The Power Of Journalists

We live in a profoundly challenging era for journalists. While the profession has historically taken on the mantle of providing clear, sound information to the public, journalists now face competition from dubious sources online and smear campaigns launched by public figures. In The Power of Journalists, four of the United Kingdom’s foremost journalists—Nick Robinson, Barbara Speed, Charlie Beckett, and Gary Gibbon—give on-the-ground accounts of how they’ve weathered some of the most significant political events of the past five years, including the referendum on Scottish independence and Brexit. These monumental political decisions exposed each journalist to the dangerous vicissitudes of public opinion, and made them all the more certain of their mission. In describing the role of the journalist as truth-teller and protector of impartiality as well as interpreter of controversial facts and trusted source of public opinion, they issue a clarion call for good journalism.

Some say it's simply information, mirroring the world. Others believe it's propaganda, promoting a partisan view. But news, Michael Schudson tells us, is really both and neither; it is a form of culture, complete with its own literary and social conventions and powerful in ways far more subtle and complex than its many critics might suspect. A penetrating look into this culture, The Power of News offers a compelling view of the news media's emergence as a central institution of modern society, a key repository of common knowledge and cultural authority. One of our foremost writers on journalism and mass communication, Schudson shows us the news evolving in concert with American democracy and industry, subject to the social forces that shape the culture at large. He excavates the origins of contemporary journalistic practices, including the interview, the summary lead, the preoccupation with the presidency, and the ironic and detached stance of the reporter toward the political world. His book explodes certain myths perpetuated by both journalists and critics. The press, for instance, did not bring about the Spanish-American War or bring down Richard Nixon; TV did not decide the Kennedy-Nixon debates or turn the public against the Vietnam War. Then what does the news do? True to their calling, the media mediate, as Schudson demonstrates. He analyzes how the news, by making knowledge public, actually changes the character of knowledge and allows people to act on that knowledge in new and significant ways. He brings to bear a wealth of historical scholarship and a keen sense for the apt questions about the production, meaning, and reception of news today.

When we encounter a news story, why do we accept its version of events? Why do we even recognize it as news? A complicated set of cultural, structural, and technological relationships inform this interaction, and Journalistic Authority provides a relational theory for explaining how journalists attain authority. The book argues that authority is not a thing to be possessed or lost, but a relationship arising in the connections between those laying claim to being an authority and those who assent to it. Matt Carlson examines the practices journalists use to legitimate their work: professional orientation, development of specific news forms, and the personal narratives they circulate to support a privileged social place. He then considers journalists' relationships with the audiences, sources, technologies, and critics that shape journalistic authority in the contemporary media environment. Carlson argues that journalistic authority is always the product of complex and variable relationships. Journalistic Authority weaves together journalists’ relationships with their audiences, sources, technologies, and critics to present a new model for understanding journalism while advocating for practices we need in an age of fake news and shifting norms.

Today’s journalists need to know both the skills of how to write, interview, and research, as well as skills that are often thought of as more intangible. This book provides a practical, how-to approach for developing, honing, and practicing the intangible skills critical to strong journalism. Individual chapters introduce journalism’s intangible concepts such as curiosity, empathy, implicit bias, community engagement, and tenacity, relating them to solid journalistic practice through real-world examples. Case studies and interviews with industry professionals help to further establish connections between concept and practice, and mid-chapter and end-of-chapter exercises give the reader a concrete pathway toward developing these skills. The book offers an important perspective for the modern media landscape, where any journalist seeking to make an impact must know how to contextualize events, hold power to account, and inform their community to contribute to a healthy democracy. This is an invaluable text for courses in journalism skills at both the undergraduate and graduate level and anyone training the next generation of journalists.

