12. News and Information

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12. News and Information
Christopher Burnett California State, Long Beach
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Cooperative For-Profit News Gathering

• New York Associated Press, 1848
• Six New York papers pooled foreign telegraph news
  costs
• Became the Associated Press (AP)
• United Press, 1884
• For profit news service, competed with AP
• Became United Press International (UPI)

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Other News Services

• Agence France-Presse
• France
• Reuters
• Great Britain
• Information Telegraph Agency of Russia (ITAR)
• Agenzia Nationale Stampa Associata (ANSA)
• Italy
• Deutsche Presse Agentur (DPA)
• Germany
• Xinhua
• China

jmmelton/motleyimage
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Civil War Photojournalism

• The Civil War and censorship of the news
• Government accreditation
• Press passes
• The Birth of Photojournalism
• Matthew Brady
• 1st national news photographer
• 3500 war photos
• Life magazine
• Margaret Bourke-White
• Early photojournalist

Bettman/Corbis
Brady
Acme/Corbis
Bourke-White
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Tabloid News Takes Over

• Early 20th Century expansion
• Yellow journalism
• Fierce competition
• New York alone had 10 daily newspapers
• Penny papers
• Grisly crime, illicit sex and large, graphic
  photos
• Radios influence
• Shared audience

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Newsreels

• News at the movies
• British Pathe
• 1900-1970
• Fox Movietone News
• 1919-1960
• 10 minutes long
• Narrated
• Weekly updates
• Employed over 1000 camera people
• Global coverage
• Entertainment, travel, sports, features, etc.

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Radio The Sounds of WWII

• Ernie Pyle
• Print reporter from the front
• Edward R. Murrow
• The London Blitz, 1940
• Painting pictures with words
• Covered important events from 1921-1947
• Radio station news departments
• Maintained until format radio era
• Formed the foundation for television news

Scripps Howard News Service
Ernie Pyle
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The Golden Age of TV News

• John F. Kennedy
• Presidential debates
• Inauguration
• Cuban Missile Crisis
• Assassination, 1963
• Vietnam War
• Chicago Democratic Convention, 1968
• Candid war coverage
• Watergate
• 1973 Burglary
• Nixons resignation, 1974

AP/Wide World Photo
Johnson sworn in after Kennedys death
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TV News Expands Contracts

• Local News expansion
• Up to 2 hours local TV news
• Broadcast deregulation, 1980s
• Network consolidation
• Local stations bought out
• Cable News Network
• Round the clock news
• Global presence
• Alternative to networks
• 1990s Decline
• Internet affect
• Network and local decline

Korin Ziv/Corbis/Sigma
CNNs Christian Amanpour
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TV News Viewing Trends
Illustration 12.1
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Iraq War

• Military-press relations
• War coverage
• Embedded Reporters
• 600 reporters
• Frontline access
• Military control
• Reversal of past policies
• Non-stop coverage

Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Iraq War reporters
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News on the Internet

• Internet nonstop information
• Service providers (AOL) compile headlines and
  news links from many sources
• Targeted to individual needs
• Replacing TV news
• 44 go online for news once a week
• 25 go to Internet as chief source of news
• More news available from many sources

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Top Ranking Internet News Sites
Illustration 12.2
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Earnings for Local News People
Illustration 12.3
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Trends among Journalists

• No evidence that reporters insert ideology into
  their stories
• More minorities
• Gains for women
• Journalists are unlikely to challenge prevailing
  political and social values.
• Conformity in reporting. Consensus Journalism?

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Blurring Distinctions News, Reality Shows and
Advertising

• Reality TV
• Survivor, Real Stories of the Highway Patrol,
  Americas Most Wanted
• Lines blurred between news and entertainment
• Infomercials
• Making advertising look like documentary news
• Entertainment-driven news
• Constructing news broadcasts along entertainment
  lines

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
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Journalists News Values

• Agenda-Setting Function
• Not telling what to think but what to think about
• Ethnocentrism
• American bias
• Altruistic Democracy
• Responsible Capitalism
• Small-Town Pastoralism
• Individualism
• Moderatism
• Order
• Leadership
• Attention focused on leaders (e.g. the U.S.
  president)

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Source and Credibility

• Confidentiality of sources
• Woodward Bernstein
• Deep Throat Watergate
• Mark Felt, FBI agent
• Judith Miller, New York Times
• Mark Cooper, Time
• Both ordered to reveal source of CIA leak case
• Miller spent four months in jail
• Shield Laws
• Protect journalists against revealing sources
• No federal shield law
• Credibility and audience
• The Internet has captured audience credibility

Win McNamee/Getty Images
Bernstein (L) and Woodward
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Views of News Media
Illustration 12.4
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Critical Discussion

1. During the war with Iraq in 2003, hundreds of
   journalists were embedded with military units and
   reported under carefully controlled conditions.
   Many hailed the practice as a new era in war
   reporting. Others criticized it as pro-war
   propaganda. What do you think?
2. Recent cases have revived the controversy over
   confidential sources as the basis for news
   stories. Should journalists be required to reveal
   their sources if ordered to do so by a judge?