Journalism Forum

Journalism ethics and standards

2008-12-04T16:19:00.002+07:00

Journalism ethics and standards comprise principles of ethics and of good practice as applicable to the specific challenges faced by professional journalists. Historically and currently, this subset of media ethics is widely known to journalists as their professional "code of ethics" or the "canons of journalism." The basic codes and canons commonly appear in statements drafted by both professional journalism associations and individual print, broadcast, and online news organizations.

“

Every news organization has only its credibility and reputation to rely on.

”

-Tony Burman, editor-in-chief of CBC News

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.

Like many broader ethical systems, journalism ethics include the principle of "limitation of harm." This often involves the withholding of certain details from reports such as the names of minor children, crime victims' names or information not materially related to particular news reports release of which might, for example, harm someone's reputation.

Evolution and purpose of codes of journalism

The principles of Journalistic codes of ethics are designed as guides through numerous difficulties, such as conflicts of interest, to assist journalists in dealing with ethical dilemmas. The codes and canons provide journalists a framework for self-monitoring and self-correction as they pursue professional assignments.

Codes of practice

While journalists in the United States and European countries have led in formulation and adoption of these standards, such codes can be found in news reporting organizations in most countries with freedom of the press. The written codes and practical standards vary somewhat from country to country and organization to organization, but there is a substantial overlap among mainstream publications and societies.

One of the leading voices in the U.S. on the subject of Journalistic Standards and Ethics is the Society of Professional Journalists. The Preamble to its Code of Ethics states:

...public enlightenment is the forerunner of justice and the foundation of democracy. The duty of the journalist is to further those ends by seeking truth and providing a fair and comprehensive account of events and issues. Conscientious journalists from all media and specialties strive to serve the public with thoroughness and honesty. Professional integrity is the cornerstone of a journalist's credibility.

The Radio-Television News Directors Association, an organization exclusively centered on electronic journalism, maintains a code of ethics centering on -- public trust, truthfulness, fairness, integrity, independence and accountability RTDNA publishes a pocket guide to these standards.

Examples of journalistic codes of ethics held by international news gathering organizations may be found as follows:

Common elements

The primary themes common to most codes of journalistic standards and ethics are the following.

Objectivity

Unequivocal separation between news and opinion. Editorials and op-eds are clearly separated from news pieces. News reporters and editorial staff are distinct.
Unequivocal separation between advertisements and news. All advertisements must be clearly identifiable as such.
Reporter must avoid conflicts of interests—incentives to report a story with a given slant. This includes not taking bribes and not reporting on stories that affect the reporter's personal, economic or political interests. See envelope journalism.
Competing points of view are balanced and fairly characterized.
Persons who are the subject of adverse news stories are allowed a reasonable opportunity to respond to the adverse information before the story is published or broadcast.
Interference with reporting by any entity, including censorship, must be disclosed.

Sources

Confidentiality of anonymous sources (see news source).
Avoidance of anonymous sources if possible.
Accurate attribution of statements made by individuals or other news media.
Pictures, sound, and quotations must not be presented in a misleading context (or lack thereof). Simulations, reenactments, alterations, and artistic imaginings must be clearly labelled as such, if not avoided entirely.
Plagiarism is strongly stigmatized and in many cases illegal (see copyright).

Accuracy and standards for factual reporting

Reporters are expected to be as accurate as possible given the time allotted to story preparation and the space available, and to seek reliable sources.
Events with a single eyewitness are reported with attribution. Events with two or more independent eyewitnesses may be reported as fact. Controversial facts are reported with attribution.
Independent fact-checking by another employee of the publisher is desirable
Corrections are published when errors are discovered
Defendants at trial are treated only as having "allegedly" committed crimes, until conviction, when their crimes are generally reported as fact (unless, that is, there is serious controversy about wrongful conviction).
Opinion surveys and statistical information deserve special treatment to communicate in precise terms any conclusions, to contextualize the results, and to specify accuracy, including estimated error and methodological criticism or flaws.

[edit] Slander and libel considerations

Reporting the truth is never libel, which makes accuracy very important.
Private persons have privacy rights that must be balanced against the public interest in reporting information about them. Public figures have fewer privacy rights in U.S. law, where reporters are immune from a civil case if they have reported without malice. In Canada, there is no such immunity; reports on public figures must be backed by facts.
Publishers vigorously defend libel lawsuits filed against their reporters, usually covered by libel insurance.

Harm limitation principle

During the normal course of an assignment a reporter might go about -- gathering facts and details, conducting interviews, doing research, background checks, taking photos, video taping, recording sound -- harm limitation deals with the questions of whether everything learned should be reported, and if so, how. This principle of limitation means that some weight needs to be given to the negative consequences of full disclosure, creating a practical and ethical dilemma. The Society of Professional Journalists' code of ethics offers the following advice, which is representative of the practical ideals of most professional journalists. Quoting directly:^[4]

Show compassion for those who may be affected adversely by news coverage. Use special sensitivity when dealing with children and inexperienced sources or subjects.
Be sensitive when seeking or using interviews or photographs of those affected by tragedy or grief.
Recognize that gathering and reporting information may cause harm or discomfort. Pursuit of the news is not a license for arrogance.
Recognize that private people have a greater right to control information about themselves than do public officials and others who seek power, influence or attention. Only an overriding public need can justify intrusion into anyone's privacy.
Show good taste. Avoid pandering to lurid curiosity.
Be cautious about identifying juvenile suspects or victims of sex crimes.
Be judicious about naming criminal suspects before the formal filing of charges.
Balance a criminal suspect's fair trial rights with the public's right to be informed.

Presentation

Main articles: News writing, Journalism,

Ethical standards should not be confused with common standards of quality of presentation, including:

Correctly spoken or written language (often in a widely spoken and formal dialect, such as Standard English)
Clarity
Brevity (or depth, depending on the niche of the publisher)

Self-regulation

In addition to codes of ethics, many news organizations maintain an in-house Ombudsman whose role is, in part, to keep news organizations honest and accountable to the public. The ombudsman is intended to mediate in conflicts stemming from internal and or external pressures, to maintain accountability to the public for news reported, and to foster self-criticism and to encourage adherence to both codified and uncodified ethics and standards. This position may be the same or similar to the public editor, though public editors also act as a liaison with readers and do not generally become members of the Organisation of News Ombudsmen.

An alternative is a news council, an industry-wide self-regulation body, such as the Press Complaints Commission, set up by UK newspapers and magazines. Such a body is capable perhaps of applying fairly consistent standards, and of dealing with a higher volume of complaints, but may not escape criticisms of being toothless.

Ethics and standards in practice

See main articles: journalism scandals, media bias, media ethics, and yellow journalism

As with other ethical codes, there is a perennial concern that the standards of journalism are being ignored. One of the most controversial issues in modern reporting is media bias, especially on political issues, but also with regard to cultural and other issues. Sensationalism is also a common complaint. Minor factual errors are also extremely common, as almost anyone who is familiar with the subject of a particular report will quickly realize.

There are also some wider concerns, as the media continue to change, for example that the brevity of news reports and use of soundbites has reduced fidelity to the truth, and may contribute to a lack of needed context for public understanding. From outside the profession, the rise of news management contributes to the real possibility that news media may be deliberately manipulated. Selective reporting (spiking, double standards) are very commonly alleged against newspapers, and by their nature are forms of bias not easy to establish, or guard against.

