Norms and Practices of American Journalism J201 Introduction to Mass Communication Oct 24 -2016

Professor Hernando Rojas hrojas@wisc.edu @uatiff 201.journalism.wisc.edu #sjmc201

Reminders

①  First Media Analysis essay is due on Friday Oct 28; via turnitin.

②  This week Quiz # 3.

3!

Current issues: 1.  Media shield laws.

2.  Money as speech.

3.  Bloggers are protected by the free speech clause, but are they protected by media shield laws and the malice standard of press freedom?

4.  Protection from non-state agents.

The First Amendment

4!

1.  Speech inciting imminent use of violence. 2.  False statements. For public figures with the

added burden of proving malice. 3.  Commercial speech can be regulated in public

spaces. 4.  Obscene content ( (a) the average person, applying

contemporary community standards’ would find the work, as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest . . . (b) . . . the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law, and (c) . . . the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.”) Child pornography is not protected speech.

Limits to the freedom of expression and the press

Journalistic systems in the U.S. - main points

①  From party press (polarized) to a commercial press model.

②  The commercial press is an achievement of technological development in mass production, the rise of the advertising industry and the incorporation of human interest stories as legitimate press content.

③  Advertising industry as the main funding source of the press. Political autonomy based on market dependence.

Journalistic systems in the U.S. - main points

④  These factors are at the basis for objectivity in

journalism (reduction to facts), that is enhanced by professionalization.

⑤  With the emergence of broadcast technologies, radio (1930s) and then television (1940s) become the main source of news for most people. Push towards abbreviated news.

⑥  Cable news appear in 1980 (CNN) followed by other stations in 1996 (FOX and MSNBC).

Journalistic systems in the U.S. – timeline

1776 1830s 1890s 1930s 1940s 1980s 1990s!

Penny Press Party Press

NY Times 1851

AP 1846

Yellow vs Objective

Press

Market Press

Radio Jour

TV Jour 1980 1996

Online News

Market Neutral vs Partisan

Press

Grand principles of American Journalism

①  Independence ②  Transparency ③  Citizen engagement ④  Holding power accountable ⑤  Objectivity ⑥  Balance ⑦  Fairness ⑧  Accuracy/Verification ⑨  Telling the truth

Today’s class!

Objectivity

Objectivity

•  If objectivity is about sticking to facts without preconceptions about the facts, can we be unbiased?

Objectivity Class Poll

Objectivity

•  Objectivity is not about the person but the method employed…

•  Journalism is being constituted along a larger process of scientific rationality, positing that there are ways of “seeing” that can lead to an objective truth.

•  Journalists by employing methods of verification can be objective, if they adhere to the method.

Objectivity

•  How would we report on this claim? •  Do our views on the issue matter?

Balance

•  One of the techniques used by journalists as part of the push towards objectivity is that of balance.

•  Since you are suspending your own beliefs on an issue, you rely on the accounts of others and their interpretations of events.

•  You offer narratives based on contrasting claims about the truth and you take these seriously…

Balance and false balance

•  How does one achieve balance?

Balance and false balance

Questions

See you Wednesday.