Public Journalism

Contemporary journalism is derived from the ‘Public Sphere’ which Meadows states ‘in this way, modern journalism began as a cultural practice that was both of and for the public (2001, p. 40). The on set of the ‘post modern’ era has brought about new information technologies creating new media and transforming the notion of ‘professional journalism’ from elitist into popular culture. With new media technologies available to the public it is easier and efficient to access forms of expression previously unavailable. Nano technology and media convergence have allowed for more interactivity to occur between media and the public. Jay Rosen states in his video that the tools have been distributed to the public. These tools include mobile phones, laptops, cameras, iPods, video cameras, etc and the distribution occurs on the internet.

Aspects of new journalism have revived the media, for the public now has a greater interest and audience numbers have increased (Romano and Hippocrates 2001).

People from all walks of life now have forums of expression. Carey states that ‘important elements that influenced the movement of journalism away from its earlier, publicly accountable form- the emergence of national media, the growth of minority or alternative media, and the creation of the professional communicator’ (1997b, pp. 129- 33 cited in Meadows 2001, p. 41). This has been termed citizen journalism, which Jay Rosen defines as ‘When the people formerly known as the audience employ the press tools they have in their possession to inform one another, that’s citizen journalism’ (Rosen 2008).

The Apple Company is the most famous for their developments in nano technology with a new version of the iPod nearly every week.

Mobile phone technology has evolve in leaps and bounds - once a mobile resembled a brick now it has a camera function including video, access to the internet, GPS components – the world is at the mobile users finger tips. And who knows what they’ll invent this week! Website software is available for ‘the citizen’ to create a website or blog and this has created a challenge for the media companies.

Who do they become if the Average Joe is reporting the news? So the media conglomerates have decided that if you can’t beat them, join them and now encourage citizens to send in their photos if they witness an event first hand. Does this mean that professional journalists are now on equal levels to the ‘citizen journalist’? While it is very interesting witnessing the digital world changing media in many ways, society still requires professional journalists. Whether you believe in objectivity or professionalism in journalism or if they just a bunch of unethical larrikins; ‘professional journalists’ have a role in society. ‘Journalism should be seen as part of the broader process of making culture – or ‘imagining’, to use Benedict Anderson’s term. If journalism is viewed as a cultural practice, it enables us to think about how it might be reformed so that it may again be both of and for the public’ (Meadows 2001, p. 41).

Citizen journalism has made way for the post modern times we live in by incorporating the ‘active audience’ which has been ignored by the media. With commercial radio and television stations competing for ratings and audience numbers; it is surprising that the audience has been treated like passive infants for so long as stated by Carey ‘and it is precisely the modern notion of the fourth estate, relying on the element of the adversary press, which has ‘stitched the citizen into a passive role of spectator’. Adoption of, and reliance on, the idea of the ‘objectivity’ under the fourth- estate banner ensured citizens would be cast into the role of ‘students’ to be educated by the media, rather than being participants in the process of self-government (Carey 1997c, p. 337 cited in Meadows 2001, p. 42).

All media can be considered a text to be interpreted by the audience. A text can be viewed in two ways as stated by McQuail ‘one refers to the physical message itself- the printed document, film, television programme or musical score’ and the second ‘is to reserve the term ‘text’ for the meaningful outcome of the encounter between content and reader’ (2005, p. 385). A popular myth is that the meaning is already in the text.

However poststructural research (Wolff 1981, Belsey 2006, Barthes 1977) has found that the audience give a text meaning by understanding it through their own context. So while the media are sending out messages it is up to the audience to decide the meaning. With citizen journalism the audience can now state what their meaning is and actively participate (using the platform of the internet) in political, social and cultural matters which will affect them.