This section does not address specifics of such matters, but issues of practical compliance, as well as differences between professional journalists on principles.

Standards and reputation

Among the leading news organizations that voluntarily adopt and attempt to uphold the common standards of journalism ethics described herein, adherence and general quality varies considerably. The professionalism, reliability and public accountability of a news organization are three of its most valuable assets. An organization earns and maintains a strong reputation, in part, through a consistent implementation of ethical standards, which influence its position with the public and within the industry.

Genres and ethics

Advocacy journalists — a term of some debate even within the field of journalism — by definition tend to reject "objectivity", while at the same time maintaining many other common standards and ethics.

Creative nonfiction and Literary journalism use the power of language and literary devices more akin to fiction to bring insight and depth into often book-length treatment of the subjects about which they write. Such devices as dialogue, metaphor, digression and other such techniques offer the reader insights not usually found in standard news reportage. However, authors in this branch of journalism still maintain ethical criteria such as factual and historical accuracy as found in standard news reporting. Yet, with brilliant prose, they venture outside the boundaries of standard news reporting in offering richly detailed accounts. One widely regarded author in the genre is Joyce Carol Oates, as with her book on boxer Mike Tyson.

New Journalism and Gonzo journalism also reject some of the fundamental ethical traditions and will set aside the technical standards of journalistic prose in order to express themselves and reach a particular audience or market segment.

Tabloid journalists are often accused of sacrificing accuracy and the personal privacy of their subjects in order to boost sales. Supermarket tabloids are often focused on entertainment rather than news. A few have "news" stories that are so outrageous that they are widely read for entertainment purposes, not for information. Some tabloids do purport to maintain common journalistic standards, but may fall far short in practice. Others make no such claims.

Some publications deliberately engage in satire, but give the publication the design elements of a newspaper, for example, The Onion, and it is not unheard of for other publications to offer the occasional, humorous articles appearing on April Fool's Day.

Relationship with freedom of the press

In countries without freedom of the press, the majority of people who report the news may not follow the above-described standards of journalism. Non-free media are often prohibited from criticizing the national government, and in many cases are required to distribute propaganda as if it were news. Various other forms of censorship may restrict reporting on issues the government deems sensitive.

Variations, violations, and controversies

There are a number of finer points of journalistic procedure that foster disagreements in principle and variation in practice among "mainstream" journalists in the free press. Laws concerning libel and slander vary from country to country, and local journalistic standards may be tailored to fit. For example, the United Kingdom has a broader definition of libel than does the United States.

Accuracy is important as a core value and to maintain credibility, but especially in broadcast media, audience share often gravitates toward outlets that are reporting new information first. Different organizations may balance speed and accuracy in different ways. The New York Times, for instance, tends to print longer, more detailed, less speculative, and more thoroughly verified pieces a day or two later than many other newspapers. 24-hour television news networks tend to place much more emphasis on getting the "scoop." Here, viewers may switch channels at a moment's notice; with fierce competition for ratings and a large amount of airtime to fill, fresh material is very valuable. Because of the fast turn-around, reporters for these networks may be under considerable time pressure, which reduces their ability to verify information.

Laws with regard to personal privacy, official secrets, and media disclosure of names and facts from criminal cases and civil lawsuits differ widely, and journalistic standards may vary accordingly. Different organizations may have different answers to questions about when it is journalistically acceptable to skirt, circumvent, or even break these regulations. Another example of differences surrounding harm reduction is the reporting of preliminary election results. In the United States, some news organizations feel that it is harmful to the democratic process to report exit poll results or preliminary returns while voting is still open. Such reports may influence people who vote later in the day, or who are in western time zones, in their decisions about how and whether or not to vote. There is also some concern that such preliminary results are often inaccurate and may be misleading to the public. Other outlets feel that this information is a vital part of the transparency of the election process, and see no harm (if not considerable benefit) in reporting it.

Taste, decency and acceptability

Audiences have different reactions to depictions of violence, nudity, coarse language, or to people in any other situation that is unacceptable to or stigmatized by the local culture or laws (such as the consumption of alcohol, homosexuality, illegal drug use, scatological images, etc.). Even with similar audiences, different organizations and even individual reporters have different standards and practices. These decisions often revolve around what facts are necessary for the audience to know.

When certain distasteful or shocking material is considered important to the story, there are a variety of common methods for mitigating negative audience reaction. Advance warning of explicit or disturbing material may allow listeners or readers to avoid content they would rather not be exposed to. Offensive words may be partially obscured or bleeped. Potentially offensive images may be blurred or narrowly cropped. Descriptions may be substituted for pictures; graphic detail might be omitted. Disturbing content might be moved from a cover to an inside page, or from daytime to late evening, when children are less likely to be watching.

There is often considerable controversy over these techniques, especially concern that obscuring or not reporting certain facts or details is self-censorship that compromises objectivity and fidelity to the truth, and which does not serve the public interest.

For example, images and graphic descriptions of war are often violent, bloody, shocking and profoundly tragic. This makes certain content disturbing to some audience members, but it is precisely these aspects of war that some consider to be the most important to convey. Some argue that "sanitizing" the depiction of war influences public opinion about the merits of continuing to fight, and about the policies or circumstances that precipitated the conflict. The amount of explicit violence and mutilation depicted in war coverage varies considerable from time to time, from organization to organization, and from country to country. (See also: Military journalism.)

Reporters have also been accused of indecency in the process of collecting news, namely that they are overly intrusive in the name of journalistic insensitivity. War correspondent Edward Behr Congo Crisis who walked into a crowd of Belgian recounts the story of a reporter during the evacuees and shouted, "Anyone here been raped and speaks English?"

Campaigning in the media

Many print publications take advantage of their wide readership and print persuasive pieces in the form of unsigned editorials that represent the official position of the organization. Despite the ostensible separation between editorial writing and news gathering, this practice may cause some people to doubt the political objectivity of the publication's news reporting. (Though usually unsigned editorials are accompanied by a diversity of signed opinions from other perspectives.)

Other publications and many broadcast media only publish opinion pieces that are attributed to a particular individual (who may be an in-house analyst) or to an outside entity. One particularly controversial question is whether media organizations should endorse political candidates for office. Political endorsements create more opportunities to construe favoritism in reporting, and can create a perceived conflict of interest.

Investigative methods

Investigative journalism is largely an information-gathering exercise, looking for facts that are not easy to obtain by simple requests and searches, or are actively being concealed, suppressed or distorted. Where investigative work involves undercover journalism or use of whistleblowers, and even more if it resorts to covert methods more typical of private detectives or even spying, it brings a large extra burden on ethical standards.

Anonymous sources are double-edged - they often provide especially newsworthy information, such as classified or confidential information about current events, information about a previously unreported scandal, or the perspective of a particular group that may fear retribution for expressing certain opinions in the press. The downside is that the condition of anonymity may make it difficult or impossible for the reporter to verify the source's statements. Sometimes sources hide their identities from the public because their statements would otherwise quickly be discredited. Thus, statements attributed to anonymous sources may carry more weight with the public than they might if they were attributed. (See also: news source.)

