What is News

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What is News?

• News Can be thought of as information or
  reports of recent events

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Types of News

• Event Based Reporting
• Exploratory Reporting
• Investigative Journalism
• Soft News

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Variables Affecting News

• News Hole A variable affecting what will end up
  as news
• News Flow News Staffing the Flow of news
  varies from day to day, where as Staffing effects
  news coverage, if a reporter is in the right
  place at the right time
• Perception about Audience How a news
  organization perceives its audience affects news
  coverage
• Availability of Material- availability of
  photographs and video also is a factor in what
  ends up being news
• Competition- Journalism is a competitive
  business, and the drive to out do other news
  organizations, or to get the scoop keeps news
  publications and new news casts fresh with new
  materials.

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Other variables that influence news are

• Advertiser Influence-
• Corporate Policy- Owners, publishers, general
  managers have the final world on matters big and
  small
• Source Pressure-
• Gatekeeping in News- No journalist acts entirely
  alone, and there are factors such as gatekeeping
  that effects what ends up on the printed page
• Gatekeepers- delete, trim, embelish, etc. to
  improve the journalists message

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Event Based Reporting can be seen through 4 major
U.S. Time Periods

• Colonial Period
• Partisan Period
• Penny Press Period
• Yellow Press Period

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Colonial Period

• Started With the first newspaper published by
  Benjamin Harris in Boston in 1690
• Publick Occurrences
• John Peter Zenger followed with the New York
  Journal in 1733
• No Taxation without Representation
• (Newspapers started leading the way in stirring
  ill feelings against England that would lead to
  the American Revolution)

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Traditions from the Colonial Period that remain
today

• The news media, both print and broadcast, relish
  their independence from government censorship and
  control
• The news media, especially newspapers and
  magazines, actively try to mold government policy
  and mobilize public sentiment. Today this is
  seen on editorial page
• Journalists are committed to seeking the truth

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Partisan Period

• This period was known for its intense
  partisanship characterized newspapers
• Spanned almost 50 years to the 1830s
• Issues of this period focused around the U.S.
  Constitution
• Should the nation have a strong central
  government or remain a loose coalition of states?
• Federalists vs. Anti-Federalists

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Traditions from the Partisan Period that exist
today

• The first Amendment- Freedom of the press
• The News Media are a forum for discussion and
  debate
• Newspapers should comment on public issues
• Government problems with the news media are met
  with public rejection of the government official
  with the problem

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Benjamin Day

• Started the New York Sun, that changed U.S.
  journalism
• Focused on issues to common folks
• The motto was It shines for all
• Coined the Penny Press
• At a penny a copy, the Sun was in reach of
  anybody

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From Ben Days newspaper came Penny Press Period

• By Hawking newspapers on street corners, the Sun
  was circulated everywhere allowing advertisers
  the opportunity of reaching a lot of potential
  customers
• Advertising revenue meant bigger papers
• Attracting more readers, and more advertisers

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Social and Economic factors resulting from the
Industrial Revolution that made the Penny Press
Possible

• Industrialization- new steam powered presses
  allowed hundreds of copies an hour to be
  processed.
• Urbanization- Workers flocked to the city to work
  in factories creating more newspaper readers
• Immigration- Waves of immigrants were coming to
  the U.S. from impoverished Europe, and used penny
  papers as tutors for learning english
• Literacy- As immigrants learned english they
  hungered for reading materials with in their
  economic means

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In 1844, Late in the Penny Press Period

• Samuel Morse invented the telegraph
• Correspondents used the telegraph to get battle
  news to readers to during the Civil War in 1861
• a.k.a. Lightning News

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The Civil War lead to new conventions in writing
news

• The Inverted Pyramid
• This is where Editors instructed their War
  correspondents to tell the most important
  information first if telegraph lines failed or
  were found by the enemy, then editors would have
  at least a few usable sentences
• Was popular with readers b/c it allowed them to
  see what was most important at a glance
• Helped editors to fit stories into the limited
  confines of a page
• Remains a standard form for telling event-based
  stories in newspapers, radio, and television