While citizen journalism is a positive step forward it has not been embraced by all. Journalists, who have trained, studied and actively understood the domain and field of journalism are now probably wondering what the point is? As a University student majoring in Journalism I too have to wonder where does that leave me now and in the future? James Farmer for The Age states in his Blog that if a citizen has gathered, analysed and disseminated information to the masses they are longer a citizen but now a journalist (Farmer 2006). Farmer concludes with this statement:

‘So bring on the revolution. Let's have sites that are built on citizen media and far greater and more worthwhile interaction between readers, journalists and editors. It's a riveting and powerful development in the world of online news, information and entertainment, but it's not citizen journalism and nor will it ever be’ (Farmer 2006).

An interesting statement that Farmer makes is that the term ‘citizen journalism’ is an insult.

“The very term is a somewhat insulting assumption. Journalists suffer a similar fate to teachers in that everyone is or has been exposed to their work on a very regular basis - everyone's got an opinion and they're not afraid to share it. As a bit of a reality check, when was the last time you encountered a "citizen doctor", valued a report by a "citizen researcher", took off in a plane flown by a "citizen pilot" or saw justice meted out by "citizen policeman"? (Farmer 2006).

Jay Rosen’s Blog Press Think gives a very interesting perspective to the citizen journalist concept that is changing the way the media is viewed. A very important point that Rosen states is ‘there are now closed and open editorial systems: they are different. They don’t work the same way, or produce the same goods. One does not replace the other. They are not enemies either. Ideas that work in one—that describe the world in that system—often do not work in understanding the other: they mis-describe the world’ (Rosen 2008). Being able to blog takes freedom of expression to a new level and that is a positive for society. Reporters Without Borders continually fight for freedom of the press and the internet is creating a freedom of the press platform.

In articles and comments on NYU Local about blogs there appears a trend that the audience realises that a blog is not objective and has a biased opinion. From comments on the NYU Local it appeared that this was an appreciated way of disseminating information. That it was breaking away from convention and embracing the opportunities that new media has allowed. However, one person’s opinion does not equal fact or ‘good’ information. Having a rant was why the personal journal was invented and now the internet provides a public forum for people’s personal tirades.

So while new media should be embraced, is embraced and moving journalism forward, society still requires objective, authoritative voices. Where we have come from cannot be entirely abolished and journalism’s history should apply no matter what platform it is on. New media is important and taking the journalism industry into a new era and while opinion is important it is not the be all of reporting on a topic, it is just a different way of doing journalism.

Meadows has a very good point when he states ‘Public journalism professes admirable aims, but how effective can these experiments be when journalists and journalism maintain perceptions that naturally set them apart from ‘the public’ (2001, p. 52).

These are views which are shaping the citizen journalist debate as the media and journalism continues to transform. There are those who are for and those against but either way this phenomenon is occurring. Meadows concludes by giving little hope for the journalist if they choose to remain in the old ways, ‘until there is a return to the forms of ‘public conversation’ from which modern journalism emerged, there seems little hope of journalism and journalists regaining a credible place in the public imagination and, by association, in the process of the formation of culture’ (2001, p. 52).

References

Barthes , R 1977, ‘The Death of the Author’ in Image, Music, Text, Noonday Press, New York , pp. 142- 153.

Belsey, C 2006, ‘Poststructuralism’, in S, Malpas & P, Wake (eds.), The Routledge Companion to Critical Theory, Routledge, London, pp. 43- 54.

Meadows, M 2001, ‘A Return to Practice: Reclaiming Journalism as Public Conversation’, in S Tapsall and C Varley (eds), Journalism Theory in Practice, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 40- 54.

McQuail, D 2005, McQuail’s Mass Communication Theory, 5^th edn, Sage, London.

Romano, A and Hippocrates, C 2001, ‘Putting the Public Back into Journalism’, in S Tapsall and C Varley (eds), Journalism Theory in Practice, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 166- 184.

Wolff , J 1981, The Social Production of Art, Macmillan, London.

Celebrity Journalism

An area that has sparked my interest is celebrity. After writing the post, ‘Who will pay for journalism?’ I wanted to find out more. P. David Marshall is a well known academic writer of the discourses surrounding celebrity. In his text The Celebrity Culture Reader is a chapter ‘Intimately Intertwined in the most Public Way: Celebrity and Journalism.’
In this chapter Marshall asserts the changing nature of the media and how Celebrity Journalism is expected. Celebrity journalism is associated with the less dignified side of journalism or in a colloquial term known as ‘fluff pieces’.