The Washington press has been criticized in recent years for excessive use of anonymous sources, in particular to report information that is later revealed to be unreliable. The use of anonymous sources increased markedly in the period before the 2003 invasion of Iraq.^{[citation needed]}

Science issues

The mainstream press is often criticized for poor accuracy in reporting science news. Many reporters are not scientists, and are thus not familiar with the material they are summarizing. Technical information is also difficult to contextualize for lay audiences, and short-form reporting makes providing background, context, and clarification even harder. Food scares are an example of the need for responsible science journalism, as are stories connected with the safety of medical procedures.

Examples of ethical dilemmas

One of the primary functions of journalism ethics is to aid journalists in dealing with many ethical dilemmas they may encounter. From highly sensitive issues of national security to everyday questions such as accepting a dinner from a source, putting a bumper sticker on one's car, publishing a personal opinion blog, a journalist must make decisions taking into account things such as the public's right to know, potential threats, reprisals and intimidations of all kinds, personal integrity, conflicts between editors, reporters and publishers or management, and many other such conundra. The following are illustrations of some of those.

The Pentagon Papers dealt with extremely difficult ethical dilemmas faced by journalists. Despite government intervention, The Washington Post, joined by The New York Times, felt the public interest was more compelling and both published reports. (The cases went to the Supreme Court where they were merged and are known as New York Times Co. v. United States, 403 U.S. 713.
The Washington Post also once published a story about a listening device that the United States had installed over an undersea Soviet cable during the height of the cold war. The device allowed the United States to learn where Soviet submarines were positioned. In that case, Post Executive Editor Ben Bradlee chose not to run the story on national security grounds. However, the Soviets subsequently discovered the device and, according to Bradlee, "It was no longer a matter of national security. It was a matter of national embarrassment." However, the U.S. government still wanted The Washington Post not to run the story on the basis of national security, yet, according to Bradlee, "We ran the story. And you know what, the sun rose the next day."
The Ethics Advice Line, a joint venture, public service project of Chicago Headline Club Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists and Loyola University Chicago Center for Ethics and Social Justice, provides some examples of typical ethical dilemmas reported to their ethical dilemma hotline and are typical of the kinds of questions faced by many professional journalists.

A partial listing of questions received by The Ethics Advice Line:[1]

Is it ethical to make an appointment to interview an arsonist sought by police, without informing police in advance of the interview?
Is lack of proper attribution plagiarism?
Should a reporter write a story about a local priest who confessed to a sex crime if it will cost the newspaper readers and advertisers who are sympathetic to the priest?
Is it ethical for a reporter to write a news piece on the same topic on which he or she has written an opinion piece in the same paper?
Under what circumstances do you identify a person who was arrested as a relative of a public figure, such as a local sports star?
Freelance journalists and photographers accept cash to write about, or take photos of, events with the promise of attempting to get their work on the AP or other news outlets, from which they also will be paid. Is that ethical?
Can a journalist reveal a source of information after guaranteeing confidentiality if the source proves to be unreliable? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journalism_ethics

Information communication technology

2008-12-04T16:06:00.001+07:00

Information and Communications Technology - or technologies (ICT) is an umbrella term that includes all technologies for the manipulation and communication of information. The term is sometimes used in preference to Information Technology (IT), particularly in two communities: education and government. In the common usage it is often assumed that ICT is synonymous with IT; ICT in fact encompasses any medium to record information (magnetic disk/tape, optical disks (CD/DVD), flash memory etc. and arguably also paper records); technology for broadcasting information - radio, television; and technology for communicating through voice and sound or images - microphone, camera, loudspeaker, telephone to cellular phones. It includes the wide variety of computing hardware (PCs, servers, mainframes, networked storage), the rapidly developing personal hardware market comprising mobile phones, personal devices, MP3 players, and much more; the full gamut of application software from the smallest home-developed spreadsheet to the largest enterprise packages and online software services; and the hardware and software needed to operate networks for transmission of information, again ranging from a home network to the largest global private networks operated by major commercial enterprises and, of course, the Internet. Thus, "ICT" makes more explicit that technologies such as broadcasting and wireless mobile telecommunications are included.

It should be noted that "ICT" by this English definition is different in nuance and scope than under "ICT" in Japanese, which is more technical and narrow in scope.

ICT capabilities vary widely from the sophistication of major western economies to lesser provision in the developing world. But the latter are catching up fast, often leapfrogging older generations of technology and developing new solutions that match their specific needs.

PC-based ICT

A PC (personal computer) connected to the Internet has become a vital tool for communicating, during the past few decades since its proliferation among the masses. However, while this mode of ICT has achieved much, it has its limitations in the context of the world at large.

Achievements

The Internet - The Internet has opened up many opportunities, from finding out information, conducting communications globally, e.g. through e-mail, voice mail, e-commerce or generally just having fun through on line chats or instant messaging. One often wonders: How did people manage before the time of the Internet? How much harder was it for people to communicate and find out information they need, quickly and easily? A PC connected to the Internet whether through a dialup broadband or Wi-Fi has indeed made it a facile act for many people. connection,

Teaching - PC--Internet based ICT is currently used within the English school curriculum. This kind of ICT (amongst others) is now seen as a core subject that is taught in some primary and secondary schools. The major advantage to this development is ICT has become a transferable subject. Computers or interactive whiteboards are now used across most school subjects as well as innovative schools using more technology like PDA's, Mobile (cell) phones and some games consoles. The interaction created by the use of this ICT makes lessons much more effective and allow children to learn in a way that they enjoy.. Recent initiatives such as the One Laptop Per Child program are contributing to this development.

Communications - Apart from Internet a PC allows communication of information through Compact Discs, pen drives, printers, whether laser or inkjet, flash memory cards and exchange of information within a local network through LAN. As communications scholars Gasher and Lorimer articulated "We depend on technology for our communications with others-whether they are just a house or two away or halfway around the world. In the second half of the twentieth century it became almost impossible to live without a television in our homes, much less without a telephone, and now we can hardly live without personal computers through which we gain Internet access and send and receive e-mail. The realty of new communications technology is that anyone is able to get in touch with anyone else, anywhere, at any time, for very little money-at least in the developed world." (Gasher and Lorimer, Communications Technology and Society: Theory and Practice) Work related aspects As well as benefiting school students to gather information for assignments, PC based ICT is often used in other jobs such as in the police, within libraries, in offices or even shops. It has also emerged as a source of employment in many emerging economies through Business process outsourcing or Knowledge process outsourcing from companies in the developed world. People now have the chance to conduct remote logon, in which they can access their work computers (For example in an office) from home. This has opened up many more opportunities for those that struggle to find time to leave their house to go to work, so they can now just work from home.

Limitations

Previous information communication technologies have penetrated deep into the society and hence are often very cost effective; teachers in developing countries often use no more than a blackboard and chalk to pass on information about any subject to the students. Printed papers in the form of books, magazines or newspapers have become a part of daily routine of any educated citizen, as are broadcast media such as radio and television. The photocopy machine is widely used by students to access information from books they cannot afford to buy. The cost of a PC connected to the Internet is often prohibitive in developing countries. Power needs, physical space and connectivity issues are also factors that add to the challenge of getting these technologies to take root in developing countries. Limitations of PC-Internet based ICT are:

Language - At present most of the information available on the Internet is in English, a limiting factor at the very least.

Text/voice - Most information on the Internet requires action by the user as opposed to the passive nature of television and radio. As most of the Internet's information is textual, the user must be able to read it. Even more passive forms of Internet information such as video-sharing Websites require action (and reading) by the viewer for navigation.

