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Journalism is an activity or profession that involves collecting information about current events, then reporting facts, findings and conclusions to a wider audience through print, digital or broadcast media. The purpose of journalism is to research and report events that impact people’s lives and society in different ways. The journalists are always involved in the selection and presentation of what they consider to be noteworthy, and in meeting the standard of truth and honesty in journalism reporting. The most important characteristic shared by good journalists is curiosity. Good journalists love to read and want to find out as much as they can about the world around them.
The proliferation of the internet and smartphones has brought significant changes to the media landscape since the turn of the 21st century. This has created a shift in the consumption of printed media channels, as people increasingly consume news through e-readers, smart phones, and other personal electronic devices, as opposed to the more traditional formats of newspapers, magazines, or television news channels.
The rise of social media has drastically changed the nature of journalistic reporting, giving rise to so-called citizen journalists. In a study of journalists in the United States, 40% of participants claimed they rely on social media as a source, with over 20% depending on microblogs to collect facts. The conclusion can be drawn that breaking news nowadays often stems from user-generated content, including videos and pictures posted online in social media. However, though 69.2% of the surveyed journalists agreed that social media allowed them to connect to their audience, only 30% thought it had a positive influence on news credibility. Because of these changes, the credibility ratings of news outlets has reached an all-time low. A study revealed that only 22% of Americans reported a “great deal”or “quite a lot of confidence”in either television news or newspapers.
Consequently, this has resulted in arguments to reconsider journalism as a process distributed among many authors, including the socially mediating public, rather than as individual products and articles written by dedicated journalists.
While various existing codes have some differences, most share common elements, including the principles of—truthfulness, accuracy, objectivity, impartiality, fairness and public accountability—as these apply to the acquisition of newsworthy information and its subsequent dissemination to the public.
Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel propose several guidelines for journalists in their book The Elements of Journalism . Their view is that journalism’s first loyalty is to the citizenry and that journalists are thus obliged to tell the truth and must serve as an independent monitor of powerful individuals and institutions within society. In this view, the essence of journalism is to provide citizens with reliable information through the discipline of verification.
Publishers, owners and other corporate executives, especially advertising sales executives, could try to use their powers over journalists to influence how news is reported and published. For this reason, journalists traditionally relied on top management to create and maintain a “firewall”between the news and other departments in a news organization to prevent undue influence on the news department.
The codes of ethics in journalism vary across various regions of the world. The codes of ethics are created through an interaction of different groups of people such as the public and journalists themselves. Most of the codes of ethics serve as a representation of the economic and political beliefs of the society where the code was written. Despite the fact that there are a variety of codes of ethics, some of the core elements present in all codes are: remaining objective, providing the truth, and being honest.
There is not a profession in the world that doesn’t take time, now and again, to reflect not only on where they’ve been and who they are, but also where they are going. That is a subject that is always good for a hearty debate. What we do know is that journalism was like an ember; it began as an ash in ancient civilizations, and by the late 1600s, it became a single flame that, with proper tending and oversight, grew into the conflagration it is today.
When information technology was introduced to the world, journalists were excited about how it could be used to shape and propel the profession. However, there can be no question that, instead, it has consumed the practice. Technologies also continue to fall over each other, and segue from rigid formats to multi-modalities. What is true, though, once all of the bells and whistles are stripped away, is that the essence of journalism remains the same. No matter what journalism looks like in the future, the practitioner must be unbiased and their work plagiarism-free. They must not bow to bribes or cut corners to get a story to market before a competitor just to be first. The journalists of today and tomorrow must continue to be driven to work to inform the public without fabrication, and be willing to practice the craft tirelessly, so they maintain and improve their ability to reach their audience. It is obvious that journalism will remain ensconced in the category of “profession”, because of the high expectations it imposes, and the high skill level it requires.
credibility：可信性
impartiality：公正，不偏不倚
dissemination：传播
ember：余烬
conflagration：大火
multi-modalities：多模态
There are almost as many answers to definition of news as there are editors and reporters. In fact, no uniformly satisfactory definition has been found. However, it is a given in most city rooms that news is what the editor says it is.
News has a broadly agreed set of values, often referred to as news values. News values, sometimes called news criteria, determine how much prominence a news story is given by a media outlet, and the attention it is given by the audience.
To be effective, a reporter simply has to understand the theories and concepts of how news is gathered and written as well as the particular role the media plays in a community. While there may be no definitive definition of news, there is a body of knowledge dealing with writing and presenting news that every reporter should master. Most journalists agree that the following eight elements make up what is considered “news”.
The first element is reporting something that has just happened or is about to happen. Time is a strong ingredient, “today, yesterday, early this morning, tomorrow”. The newness of the occurrence makes up “immediacy”, “timeliness”in the news.
Some facts and occurrences are important to you personally, such as inflation, and the Iraq situation particularly if one of the hostages is someone you know or a family member of a close friend.
Some events are less important when it occurs across town. The question most asked by journalists is: “If this happened outside my immediate area, my city, my province, would I be interested in reading about it?”Keeping this question in mind is particularly important to the reporter. You must examine your story to see if indeed it would interest other readers.
Prominence as a news element is well-known to most of us. The public figures, holders of public office, those who stimulate our curiosity, people in positions of influence all enjoy news prominence. For your visitor or speaker to qualify for news prominence, he or she must be well enough known to command the attention of readers either by reputation or by the nature of the topic to be discussed.
Oddity is often news. The bizarre, the unusual, the unexpected often make news. Generally those people who perform striking feats in emergency situations are news, such as a woman lifting an automobile off her child, travelling around the world in a sailboat, unusual recycling methods, and use of materials in a different way. In journalism, oddity is defined as the “man bites dog”formula. That certainly makes the “news”.