Marshall (2006, p. 317) argues ‘instead of a discourse that highlighted the distance and aura of the celebrity, celebrity journalism worked to make the famous more real and worked to provide a greater intimacy with their everyday lives.’ Celebrity journalism was showing that famous Hollywood stars were ordinary people with extraordinary talents.
Journalistic profiles of celebrities were connecting the mass audience to discourses of individuality which Marshall (2006, p. 318) states ‘audiences in turn would have a degree of ‘affective investment’… because of the amount of personal background that was provided about celebrities in newspapers and magazines.’

Celebrity journalism has satisfied the masses by entertaining them with the stories of celebrities’ private lives ‘what sometimes emerges from celebrity journalism is a further convergence with the practices of public relations and promotion’ (Marshall 2006, p. 316).
Through the publicity that celebrities received from articles talking about their private affairs their professional work increased sales.
Marshall states that ‘national markets for entertainment were developed and buttressed by the press who also realised the value in creating celebrated individuals for the selling of their papers and magazines’ (2006, p. 318). Celebrity gossip generates a high readership, especially among females, as the private life of famous, gorgeous people provides an element of escapism.
The entertainment industry survives with the help of Public Relation practitioners who provide a press kit to journalists by setting up interviews before a film is released. Stories of this nature always have a positive angle and show the talent in a ‘good light’.

An interesting point that Marshall makes is that standard practice for mainstream or large newspaper when completing a celebrity profile is:

1. The meeting of the journalist and star in either domestic setting or café.
2. The description of the casual dress and demeanour of the star.
3. The discussion of their current work- which is essentially the anchor for why the story is newsworthy.
4. The revelation of something that is against the grain of what is generally perceived to be the star’s persona- something that is anecdotal but is revealing of the star’s true nature.

(Adapted from G. Baum, 1998 cited in Marshall 2006, p. 320).


These four points are so true, how many celebrity feature articles have you picked up and each one has the same formula to the point that you know what they’re going to say next. All of them. Magazines rely more heavily on celebrity profiles as the cover and the article generate sales.
However, while celebrity journalism has been named and shamed the latter of journalistic practice Marshall (2006) has argued that celebrity scandals can place journalists in adversarial roles. Marshall argues that ‘the National Enquirer not only led with discovered facts in the O.J. Simpson case – it has also been the first to reveal Jesse Jackson’s love child’ (2006, p. 321). Or more recently the fall of Britney Spears has made huge news stories. In contemporary times celebrities have been used in the discussion of social and cultural issues and concerns, including drug abuse, eating disorders, sexuality and more.

And we cannot over look that fact that some journalists reach celebrity status, especially television journalist who audiences familiarise with.

What do you think of celebrity journalism?



Reference

Marshall, P. D 2006 (ed), ‘Intimately Intertwined in the most Public Way: Celebrity and Journalism’, in The Celebrity Culture Reader, Routledge, New York, pp. 315-323.

Online: a 'new' journalism

The rapid technological advancements that are changing the world are having a huge impact on traditional journalism. Professional journalists are being forced to question were they exist in the world of the internet. If journalism does not move forward audiences are going to leave them behind because there needs are not being catered to. In many ways for journalism to survive the technological revolution forward thinking is needed. If they remain in the old ways they will perish. Journalism has always been a multi-skilled profession and for some reason the internet has journalists running scared rather than embracing change.

News, information and entertainment on the internet have revived media for generations who would not have had a bar of reading a newspaper from cover to cover. Our society does not live in those times anymore. For journalism to become more interactive on a medium like the internet has gotten peoples interest again. Media companies who use the technology available should be experimenting to see the different options and angles they could use to draw audiences in.
The internet has had the standard of news questioned and how the internet has seen newspapers online become more entertainment than news based.
Katz (1999 cited in Tapsall 2001, p. 236) has argued that media outlets, particularly newspapers have always been slow to change and do not welcome external challenges,

‘They’re heard it before. The newspaper industry has a deeply sado-masochistic streak. It goes to extraordinary lengths, and sometimes even great expense, to arrange for speakers to dump on newspapers and pronounce their downfall, even as they go to even greater lengths to take little or none of the advice they got.’