Disruptive software - Internet users are often susceptible to computer viruses. Commercial anti-virus software is often prohibitively priced. Thin client technology is a small, but growing alternative.

Participation - Social networks and increased user-managed information stores have emerged in the early part of this century. Increased interaction between the content (whether it be delivered via Internet, television or radio) is leading to an information revolution.

Security - Internet safety is an issue that impacts every online user from small children to international corporations. When ABC went into public service broadcasting online in the early 1990s, the safety of their users was its top priority. The internet is an equalizer in that every user is vulnerable and in a sense, all at the same level. The emergence of weblogs, Internet forums and wikis is often grouped under the new technology umbrella term Web 2.0, and has helped to usher in a greater level of global participation.

Development

ICT can become a revolutionary vehicle in developing countries, provided technological innovations emerge on the following lines.

Local content in local languages The need of the hour is to enable the intelligentsia to develop information sources that are exclusively for fulfilling the needs of local communities. The content on the Internet that can fulfil these conditions is minuscule at present. Conditions have to emerge in which people are enthused to contribute towards the development of information databases that is exclusively disseminated through local networks, in languages/dialects that are popular in the region. The various modes of ICT may need to be integrated with one another, so that a meaningful volume of information can be generated in the minimum possible time.

Future

The ICT may not survive in its present form for long. Sooner than later developing countries would get over the PC mania prevalent now in the developed world, unless there is a remarkable change in the economy of owning a PC. Any technology that requires the masses to own a PC, in its present form, to access information is unlikely to be successful in the foreseeable future. Possibilities appear to exist, however, in the mobile phone technology, which is fast becoming very affordable by the masses, is voice based and can be integrated with the Information Technology at the server end of a computer network. For example, in the field of education ^[4]people can ask question through a mobile phone, a database of answers to such questions can be generated using the technologies used currently in Wikipedia and call centers and the text in these databases could be converted into voice, by developing text to voice technologies in the various Indian languages. The person seeking information can be informed when the answer is available and better answers sought based on his/her feedback. The emerging 3G and 4G mobile phone technologies can indeed facilitate such developments. An alternative technology could be to integrate the mobile phone with the television screen, so that visual information can be viewed easily. Similarly, there is a possibility for developing interactive radio, on the lines of interactive TV.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communication_technology

Effects of communication technology on local communities

2008-12-04T16:00:00.001+07:00

History

The Rural Electrification Administration (REA) was established to devise a long-term solution to the seemingly intractable problem of extending electricity to rural Americans during the New Deal. As electricity becomes more common in rural areas, so does automobiles and telephones. However, because of high cost of electricity, cars and phones were far more common on farms than electricity; thirty-three percent of farms had a car and forty percent had a telephone, but less than ten percent had electric power by the end of the 1920s.

New technologies for communication purposes that are affecting local communities are phones, cell phones, and computers.

Computers have been around for about 60 years. The first computer was invented in the late 1940s.

Community Use

Common examples of communication technologies for communication purposes are telephones, cell phones, and computers.

The telephone brought people closer together in the sense that distance did not inhibit a phone call, but it also had an unanticipated effect, according to some early studies that people spent less time actually in each other's presence. Starting in the 1890s people began to replace visiting with telephone calls, which were briefer and less personal. It is tempting to use such evidence to decide that human beings are becoming progressively alienated from one another, and that machines have interposed themselves between them. Rather than conclude that networked communication substitutes for personal contact, one can just as easily argue that they amplify and preserve already established relationships. One can conclude the telephone was used to alleviate loss of contact caused by increasing demands on people's time to those in the community.

Millions of people go online daily. Rather than isolating users in a virtual world, the Internet extends communities in the real world. The Internet is used to connect people in individualized and flexible social networks rather than in fixed and grounded groups. Some dedicate most of their lives to the online community. The Internet supplants activities, like watching television, rather than other forms of social life.

In addition to communication, the Internet has become an important source of information. Tourist use the internet to find directions for popular hot spots, students use the internet as an educational tool for schoolwork, and shoppers use the internet to stay connected to distanced friends and relatives by e-mail, chat or Instant Messaging (IM). By using the Internet it both expands communities and changes it in subtle ways.

Between 1997 and 2001, the number of Americans using computers increased from 137 million to 174 million, 27 percent, while the online population rose by 152 percent. Three-quarters of Americans over the age of two had accessed the Internet. Instant messaging has spread. A decade ago, the Internet was mainly North American, and largely the domain of young, educated, urban, white men. It has since become widely used. More than one-third of all American adults are now using Instant Messaging. As more people go online, the digital divide recedes. Yet even as the overall percentage of people online rises, differences in usage rates persist: between affluent and poor, young and old, men and women, more and less educated, urban and rural and English and non-English readers. In the United States, 79 percent of relatively affluent people with a family income of $75,000 or more were Internet users in September 2001. Just 25 percent of poor people with a family income of less than $15,000 were online. There is still a median between poor people with overall technology access then the wealthy. The poor cannot afford the technological tools that are invented in an increasing fashion leaving them behind.

Family and Community Connections

It was found that Internet medium does not replace the telephone medium, which is used as the primary source of communities. Internet users still use the telephone to keep in contact with those close to them. In fact, research has showed that most of the people who use Instant Messaging are found to be those whom you have a face-to-face relationship with. The Internet can connect communities through free websites like Welcome to the town, and Icqpeople.

There is debate as to whether the Internet isolates users or connects them to more social networks. Some believe that Internet use at home has a strong negative impact on time spent with friends and family as well as time spent on social activities, but Internet use at work has no such effect. Similarly, Internet use during weekend days is more strongly related to decreased time spent with friends and family and on social activities than Internet use during weekdays. Time online is largely an asocial activity that competes with, rather than complements, face to-face social time. However, it is the location and timing of Internet use that determines how interpersonal relationships are affected.

Advantage

The Internet connects communities through many online websites. It connects neighbours who would not communicate face to face, but would online via email or Instant Messaging because of chat groups that connect you to those in your geographic locations.

Conclusion

Although Internet use is on the rise telephone usage will always be the primary access to reach those in your community. The strength of communities does not diminish because of Internet use, cell phones, or telephone use. There is no correlation among the sources. There is no solid evidence to conclude that Internet use is breaking community bonds because individuals still socialize outside of Internet use.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communication_Technology%27s_Effect_on_Local_Communities

Major works (Mc Luhan)

2008-09-03T17:44:00.001+07:00

During his years at Saint Louis University (1937-1944), McLuhan worked concurrently on two projects: his doctoral dissertation and the manuscript that was eventually published in 1951 as the book The Mechanical Bride, which included only a representative selection of the materials that McLuhan had prepared for it.

