构成要素、各个环节以及之间彼此依赖,相互促进的密切关系,厘清不同环节的实践目的,建构良好的新闻专业实践教学生态,才能最终有效地服务于新闻学整体的教学目标。     

事实客观性与新闻真实性的再解读

本文从事实客观性与新闻真实性的密切关联角度,通过对已有新闻真实性的若干论述剖析,结合马克思主义哲学原理和现实新闻事例,阐释了"新闻真实性是对事实客观性的反映"这一命题。     

Measuring and Evaluating Reciprocal Journalism as a Concept

Building on research proposing reciprocal journalism as a concept underlying participatory practices and norms in journalism, this study examines how reciprocity might meaningfully be measured in a journalistic context. Using a survey of US journalists, this study adapts measures of reciprocal attitudes and behaviors to journalistic practices. It also develops measures of direct, indirect, and sustained reciprocity as applied to journalism, and explores the relationship between each of these reciprocal forms and one type of participatory behavior: interacting with audiences online. The results indicate that some measurements of positive reciprocity can be meaningfully translated to a journalistic environment and may help to predict forms of audience interaction. For future research, the findings point to the potential for forms of reciprocity to be explored as antecedents for other journalistic norms and practices.     

MANAGING CREATIVITY IN CHANGE

This article is concerned with the management of creative journalistic work in a media organisation. It reports and analyses a case study conducted in one of Europe's largest media corporations: the focus of the study was a development team of journalists set up and charged with creating and producing a new multi-platform media service and its content. The article discusses the ways in which the creativity of media professionals is supported and managed under the constantly changing conditions of media work and journalistic practices. The study contributes to research on creativity in the media industry, particularly the management of creativity in journalism and media work. The findings identify the key motivations and constraints in relation to creative journalistic work in the media industries under digital transformation. Specifically, media professionals are motivated by the opportunity for developing new skills and competencies as well as chances to create new journalistic products and practices. The article suggests that the skills of change management, communication management and project management are crucial for creative media work.     

Disciplining the Virtual Home Front: Mainstream News and the Web During the War in Iraq

Considered by many to be the first war of the Information Age, the 2003 War in Iraq provided a unique opportunity for observing how the American mainstream press defined the Web's journalistic value and how it reacted to the competition from alternative online news sources. In an attempt to exert control over the Web as a journalistic space, the mainstream press used rhetorics of “professionalism” to discipline online news seekers into conforming to the definition of “news” favored by the mainstream press. This essay analyzes these tactics and their implications for the Web's journalistic potential, and concludes with a call for a more collaborative online journalism that maintains journalistic credibility while also incorporating a wider variety of perspectives.     

Press Credentials and Hybrid Boundary Zones: The Case of WorldNetDaily and the Standing Committee of Correspondents

ABSTRACT

Press credentialing practices are a vital, yet understudied site of scholarly research on journalistic norms and practices. Press credentialing not only structures internal professional hierarchies, but they also signify the boundaries of the journalistic field itself. This paper explores the legal and theoretical implications of press credentialing to cover the United States Congress, drawing on the concepts of boundary work and journalistic authority to demonstrate the material impact of the space between fields on professional legitimation in journalism. Using WorldNetDaily (WND) as a case study, I argue that the Standing Committee of Correspondents (SCC) occupies a hybrid boundary zone between the journalistic and political fields, generating a unique tension in First Amendment jurisprudence that places journalists in a paradoxical role as both the professional embodiments of free speech and its constitutional steward. The resulting jurisdictional conflict between the SCC and WND extends the relational model of journalistic authority by articulating how journalist-state relations can fundamentally augment the process of legitimation at its fuzzy boundaries. The relevance and implications for press credentialing practices in the digital age are discussed.     

新闻道德评价主客体构成分析

新闻道德评价是评价主体主要运用一定新闻道德标准对新闻活动主体新闻行为及其新闻道德品质做出道德判断的活动。主要的新闻道德评价主体是相对职业新闻活动主体而存在的非职业评价主体,其核心是作为新闻收受主体的社会公众;而主要的新闻道德评价对象(客体)是职业行为主体的新闻行为、新闻道德品质,不是一般社会主体的新闻行为与品质。     

Back to the 1990s? Comparing the Discourses of 20th- and 21st-Century Digital Image Ethics Debates

In 2010, New York Times photographer Damon Winter sparked controversy when he used an iPhone equipped with the Hipstamatic application to produce heavily filtered, Polaroid-style front-page photographs of U.S. troops in Afghanistan. The debate over whether such images were photojournalism, or merely photographs, was reignited the next year as some of his images were honored in one of the country's most prestigious photojournalism competitions, and the practice of using filter-friendly apps for journalism spread. This article compares professional discourses around such journalistic use of smartphone apps with discourses that developed earlier in the digital era around digital image manipulation in Photoshop, with the goal of proposing ways to interrogate imaging technology controversies yet to come.     

THE WAGES OF SYNERGY

In the current economic environment, message synergy may result in a perceptible manifestation of ownership's impact on media content. That influence raises ethical issues: journalistic independence and access to the media marketplace for a variety of messages. This project analyzes the “soft news” content of the two most popular morning television news shows, The Today Show and Good Morning America during November 2007 sweeps. The analysis demonstrates that “soft news” story topic selection appears to be strongly influenced by economic connections to the parent corporation. The potential impact of this distortion of the cultural public sphere for journalists, viewers, creative artists and advertising at the institutional level are analyzed. The wages of synergy include a restriction of journalistic autonomy, confining viewers to a role that is exclusively consumption oriented, and, at the institutional level, jeopardizing the credibility of news programming which could have a long-term impact on advertising revenues.