Television was once a threat to print media and editors believed that once broadcasts began that print would become obsolete. Now the internet has television, radio and print questioning how long will they last. Tapsall (2001, p. 237) asserts that ‘technological convergence has taken place, digital and Internet technologies do provide options to package text, sound and vision in one easy-to-access – from home or work – product.’
All new unknown technologies bring with them positives and negatives, television was seen as a negative influence when programs first began airing, now people wouldn’t know how to live without their plasmas. The internet has its positives and its negatives but really the problem is just the fear of the unknown.

Journalists are still making a living from writing articles for the online version of the publication they work for. In Australia online newspapers like The Age, The Australian and The Sydney Morning Herald are all functioning and are popular sites. Traditional media can survive alongside the internet. Just because a new medium comes along does not mean it is time to pack up the old. The internet has provided a different way of doing journalism. Only time will tell what the future of journalism will be.

Reference

Tapsall, S 2001, ‘The Media is the Message’, in S Tapsall & C Varley (eds), Journalism: Theory in Practice, Oxford University Press, New York, pp. 235-253.

Moral Minefields: Legal and Ethical Dilemmas

Every day journalists are faced with moral, legal and ethical dilemmas when reporting to the public. It is a balance of the interests of the public and the public interest.
Journalists have a responsibility to report fair, balanced and objective stories, no matter what the medium is. Pearson (2001, p. 198) argues that ‘it is precarious where journalism challenges the boundaries of the law, particularly when a new law is being tested or law-enforcement agencies are under political pressure to rein in the behaviour of the media.’

When journalists are aware of the laws they are working within, an example is copyright, their job becomes more efficient and of a higher standard.
Pearson (2001) discusses that the law is a fickle thing that is subject to whims of the powerful and no two cases are ever the same.
Journalism law is an entity of its own and derives from having to report and publish. Journalism has to cover what can or cannot be mentioned legally in an article across all media outlets, whether it is broadcast, print or radio. The internet is proving to be more complicated, as it extends globally and each country has different legislation.
Pearson (2001, p. 199) summarises the laws to include those related to ‘defamation, court reporting, contempt of court and parliament, obscenity, media regulation, freedom of information legislation, intellectual property, trespass, and breach of confidence among others’, copyright is also important for journalists because they must always accredit if the work they use is not their own.

When dealing with legal issues it is important for journalists to remember that they actually have no rights and are viewed as ordinary citizens. At times there are exceptions due to the nature of a journalist’s role in society- to bring information into the public domain. Considering the nature of a journalist’s role they are only viewed in court as a citizen and while they are expected to report on matters with freedom of expression, to photograph in public places and attend court hearings all these rights are very restricted. The freedom of expression has limitations – such as you cannot defame a person, or use language that is not appropriate, such as swearing. ‘Put simply, journalists are afforded such rights if they perform their roles responsibly. When they begin to perform them irresponsibly, the balance of the law normally shifts in favour of the other citizens whose rights are being infringed’ (Pearson 2001, p. 200).

Sub judice ‘is just one version of the ancient law of contempt of court, which renders illegal any behaviour impairing or threatening the administration of justice’ (Pearson 2001, p. 210). Sub judice is a complicated process that all journalists should be aware of to avoid tarnishing a trial. Basically the idea is that a person cannot be prosecuted by ‘trial of the media’. During this time journalists can only report the bare facts, those that could be known by any eye witness, such as, were a body was found, that a bank was robbed, etc.

Freedom of Information ‘is a law designed to allow greater public access to information held by government departments’ (Pearson 2001, p. 203). While FOI can be helpful especially to investigative journalists the exemptions that are placed on some documents means that nearly all of it is blacked out. As journalists can claim that a story was published due to public interest, those withholding documents can claim that parts are not in the public interest. For a journalist this can make obtaining information a lengthy and frustrating process.