McLuhan's 1942 Cambridge University doctoral dissertation surveys the history of the verbal arts (grammar, dialectic and logic, and rhetoric -- collectively known as the trivium from the time of Cicero down to the time of Thomas Nashe.^[21] In his later publications, McLuhan at times uses the Latin concept of the trivium to outline an orderly and systematic picture of certain periods in the history of Western culture. McLuhan suggests that the Middle Ages, for instance, was characterized by the heavy emphasis on the formal study of logic. The key development that led to the Renaissance was not the rediscovery of ancient texts but a shift in emphasis from the formal study of logic to rhetoric and language. Modern life is characterized by the reemergence of grammar as its most salient feature -- a trend McLuhan felt was exemplified by the New Criticism of Richards and Leavis.^[22]

In The Mechanical Bride, McLuhan turned his attention to analyzing and commenting on numerous examples of persuasion in contemporary popular culture. This followed naturally from his earlier work as both dialectic and rhetoric in the classical trivium aimed at persuasion. At this point his focus shifted dramatically, turning inward to study the influence of communication mediathe medium is the message" (elaborated in his 1964 book, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man) calls attention to this intrinsic effect of communications media. ^[23] independent of their content. His famous slogan, "

McLuhan also started the journal Explorations with anthropologist Edmund "Ted" Carpenter. In a letter to Ong dated May 31, 1953 (p. 236), McLuhan reported that he had received a two-year grant of $43,000 from the Ford Foundation to carry out a communication project at the University of Toronto involving faculty from different disciplines, which led to the creation of the journal.

The Mechanical Bride (1951)

McLuhan's The Mechanical Bride:Folklore of Industrial Man (1951) is a pioneering study in the field now known as popular culture. His interest in the critical study of popular culture was influenced by the 1933 book Culture and Environment by F.R. Leavis and Denys Thompson, and the title The Mechanical Bride is derived from a piece by the Dadaist artist, Marcel Duchamp.

In 1960 there were few authors who captured the fancy of the Western World as well as Marshall McLuhan did. Like his 1962 book The Gutenberg Galaxy, The Mechanical Bride is sui generis and composed of a number of short essays that can be read in any order – what he styled the "mosaic approach" to writing a book. Each essay begins with a newspaper or magazine article or an advertisement, followed by McLuhan's analysis thereof. The analyses bear on aesthetic considerations as well as on the implications behind the imagery and text. McLuhan chose the ads and articles included in his book not only to draw attention to their symbolism and their implications for the corporate entities that created and disseminated them, but also to mull over what such advertising implies about the wider society at which it is aimed.

Life and career of McLuhan

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McLuhan was born in Edmonton, Alberta, to Methodist parents Elsie Naomi (née Hall) and Herbert Ernest McLuhan. His brother, Maurice, was born two years later. "Marshall" was a family name: his maternal grandmother's surname. Both of his parents were born in Canada. His mother was a Baptist schoolteacher who later became an actress. His father had a real estate business in Edmonton. When war broke out, the business failed, and McLuhan's father was enlisted into the Canadian army. After a year of service he contracted influenza and remained in Canada, away from the front. After Herbert's discharge from the army in 1915, the McLuhan family moved to Winnipeg, Manitoba, where Marshall grew up and went to school, attending Kelvin Technical High School before enrolling in the University of Manitoba in 1928.^[1]

McLuhan earned a BA (1933) — winning a University Gold Medal in Long Jump^[2] — and MA English from the University of Manitoba, after a one year stint as an engineering major. He had long desired to pursue graduate studies in England and, having failed to secure a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford, McLuhan was accepted for enrollment at the University of Cambridge. Although he already had earned BA and MA degrees at Manitoba, Cambridge required him to enroll as an undergraduate "affiliated" student, with one year's credit toward a three-year Cambridge Bachelor's degree, before any doctoral studies.^[3] He entered Trinity Hall, Cambridge I. A. Richards and F. R. Leavis, and was influenced by New Criticism.^[4] Upon reflection years after, he credited the faculty there with influencing the direction of his later work because of their emphasis on the training of perception and such concepts as Richards's notion of feedforward.^[5] These studies formed an important precursor to his later ideas on technological forms.^[6] He received his second bachelor's degree from Cambridge in 1936^[7] and began graduate work. Later, he returned from England to take a job as a teaching assistant at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, which he held for the 1936-37 academic year, unable to find a suitable job in Canada.^[8] (1934) in in the Fall of 1934, where he studied under

While studying the trivium at Cambridge he took the first steps toward his eventual conversion to Roman Catholicism in 1937,^[9] founded on his reading of G. K. Chesterton.^[10] In the end of March 1937,^[11] McLuhan completed what was a slow but total conversion process when he was formally received into the Roman Catholic Church. After consulting with a minister, his father accepted the decision to convert; his mother, however, felt that his conversion would hurt his career and was inconsolable.^[12] McLuhan was devout throughout his life, but his religion remained a private matter.^[13] He had a lifelong interest in the number three^[14] - the trivium, the Trinity - and sometimes said that the Virgin Mary provided intellectual guidance for him.^[15] For the rest of his career he taught in Roman Catholic institutions of higher education. From 1937 to 1944 he taught English at Saint Louis University (with an interruption from 1939 to 1940 when he returned to Cambridge). At Saint Louis he tutored and befriended Walter J. Ong, S.J. (1912-2003), who would go on to write his Ph.D. dissertation on a topic McLuhan had called to his attention, and who would himself also later become a well-known authority on communication and technology.

While in St. Louis, he also met his future wife. On August 4, 1939, McLuhan married teacher and aspiring actress Corinne Lewis (1912-2008)^[16] of Fort Worth, Texas, and they spent 1939-40 in Cambridge, where he completed his master's degree (awarded in January 1940^[17]) and began to work on his doctoral dissertation on Thomas Nashe and the verbal arts. War had broken out in Europe while the McLuhans were in England, and he obtained permission to complete and submit his dissertation from the United States, without having to return to Cambridge for an oral defense. They returned to Saint Louis University in 1940 where he continued teaching and they started a family. He was awarded a Ph.D. in December 1943.^[18] Returning to Canada, from 1944 to 1946 McLuhan taught at Assumption College in Windsor, Ontario. Moving to Toronto in 1946, McLuhan joined the faculty of St. Michael's College, a Catholic college of the University of Toronto. Hugh Kenner was one of his students and Canadian economist and communications scholar Harold Innis was a university colleague who had a strong influence on McLuhan's work.

In the early 1950s, McLuhan began the Communication and Culture seminars, funded by the Ford Foundation, at the University of Toronto. As his repute grew, he received a growing number of offers from other universities and, to keep him, the university created the Centre for Culture and Technology in 1963.^[6] He published his first major work during this period: The Mechanical BrideExplorations, with Edmund Carpenter, throughout the 1950s. Together with Harold Innis, Eric A. Havelock, Derrick de Kerckhove, and Barry Wellman, McLuhan and Carpenter have been characterized as the Toronto School of Communication. McLuhan remained at the University of Toronto through 1979, spending much of this time as head of his Centre for Culture and Technology. (1951) was an examination of the effect of advertising on society and culture. He also produced an important journal,

McLuhan was named to the Albert Schweitzer Chair in Humanities at Fordham University in the Bronx, New York, for one year (1967-68).^[19] While at Fordham, McLuhan was diagnosed with a benign brain tumor; it was treated successfully. He returned to Toronto where for the rest of his life, he worked at the University of Toronto and lived in Wychwood Park, a bucolic enclave on a hill overlooking the downtown where Anatol Rapoport was his neighbour. In 1970, McLuhan was made a Companion of the Order of Canada. In 1975 the University of Dallas hosted him from April to May, appointing him the McDermott Chair.