Every serious student of journalism should read this book... Denis McQuail has succeeded in producing a work of scholarship that shows what journalists do and what they should do. - Stephen Coleman, University of Leeds "For a half century we have spoken earnestly of journalism′s responsibility to society instead of to business and government. Now this concept is given sophistication unmatched, by the best scholar of media theory of his generation." - Clifford Christians, University of Illinois "The grand old man of communication theory presents an overarching social theory of journalism that goes beyond the usual Anglo-American focus." - Jo Bardoel, University of Amsterdam (ASCoR) and Nijmegen "This book deals with the eternal question of how journalism is linked to society... I cannot think of a better staple food for students of journalism at all levels." - Kaarle Nordenstreng, University of Tampere This is a major new statement on the role of journalism in democracy from one of media and communication′s leading thinkers. Denis McQuail leads the reader through a systematic exploration of how and why journalism and society have become so inextricably entwined and - as importantly - what this relationship should be like. It is a strong re-statement of the fundamental values that journalism aspires to. Written for students, this book: Makes the theory accessible and relevant Teaches the importance of journalism to power and politics Explores the status and future of journalism as a profession Outlines the impact and consequences of the digital Reveals journalism as it is, but also as it should be Takes each chapter further with guided reading list and free online journal articles. This textbook is the perfect answer to the how and why of journalism. It is crucial reading for any student of media studies, communication studies and journalism.

"This is the provocative argument that drives William McGowan's Coloring the News, a brave, searching work that examines journalism's most controversial issue. McGowan presents a fascinating insider's analysis of how a well-intentioned attempt to accommodate minorities and minority viewpoints has been overtaken by political correctness, which determines what stories get reported in the "elite" media and how. Along the way he dissects how the press has "mistold" key stories including California's Proposition 209 vote, the allegedly "racist" burnings of black churches in the South, the military's ongoing problems with the integration of women and gays, and the consequences of a chaotic immigration policy."--BOOK JACKET.

Engaged Journalism explores the changing relationship between news producers and audiences and the methods journalists can use to secure the attention of news consumers. Based on Jake Batsell's extensive experience and interaction with more than twenty innovative newsrooms, this book shows that, even as news organizations are losing their agenda-setting power, journalists can still thrive by connecting with audiences through online technology and personal interaction. Batsell conducts interviews with and observes more than two dozen traditional and startup newsrooms across the United States and the United Kingdom. Traveling to Seattle, London, New York City, and Kalamazoo, Michigan, among other locales, he attends newsroom meetings, combs through internal documents, and talks with loyal readers and online users to document the successes and failures of the industry's experiments with paywalls, subscriptions, nonprofit news, live events, and digital tools including social media, data-driven interactives, news games, and comment forums. He ultimately concludes that, for news providers to survive, they must constantly listen to, interact with, and fulfill the specific needs of their audiences, whose attention can no longer be taken for granted. Toward that end, Batsell proposes a set of best practices based on effective, sustainable journalistic engagement.

Research Skills for Journalists is a comprehensive, engaging and highly practical guide to developing the varied skillset needed for producing well researched, quality journalism across a range of platforms. Illustrated with original interviews and case studies, the book guides readers through a clear understanding of sources of news, as well as illustrating the skills needed to undertake successful digital and non-digital research and to conduct interviews for a variety of media. It examines the skills needed for basic data journalism and presents an in-depth exploration of the different research skills specific to producing print and online text, as well as those for broadcast and multimedia journalism. Key research skills explored in the book include: Developing digital research skills, including researching through search engines, messages boards, discussion groups and web forums, social media, apps, and using user generated content Working with data, including sourcing, auditing and analysing data, data visualisation and understanding the importance of accuracy and context Essential non-digital research skills, including telephone technique, using libraries and working with librarians, understanding copyright, working with picture libraries and research services, and producing freedom of information requests Working directly with people to research stories, including the power of persuasion, tracking down great contributors, managing and protecting sources, planning and managing interviews, and interviewing vulnerable people Researching for multimedia production of stories, including researching a radio story, podcast or video story, and planning for outside broadcasts. Research Skills for Journalists also explores specialist research skills needed for working overseas and investigates new areas, which could be used for journalism research in the future. The book is illustrated with original contributions by journalists from a variety of backgrounds; including veteran investigative journalist John Pilger, pioneering data journalist Simon Rogers and The Bureau of Investigative Journalism’s award-winning reporter Abigail Fielding-Smith. It is an invaluable guide for students and practitioners of journalism to the skills needed for finding and developing original news stories today.