An obvious one and the most common is copyright law. Just like students can be punished for plagiarism a journalist can be as well. If a journalist uses the work of another author they must acknowledge the source. Journalists should be very rigorous in ensuring that all their work is their own because when you are publishing to a mass audience someone, somewhere will pick it up. IP Australia has very useful information about copyright and intellectual property.


Reference

Pearson, M 2001, ‘A Question of Legality’, in S Tapsall & C Varley (eds), Journalism: Theory in Practice, Oxford University Press, New York, pp. 198- 212.

In the Public Interest: Public vs. Private

The seminar demonstrated that the lines between public and private are blurring. The term ‘celebrity’ has become a term used loosely because what the public are interested in has changed. There is a difference between the public interest and what the public are interested in. Australians are protected by the Privacy Act, but there exemptions for reporting providing that journalists subscribe to the specific industry codes of practice. There are no clear rules or guidelines for journalists.

An example used was Princess Diana who reached celebrity status and became ‘the people’s princess’ and she was constantly in the public eye. Her death in 1997 had paparazzi taking her photograph in her last moments and this became an invasion of privacy.
Celebrities, politicians and their families have a right to privacy in their own homes because this is a private place, not a public one. The more the public crave the celebrity gossip the further reporters and photographers push the boundaries.

Journalists should be reporting for the greater good and in recent years the concept of greater good has changed. Public and private are heavily influenced by law and ethics. The ethics of journalists plays a role in the information they are willing to obtain. While journalists have a duty to convey information and animate democracy the privacy of an individual does not mean secrecy.

The case study of Derryn Hinch was an example used by one of the presenters. Derryn Hinch is a journalist who received 28 days in jail for contempt of court. Each situation is different and journalists must take precautions.
The MEAA Code of Ethics clause 13 states that ‘Accept the right to privacy of every person. Public figures’ privacy may be reduced by their public role. Relatives and friends of those in the public eye retain their own right to privacy.’

Journalists are faced with issues of privacy almost every day. It is their job to assess the legal, ethical and moral dimensions associated with every report and make a decision that is fair, honest and balanced.

Truth and Objectivity

Truth and objectivity are important elements in the media and should be practiced by journalists and media corporations. Truth is important to the public. Tickle (2006, p. 90) states that ‘journalists face the task of truthfully representing in words, numbers, sound, and pictures, events that have occurred at a particular time and in a particular place.’

An example is the documentary ‘Out Foxed’ as a case study, which is about Rupert Murdoch’s company News Corporation. The documentary portrays how on a daily basis, the News Corporation journalists have to follow the agenda of Mr. Murdoch. This removed truth and objectivity from their reporting. Mr. Murdoch was asking his journalists to be subjective and ultimately bias. This creates problems for the journalists because journalists have a responsibility to communicate truth to the public. As a consequence of Mr. Murdoch having an agenda, the public does not receive an honest ‘truth’. As Tickle (2006, p. 91) argues ‘news media producers reject claims that they cannot represent the truth in their news stories, while the cultural theorists say that it is futile to try to represent the truth because it is a situational and subjective construction of reality.’

News Corporation is not the only media outlet guilty of blurring the ‘truth’. Photographs have been tampered with changing an image and distorting the truth. This is usually done to sensationalise a story often found in celebrity magazines. This is also the case with footage being edited to show a particular point of view. An example is that Bill O’Reilly.

Journalists decide what the ‘truth’ of a story is by selecting which facts to include and those which need to be left out. This process of reporting the important facts should not misrepresent what actually occurred; just provide the most vital information, as Tickle (2001, p. 95) argues ‘journalists must also exercise their judgement; that is, they must select from among many choices the crucial elements of the story and structure it appropriately.’ Journalists should ensure that all their stories have balance and fairness.