Marshall and Corinne McLuhan had six children: Eric, twins Mary and Teresa, Stephanie, Elizabeth and Michael. The associated costs of a large family eventually drove McLuhan to advertising work and accepting frequent consulting and speaking engagements for large corporations, IBM and AT&T among them.^[6] In September 1979 he suffered a stroke, which affected his ability to speak. The University of Toronto's School of Graduate Studies tried to close his research center shortly thereafter, but was deterred by substantial protests, most notably by Woody Allen, in whose Oscar-winning motion picture Annie Hall McLuhan had a cameo role.^[20] ^[2]

He never fully recovered from the stroke and died in his sleep on the last day of 1980.

Marshall McLuhan

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"McLuhan" redirects here. For the son of Marshall McLuhan, see Eric McLuhan.

Marshall McLuhan
Marshall McLuhan in the early 1970s
Born	July 21, 1911 Edmonton, Alberta(1911-07-21)
Died	December 31, 1980 (aged 69) Toronto, Ontario

Herbert Marshall McLuhan, C.C. (July 21, 1911 – December 31, 1980) was a Canadian educator, philosopher, and scholar — a professor of English literature, a literary critic, a rhetorician, and a communications theorist. McLuhan's work is viewed as one of the cornerstones of the study of media theory. McLuhan is known for coining the expressions "the medium is the message" and the "global village."

McLuhan was a fixture in media discourse from the late 1960s to his death and he continues to be an influential and controversial figure. More than ten years after his death he was named the "patron saint" of Wired magazine.

Legal issues (problem with online journalism)

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Legal issues

One emerging problem with online journalism in the United States is that, in many states, individuals who publish only on the Web do not enjoy the same First Amendment rights as reporters who work for traditional print or broadcast media. As a result, unlike a newspaper, they are much more liable for such things as libel. In California, however, protection of anonymous sources was ruled to be the same for both kinds of journalism.

In Canada there are more ambiguities, as Canadian libel law permits suits to succeed even if no false statements of fact are involved, and even if matters of public controversy are being discussed. In British Columbia, as part of "a spate of lawsuits" against online news sites, according to legal columnist Michael Geist, several cases have put key issues in online journalism up for rulings. Green Party of Canada financier Wayne Crookes filed a suit in which he alleged damages for an online news service that republished resignation letters from that party and let users summarize claims they contained. He had demanded access to all the anonymous sources confirming the insider information, which Geist believed would be extremely prejudicial to online journalism. The lawsuit, "Crookes versus openpolitics", attracted attention from the BBC and major newspapers, perhaps because of its humorous name. Crookes had also objected to satire published on the site, including use of the name gang of Crookes for his allies.

Some experts including kumud ranjan believe that libel law is wholly incompatible with online journalism and that right of reply will eventually have to replace it. Otherwise commentary on events in places that give libel plaintiffs too many rights or powers will move to other jurisdictions and most of the comment will be made anonymous. Everyone would then lose rights and remedies, due to a few wealthy people with resources to launch libel suits on weak grounds. Jennifer Jannuska and other legal commentators have, while agreeing with strong protections for publishers who only host journalists, sometimes emphasize that the use of anonymizer technology makes even criminal abuses, not just libel, possible, and so should be avoided even if other rights are lost.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_journalism)

Online journalism

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Online journalism is defined as the reporting of facts produced and distributed via the Internet.

An early leader was The News & Observer in Raleigh, North Carolina. Steve Yelvington wrote on the Poynter Institute website about Nando, owned by The N&O, by saying "Nando evolved into the first serious, professional news site on the World Wide Web -- long before CNN, MSNBC, and other followers." It originated in the early 1990s as "NandO Land".

Many news organizations based in other media also distribute news online, but the amount they use of the new medium varies. Some news organizations use the Web exclusively or as a secondary outlet for their content. The Online News Association is the premier organization representing online journalists, with more than 800 members.

The Internet challenges traditional news organizations in several ways. Newspapers may lose classified advertising to websites, which are often targeted by interest instead of geography. These organizations are concerned about real and perceived loss of viewers and circulation to the Internet.

And the revenue gained with advertising on news websites is sometimes too small to support the site.

Even before the Internet, technology and other factors were dividing people's attention, leading to more - but narrower - media outlets.

Work outside traditional press

The Internet has also given rise to more participation by people who aren't normally journalists, such as with Indy Media (Max Perez).

Bloggers write on web logs or blogs. Traditional journalists often do not consider bloggers to automatically be journalists. This has more to do with standards and professional practices than the medium. But, as of 2005, blogging has generally gained at least more attention and has led to some effects on mainstream journalism, such as exposing problems related to a television piece about President Bush's National Guard Service.

Other significant tools of on-line journalism are Internet forums, discussion boards and chats, especially those representing the Internet version of official media. The widespread use of the Internet all over the world created a unique opportunity to create a meeting place for both sides in many conflicts, such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the Russian-Chechen War. Often this gives a unique chance to find new, alternative solutions to the conflict, but often the Internet is turned into the battlefield by contradicting parties creating endless "online battles."

Most Internet users agree that on-line sources are often less biased and more informative than the official media. This claim is often backed with the belief that on-line journalists are merely volunteers and freelancers who are not paid for their activity, and therefore are free from corporate ethics. But recently many Internet forums began to moderate their boards because of threat of vandalism, which many users see as a form of censorship.

Some online journalists have an ambition to replace the mainstream media in the long run. Some independent forums and discussion boards have already achieved a level of popularity comparable to mainstream news agencies such as television stations and newspapers. Particularly interesting are About.com in the United States, Expatica in Western Europe and several others.

Internet radio and Podcasts are other growing independent media based on the Internet. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_journalism)

Journalism School/Education

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A journalism school is a school or department, usually part of an established university, where journalists are trained. An increasingly used short form for a journalism department, school or college is 'j-school'. Many of the most famous and respected journalists of the past and present had no formal training in journalism, but learned their craft on the job, often starting out as copy boys/copy girls. Today, in many parts of the world it is usual for journalists to first complete university-level training which incorporates both technical skills such as research skills, interviewing technique and shorthand and academic studies in media theory, cultural studies and ethics .

Historically, in the United Kingdom entrants used first to complete a non media-studies related degree course, giving maximum educational breadth, prior to taking a specialist postgraduate pre-entry course. However, this has changed over the last ten years with journalism training and education moving to higher educational institutions. There are now over 60 universities in the UK offering BA honours degrees in journalism. Postgraduate courses are more well-established, some of which are either recognised by the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) or the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ).

History

The first program for journalism education was introduced by former Confederate General, Robert E. Lee, during his presidency at Washington and Lee University, in Lexington, Virginia, in the 1860s.The world's first journalism school was founded by Walter Williams as the Missouri School of Journalism at the University of Missouri in 1908. Since then the journalism school has become standard at most major universities.