Conflict is one element most observed with the clash of ideologies, even worldwide. Although most businesses and organizations shy away from the reporting of conflict, it is understandable that this element is firmly based in the news formula.
Suspense creates and expands news appeal. The outcome of the Iranian hostages is suspenseful news. For the most part, organizations would rarely experience this type of circumstance.
Emotion is a news element commonly called “human interest”stories that stir our recognition of the basic needs both psychological and physical. Stories that prompt the reader toward sympathy, anger or other emotions in all their variety are commonly handled in feature-type stories. Organizations should be alert to the possibilities of “human interest”stories.
The last element of news, consequence, is more difficult to explain, but generally for a story to have consequence it must be important to a great number of readers. It must have some impact for the reader. Such news will affect him or her in some personal way. The safety of the city’s drinking water or the dumping of toxic wastes into rivers will be examined from the standpoint of consequence now and in the future. Thus it becomes an important news story.
From this discussion of news story elements, it becomes clear that a reporter should have these guidelines in mind when he or she is deciding if a message is news or an announcement and whether it’s a feature or an item of limited public interest. From this a reporter decides which format to use for distributing the information and the medium that is most likely to use your information.
immediacy：即时
locality：邻近
proximity：接近
bizarre：稀奇古怪的
oddity：奇异，古怪
A normative theory describes an ideal way for a media system to be controlled and operated by the government, authority, leader and public. These theories are basically different from other communication theories because normative theories of press are not providing any scientific explanations or prediction.
Normative theories are more focused in the relationship between press and the government than press and the audience. These theories are more concerned about the ownership of the media and who controls the press or media in the country.
Authoritarian theory describes that all forms of communications are under the control of the governing elite or authorities or influential bureaucrats.
Authoritarians are necessary to control the media to protect and prevent the people from the national threats through any forms of communication (information or news). The press is an instrument to enhance the ruler’s power in the country rather than any threats. The authorities has all rights to permit any media and control it by providing license to the media and make certain censorship. If any media violate the government policies against license, then the authority has all rights to cancel the license and revoke it. The government has all rights to restrict any sensitive issues from press to maintain peace and security in the nation.
Libertarian theory is also named as free press theory. Libertarian theory sees people are more enough to find and judge good ideas from bad. The theory says people are rational and their rational thoughts lead them to find out what are good and bad. The press should not restrict anything, even a negative content may give knowledge and can make better decision whilst worst situation. The libertarian thoughts are exactly against or opposite to the authoritarian theory which says “all forms of communication works under the control of government or elite like king”.
Freedom of press will give more freedom to media to reveal the real thing happening in the society without any censorship or any authority blockades.
Social responsibility theory allows free press without any censorship, but at the same time the content of the press should be discussed in public panel and media should accept any obligation from public interference or professional self regulations or both. The theory lies between both authoritarian theory and libertarian theory because it gives total media freedom in one hand but the external controls in the other hand.
The theory helps in creating professionalism in media by setting up a high level of accuracy, truth, and information. The theory allows everyone to say something or express their opinion about the media. Media must take care of social responsibility and if they do not, government or other organization will do.
Social responsibility theory avoids the conflict situation during war or emergency by accepting the public opinion. Media will not play monopoly because the audience and media scholars will raise questions if media published or broadcasted anything wrong or manipulate any story. Media standards will improve.
The Soviet system has passed away and, with it—for the time being at least—Soviet theory. It is still worth outlining its principles. Soviet media theory is imitative of Leninist principles which based on the Carl Marx and Engels’ideology. The government undertakes or controls the total media and communication to serve working classes and their interest. The theory says the state have absolute power to control any media for the benefits of people. They put an end to the private ownership of the press and other media. The government media provide positive thoughts to create a strong socialized society as well as providing information, education, entertainment, motivation and mobilization. The theory describes that the whole purpose of the mass media is to educate the greater masses of working class or workers. Here, the public was encouraged to give feedback which would be able to create interests towards the media.
Soviet media theory looks similar to authoritarian theory but the core part is different from each other. In authoritarian theory it is a one-way communication, there is no feedback allowed from the public, but in Soviet media theory it is a two-way communication, at the same time the whole media is controlled or works under the leadership.
As the name implies, this theory relates to media operating in developing or so-termed third world nations. It has parallels with Soviet theory because media are seen to serve a particular social and political function. It favors journalism which seeks out good news, in contrast to the free press position where journalists respond most readily to stories of disaster, and for whom “bad news is good news”because it commands bigger headlines.
Development theory requires that bad news stories are treated with caution, for such stories can be economically damaging to a nation in the delicate throes of growth and change. Grim headlines can put off investors, even persuade them to pull out their investments. As an antidote to the bad news syndrome, development theory seeks to accentuate the positive: it nurtures the autonomy of the developing nation and gives special emphasis to indigenous cultures. It is both a theory of state support and one of resistance that is to the norms of competing nations and competing theories of media.
This represents the sort of media purpose the idealist dreams up in the bath. It is an aspiration rather than a phenomenon which can be recognized anywhere in practice, yet it is surely one which any healthy democracy should regard as a goal.
This theory places particular value upon horizontal rather than vertical modes of authority and communication. It stands for defense against commercialization and monopoly while at the same time being resistant to the centrism and bureaucracy, the characteristics of public media institutions. The model emphasizes the importance of the role of receiver in the communication process and incorporate what might be termed receiver rights—to relevant information; to be heard as well as to hear and to be shown.
There is a mixture of theoretical elements, including libertarianism, utopianism, socialism, egalitarianism, localism in the model. In short, people power.
normative theory：规范理论
authoritarian：极权主义者
libertarian：自由论者
monopoly：垄断
centrism：中间路线，温和主义
bureaucracy：官僚作风
utopianism：乌托邦思想
egalitarianism：平等主义