Using words such as ‘allegedly’ can also warp the ‘truth’ of a story and journalists may believe that using such words are a protection from defamation, etc. A journalist should be clear and concise and provide many points of view. Journalists should ensure that the three stages of enquiry are covered and these are reactive reporting, analytical reporting and reflective reporting.

Tickle discusses the post-modern view of journalism stating that ‘for the post-modernist, all truths and assumptions must be continually subjected to direct testing with the understanding that knowledge is relative and fallible, rather than absolute or certain’ (2001, p. 92). Another post-modern perspective is that audiences create their own truths through the material they are presented with. Creating a universal truth is hard because everyone lives in a different social and cultural context. What one person accepts as true is what another person questions.


How would you define truth?

Do you think that journalists are truthful?




Reference:
Tickle, S 2001, ‘The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but…’, in S Tapsall & C Varley (eds), Journalism: Theory in Practice, Oxford University Press, New York, pp. 89- 101.

Who Will Pay for Journalism?

With the growth of super powerful transnational corporations who make profits of billions of dollars every year; the media and therefore journalism have become commodities to package up and sell to audiences. Media companies must find news ways of marketing their product to audiences through new mediums that are emerging.
The audience has changed because people are easily bored and expect that television, radio, print and the internet will keep them continually occupied.
Audiences are not the only ones facing dramatic changes; journalism has seen massive changes in recent years. An example is the notion of ‘celebrity’ stories. Audiences want to know more about them to satisfy their hunger for being entertained.

All mediums of the media industry (especially the internet) are including more stories about celebrities because the audience buy it right up. They have found a new angle that sells and makes top dollar.

Pew Research Centre has discovered that the Public Blames Media for Too Much Celebrity Coverage. The graph Who Leads the way in Celebrity Coverage shows the results of a poll conducted by the Pew Research Centre.

Just this morning I was on ninemsn.com and there was a huge picture of Britney Spears smiling at me with an article about how she is back on track in her life. Now I knew that the article would be pointless dribble about how a ‘good friend’ of Britney’s has confirmed that the singer is doing well and getting on with her life. I also knew that the only ‘credible’ sources in the whole article would be Who and NW magazines.
But I read on anyway. Somewhere in me there was the need to know the gossip of Britney Spears’ life… and then there was an article about Jenifer Aniston being pregnant! To John Mayer and it’s so sad because Brad and Jen would have had beautiful babies and then I realised that I knew too much.

Why and how had this occurred? Media outlets such as ninemsn.com have presented me with these celebrity stories and driven me to know more about them. Ninemsn.com has researched my demographic right down to knowing what I prefer for breakfast in the morning and so have been very clever in marketing to me these celebrity stories. Ninemsn.com has already figured out that I prefer celebrity gossip, lifestyle and beauty pages over the sport or business sections.

The media exist in a commercial context and so each article written and every program created is hoping to reach an audience to finance future articles, programs and most often this happens to be through entertainment.
More emphasis on celebrity and other facile forms of entertainment have meant that media organisations are finding the quickest ways to satisfy their audiences. This is costing professional journalism because it is continuing to dwindle. There are less and less investigative news stories and more about entertainment. Entertainment rather than news is becoming the most efficient, cost effective way of making money out of audiences. It is becoming a circular pattern of entertainment to audience equals money and this is diminishing credible journalism.

The funds for investigative journalism are being cut because it is easier for newspapers to cut and paste stories directly from Reuters or AAP.
Shared stories also become a problem as the diversity of opinions and view points are no longer presented. Audiences have more trouble participating if they don’t know the different points of view that are associated with events. Political policy is one of the main events that audiences have little understanding of because all the facts are no longer presented to them.

The platform of journalism and the media is changing and they change with social and cultural impacts. Technology has changed the way that audiences obtain news, information and entertainment. The media has to continually find ways to sell their product and currently the social landscape has moved away from selling investigative journalism to a society that constantly wants to be entertained.

Does anyone else feel that media outlets sell more entertainment than news?

Picture of Britney Spears obtained from http://www.twd.in/entertainment/