Top journalism schools

There have been various attempts to rank journalism schools, and the question of which are the "best" or "top" journalism schools is frequently raised on the internet by students. Many institutions claim to be leading schools of journalism, and there is inevitably debate about which are the most appropriate criteria with which to evaluate and judge journalism schools. Awards are obvious indicators of a quality J-school, as are the quality of school graduates. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journalism_education)

Professional and ethical standards

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Since the development of professional journalism at the beginning of the 20th Century, journalists have been expected to follow a stringent code of journalistic conduct that requires them to, among other things:

Use original sources of information, including interviews with people directly involved in a story, original documents and other direct sources of information, whenever possible, and cite the sources of this information in reports;
- For more information on using sources, see journalism sourcing .
Fully attribute information gathered from other published sources, should original sources not be available (not to do so is considered plagiarism ; some newspapers also note when an article uses information from previous reports);
Use multiple original sources of information, especially if the subject of the report is controversial;
Check every fact reported;
Find and report every side of a story possible;
Report without bias, illustrating many aspects of a conflict rather than siding with one;
Approach researching and reporting a story with a balance between objectivity and skepticism .
Use careful judgment when organizing and reporting information.
Be careful about granting confidentiality to sources (news organizations usually have specific rules that journalists must follow concerning grants of confidentiality);
Decline gifts or favors from any subject of a report, to avoid the appearance of being influenced;
Abstain from reporting or otherwise participating in the research and writing about a subject in which the journalist has a personal stake or bias that cannot be set aside.

This was in stark contrast to the media climate prior to the 20th Century, where the media market was dominated by smaller newspapers and pamphleteers who usually had an overt and often radical agenda, with no presumption of balance or objectivity. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/)

Role of journalism in a democracy

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Main article: Freedom of the press

In the 1920s, as modern journalism was just taking form, writer Walter Lippmann and American philosopher John Dewey debated over the role of journalism in a democracy. Their differing philosophies still characterize a debate about the role of journalism in society and the nation-state.

Lippmann understood that journalism's role at the time was to act as a mediator or translator public and policymaking elites. The journalist became the middleman. When elites spoke, journalists listened and recorded the information, distilled it, and passed it on to the public for their consumption. His reasoning behind this was that the public was not in a position to deconstruct the growing and complex flurry of information present in modern society, and so an intermediary was needed to filter news for the masses. Lippman put it this way: The public is not smart enough to understand complicated, political issues. Furthermore, the public was too consumed with their daily lives to care about complex public policy. Therefore the public needed someone to interpret the decisions or concerns of the elite to make the information plain and simple. That was the role of journalists. Lippmann believed that the public would affect the decision-making of the elite with their vote. In the meantime, the elite (i.e. politicians, policy makers, bureaucrats, scientists, etc.) would keep the business of power running. In Lippman's world, the journalist's role was to inform the public of what the elites were doing. It was also to act as a watchdog over the elites, as the public had the final say with their votes. Effectively that kept the public at the bottom of the power chain, catching the flow of information that is handed down from experts/elites. between the

Dewey, on the other hand, believed the public was not only capable of understanding the issues created or responded to by the elite, it was in the public forum that decisions should be made after discussion and debate. When issues were thoroughly vetted, then the best ideas would bubble to the surface. Dewey believed journalists not only had to inform the public, but should report on issues differently than simply passing on information. In Dewey's world, a journalist's role changed. Dewey believed that journalists should take in the information, then weigh the consequences of the policies being enacted by the elites on the public. Over time, his idea has been implemented in various degrees, and is more commonly known as "community journalism ."

This concept of community journalism is at the centre of new developments in journalism. In this new paradigm, journalists are able to engage citizens and the experts/elites in the proposition and generation of content. It's important to note that while there is an assumption of equality, Dewey still celebrates expertise. Dewey believes the shared knowledge of many is far superior to a single individual's knowledge. Experts and scholars are welcome in Dewey's framework, but there is not the hierarchical structure present in Lippman's understanding of journalism and society. According to Dewey, conversation, debate, and dialogue lie at the heart of a democracy.

While Lippman's journalistic philosophy might be more acceptable to government leaders, Dewey's approach is a better description of how many journalists see their role in society, and, in turn, how much of society expects journalists to function. Americans, for example, may criticize some of the excesses committed by journalists, but they tend to expect journalists to serve as watchdogs on government, businesses and other actors, enabling people to make informed decisions on the issues of the time.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/)

History of Journalism,

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The history of journalism, or the development of the gathering and transmitting of news, spans the growth of technology and trade , marked by the advent of specialized techniques for gathering and disseminating information on a regular basis that has caused, as one history of journalism surmises, the steady increase of "the scope of news available to us and the speed with which it is transmitted."

Prehistoric, ancient and medieval periods

Early methods of transmitting news began with word of mouth, which limited its content to what people saw and relayed to others; accuracy in news depended on the scope of the event being described and its relevance to the listener. Ancient monarchial governments developed ways of relaying written reports, including the Roman Empire afterJulius Caesar onward, which recorded and distributed a daily record of political news and acts to Roman colonies. After the empire collapsed, news dissemination depended on travelers' tales, songs, ballads, letters, and governmental dispatches. These details provided by the different sources from the word of mouth was being written down, which became a reliable and transferable source of medium. Ancient Egyptians use to write and announce.

Renaissance and the printing press

The invention of the movable type printing press, attributed to Johannes Gutenberg in 1456, led to the wide dissemination of the Bible and other printed books. The first newspapers appeared in Europe in the 17th century. The first printed periodical was Mercurius Gallobelgicus; written in Latin, it appeared in 1594 in Cologne, now Germany, and was distributed widely, even finding its way to readers in England .

The first regularly published newspaper in English (as opposed to the earlier "news books", published in 8- to 24-page quarto formats) was the Oxford Gazette (later the London Gazette, and published continually ever since), which first appeared in 1665. It began publication while the British royal court was in Oxford to avoid the plague in London, and was published twice a week. When the court moved back to London, the publication moved with it. An earlier newsbook, the Continuation of Our Weekly News, had been published regularly in London since 1623.

The first daily newspaper, the Daily Courant, appeared in 1702 and continued publication for more than 30 years. Its first editor was also the first woman in journalism, although she was replaced after only a couple of weeks. By this time, the British had adopted the Press Restriction Act, which required that the printer's name and place of publication be included on each printed document. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_journalism)

Science & Investigative Journalism

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Science journalism

Science journalism is a relatively new branch of journalism, in which journalists' reporting conveys information on science topics to the public. Science journalists must understand and interpret very detailed, technical and sometimes jargon-laden information and render it into interesting reports that are comprehensible to consumers of news media.

Scientific journalists also must choose which developments in science merit news coverage, as well as cover disputes within the scientific community with a balance of fairness to both sides but also with a devotion to the facts.

Many, but not all, journalists covering science have training in the sciences they cover, including several medical journalists who cover medicine.

Investigative journalism

Investigative journalism, in which journalists investigate and expose unethical immoral and illegal behavior by individuals, businesses and government agencies, can be complicated, time-consuming and expensive — requiring teams of journalists, months of research, interviews (sometimes repeated interviews) with numerous people, long-distance travel, computers to analyze public-record databases, or use of the company's legal staff to secure documents under freedom of information laws.

Because of its inherently confrontational nature, this kind of reporting is often the first to suffer from budget cutbacks or interference from outside the news department. Investigative reporting done poorly can also expose journalists and media organizations to negative reaction from the subjects of investigations and the public, and accusations of gotcha journalism. When conducted correctly it can bring the attention of the public and government to problems and conditions that the public deem need to be addressed, and can win awards and recognition to the journalists involved and the media outlet that did the reporting. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journalism)

Feature Style

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Newspapers and periodicals often contain features (see under heading feature style at article news style) written by journalists, many of whom specialize in this form of in-depth journalistic writing.