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Associated Press

• Began in 1848
• Publishers were tired of sending reporters to
  gather far away stories
• They got together to share stories, and these
  stories were considered to be objective
  reporting, a fact oriented style of news

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Traditions seen today that are traced back to the
Penny Press Period

• Inverted Pyramid story structures
• Coverage and writing that appeals to a general
  audience
• A strong orientation to covering events
• A commitment to social improvement
• Being on top of unfolding events, and relaying
  this to readers quickly
• A detached, neutral perspective in reporting
  events, a tradition that is fostered by the
  Associated Press

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Yellow Press Period

• Was named because of the Pulitzer-Hears
  circulation war in New York in the 1890s

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Adolph Ochs ended Yellow Journalism by buying the
New York Times that focused on important issues
and events, instead of sideshows

• Joseph Pulitzer
• Made the St. Louis Post- Dispatch
• Bought the New York World (applying the St. Louis
  formula)
• Emphasized
• Human Interest
• Crusaded for worthy causes

• William Randolph Hearst
• Used Pulitzers New York formula, he made the San
  Francisco Examiner
• Bought the New York Journal

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Yellow Journalism still exists today

• Can be seen in the form of Jazz Journalism
• This was Hearst and Pulitzer updated in tabloid
  form with an emphasis on photography
• Ex. The National Enquirer lives in the Yellow
  Tradition
• Ex II. Jerry Springer

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OK So that was a look at event based journalism,
before we focus on investigative journalism and
soft news we must first focus on the role of the
journalist
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Role of the Journalist

• Journalists have a high level of constitutional
  protection in deciding on what to report as news
• With this in mind reporters decide which events
  and issues are newsworthy, and then their
  judgment will result in stories that take
  different slants and angels

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Typical America Journalist Value system

• As derived from sociologist Robert Gans, who
  studied the American news system for 20 years
• Identifies primary values that Journalists use in
  making their news judgments
• Ethnocentrism
• Commitment to Democracy Capitalism
• Small-Town Patoralism
• Individualism Tempered by Moderation
• Social Order

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Journalistic Bias

• Is generally avoided at all costs
• Opinion pieces are set apart in editorial
  sections
• Most Journalists are seen as leftists, but this
  criticizing of a profession that strives for
  neutrality basically come from people who forgot
  that news, by its nature is concerned with change
• A journalists Goals are
• Accuracy, balance, and fairness

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Exploratory Reporting is Proactive news-gathering

• This type of reporting became popular in the 60s
• Event based reporting made reporters miss one of
  the most significant changes of the 20th century
  The northward migration of Southern blacks
• Had journalists covered the migration there might
  have been a chance to develop public policies
  before frustration of racial issues blew up
• Also By focusing on events for reporting,
  Journalists missed asking significant questions
  about the flawed policies in early coverage of
  the Vietnam war

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Newspapers expanded greatly beyond focus of
events in the 1970s for three reasons

• Recognizing that old ways of reporting news were
  not enough
• Larger reporting staffs that permitted
  time-consuming enterprise reporting
• Better-educated reporters and editors, many with
  graduate degrees
• (Newspapers, more profitable than ever, were able
  to afford large staffs, and had them focus on
  more explanatory kinds of journalism)

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Inevitably Investigative Journalism came about

• Investigative Journalism was modeled on the
  persistence of the Washington Post in their
  covering of Watergate
• By the late 1970s reporters were acquiring
  advanced degrees and specialties
• This resulted in a new emphasis on proactive
  reporting in which journalists didnt wait for an
  event to happen, but went out looking for things
  worth telling

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Soft News

• During the 1960s newspapers began investigations
  of what readers wanted
• Began carrying consumer oriented stories,
  lifestyle tips and entertainment news
• Examples include
• The National Enquirer
• Entertainment Tonight
• People Magazine
• Us magazine

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THE END!

• THANKS TO ALL THOSE THAT PATIENTLY SAT THROUGH
  OUR PRESENTATION