Feature articles are usually longer forms of writing; more attention is paid to style than it is in straight news reports. They are often combined with photographs, drawings or other "art." They may also be highlighted by typographic effects or colors.

Writing features can be more demanding than writing straight news stories, because while a journalist must apply the same amount of effort to accurately gather and report the facts of the story, he or she must also find a creative and interesting way to write it. The lead (or first two paragraphs of the story; see Nut graf ) must grab the reader's attention and yet accurately embody the ideas of the article.

In the last half of the 20th Century the line between straight news reporting and feature writing has blurred. Journalists and publications today experiment with different approaches to writing. Tom Wolfe , Gay Talese , Hunter S. Thompson are some of these examples. Urban and alternative weekly newspapers go even further in blurring the distinction, and many magazines include more features than straight news.

Some television news shows experimented with alternative formats, and many TV shows that claimed to be news shows were not considered as such by traditional critics, because their content and methods do not adhere to accepted journalistic standards. National Public Radio , on the other hand, is considered a good example of mixing straight news reporting, features, and combinations of the two, usually meeting standards of high quality. Other US public radio news organizations have achieved similar results. A majority of newspapers still maintain a clear distinction between news and features, as do most television and radio news organizations. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journalism)

Internet , Newscasters ,Article topics and writing

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Internet

The Internet has allowed the formal and informal publication of news stories through mainstream medial outlets as well as blogs and other self-published news stories.

Newscasters

Newscasters function at large stations and networks that usually specialise in a particular type of news, such as sports or weather. Weathercasters, also called weather reporters, report current and forecast weather conditions. They gather information from national satellite weather services, wire services, and local and regional weather bureaus. Some weathercasters are trained meteorologists and develop their own weather forecasts. (See the statement on atmospheric scientists elsewhere in the Handbook.) Sportscasters select, write, and deliver sports news. This may include interviews with sports personalities and coverage of games and other sporting events.

Article topics and writing

Articles are written about topics that are considered notable by the editors of the publication, with notability varying depending on the focus and audience of the publisher. Large agencies or companies may have reporters that are specialized to discuss specific topics (a beat); smaller agencies are more likely to have a small number of reporters covering all areas of interest. Investigative reports may cover lengthy stories that require days or weeks to gather sufficient information. Articles must be produced to meet a limited deadline determined by the broadcast or print time of the specific publication and working hours may vary according to the deadlines set and depending on projects or last-minute developments may be long or irregular.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journalism)

Wire Services

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Wire services are typically news agencies that provide news to publications, broadcasters and media houses by the minute. They work through technical tie-ups and arrangements with practically all mainstream news organizations, who pay them for the content that they provide. The public has no direct access to this content, unless it is carried by a local newspaper or television channel. Most of these agencies, like Reuters for instance, work on international, local, and national fronts.

Often, routine news is sourced directly from these agencies, by the news desk. Routine news is information related to announcements, press conferences, statements made by government or corporate officials, and any other mundane facts. The news desk receives updates from agencies every few minutes. Information related to the outbreak of a calamity, or important developments concerning national issues is usually obtained from agencies itself. These news items often go without any reporter's byline, that is, the credit is given to the newspaper in general, or is attributed to the agency that has sent out the information (or "broken the story"). If not very impactful, they are carried as small news briefs. On television, these items are the snippets displayed on the ticker: the rolling text at the bottom of the screen. Reporters who work for agencies do not usually get any credit for their work, as it is sent out as an "agency copy". Wire agencies are extremely important to the functioning of journalism; they are the backbones of most news organisations today, who heavily depend on them for important, routine content. They provide the material that an organisation may not be able to cover through its own limited resources alone.

Exclusive stories on the contrary, are the stories or news items that a publication or channel has obtained through its own resources; it is when a reporter associated with a particular organisation has found certain information through personal sources, and not through public announcements or from PR officials. The exclusivity of a story is also dependent on the condition that no other news channel or publication carries it simultaneously. Often, a reporter may find an exclusive story, but finds that it has lost its exclusivity when his or her source gives out that information to other newspapers and channels. While routine stories may provide the basic material that is required, exclusive stories are the ones that form the editorial identity or the voice of the newspaper. Morning newspapers are obliged to carry both routine and exclusive news; afternoon editions usually have to go a step further and work hard on follow-ups and their own exclusive stories. Most afternoon dailies do not carry routine news at all. Their content is lighter, and is meant to be a second reflection of the day's events. Magazines and weeklies also focus entirely on features and exclusive stories. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journalism)

Media : Television

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In a broadcast setup (television), journalists or reporters are also involved with editing the video material that has been shot alongside their research, and in working on the visual narrative of the story. Broadcast journalists often make an appearance in the news story at the beginning or end of the video clip.

In television or broadcast journalism , news analysts (also called news-casters or news anchors) examine, interpret, and broadcast news received from various sources of information. Anchors present this as news, either videotaped or live, through transmissions from on-the-scene reporters (news correspondents).

News clips can vary in length; there are some which may be as long as ten minutes, others that need to fit in all the relevant information and material in two or three minutes. News channels these days have also begun to host special documentary films that stretch for much longer durations and are able to explore a news subject or issue in greater detail.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journalism)

Media : Print

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In a print publication, the first phase of presenting a story finds the reporter involved in investigation, observation of events, and interviews with people. Reporters take notes and also take photographs or shoot videos, either on their own, or through a photographer or camera person. In the second phase, they organize the material, determine the focus or emphasis (identify the peg), and finally write their stories. The story is then edited by news or copy-editors, who function from the news desk. The headline of the story is always decided by the news desk, and practically never by the reporter or the writer of the piece. Often, the news desk also heavily re-writes or changes the style and tone of the first draft prepared by the reporter / writer originally. Finally, a collection of stories that have been picked for the newspaper or magazine edition, are laid out on dummy (trial) pages, and after the chief editor has approved the content, style and language in the material, it is sent for publishing. The writer is given a byline for the piece that is published; his or her name appears alongside the article. This process takes place according to the frequency of the publication. News can be published in a variety of formats (broadsheet, tabloid, magazine and periodical publications) as well as periods (daily, weekly, biweekly, fortnightly or monthly).(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journalism)

Journalism

2008-08-06T18:26:00.000+07:00

Journalism is the profession of writing or communicating, formally employed by publications and broadcasters, for the benefit of a particular community of people. The writer or journalist is expected to use facts to describe events, ideas, or issues that are relevant to the public. Journalists (also known as news analysts, reporters, and correspondents) gather information, and broadcast it so we remain informed about local, state, national, and international events. They can also present their points of view on current issues and report on the actions of the government, public officials, corporate executives, interest groups, media houses, and those who hold social power or authority. Journalism is described as The Fourth Estate.

In journalism, a story refers to a single article, news item or feature. A story is usually relevant to a single event, issue, theme, or profile of a person. Stories are usually inspired through news pegsCorrespondents report on news occurring in the main, locally, from their own country, or from foreign cities where they are stationed. (the central premise of the story).

Today, most reporters file information or write their stories electronically from remote locations. In many cases, breaking stories are written by random staff members, through information collected and submitted by other reporters who are out on the field gathering information for an event that has just occurred and needs to be broadcast instantly. Radio and television reporters often compose stories and report "live" from the scene. Some journalists also interpret the news or offer opinions and analysis to readers, viewers, or listeners. In this role, they are called commentators or columnists.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journalism)