MMC 910 Journalism and Society

1. MMC 910 Journalism and Society Session 10: Gate keeping, agenda setting, spiral of silence, and news values

2. Tonight’s Program • Reminder about Report: Strengths and Weaknesses of one theory found in e-readings; link theory and practice; 200o wds; due Monday, April 16, by 6 pm • Show Turnitin.com • Discuss Week 9 readings: Gate keeping, spiral of silence, agenda setting, and news values • Guest speaker: Globalization and Human Rights: New Media, More Truth

3. Report due April 16 by email • Take one theory that we have covered this semester and discuss its strengths and weaknewss • Link the theory to current journalism that you read or follow – give examples • Use only short quotes • Paper must be written essay style, maximum 2000 words • Include List of Works Consulted – alphabetical by author’s last name. list of everything you refer to in your paper

4. Evaluating the Report

5. Template for report

6. Turnitin.com www.turnitin.com Class ID: 5031097 Enrolment password: MMC910

7. Objectivity in Journalism John Avieson • Markets influence news: audience needed and owners/journalists respond to it • “news sense can be stated as an ability to rank stories in order of interest to an audience and an ability to rank information contained within a story in order of reader interest” • “journalists serve their audiences and not their sources” • What’s important to the journalist is what’s important to the audience • Media’s only role is to tell people about what interests them

8. Objectivity and Subjectivity John Hurst • “objectivity is about reporting the news in a fair and balanced manner” • AJA Code leaves definition to “the common sense and consciences of journalists to decide what to report” • News should include both what is of interest (Avieson) and what is important to the audience (elitism?) • Press sets agenda – some news never gets out/covered • Reporter’s experience and sense play a role • Interpretation vs opinion

9. Objectivity as “strategic ritual” Gaye Tuchman • News story can be dangerous for writer and publisher • Danger mitigated by “objectivity” strategy • Facts are part of the strategy “Strategic procedures” that are called objectivity • Presenting conflicting possibilities: A said, B said • Presenting supporting evidence • Use of quotation marks: X said, “ . . . ” • Structuring information – inverted pyramid

10. Objectivity: a reassessment Richard Streckfuss • Walter Lippmann in 1920 wrote “original definition of objective journalism” • Adopting scientific method in journalism • “belief in power of objective fact to bring about social change” • Creating journalism into a science • No partisanship – coming off William Randolph Hearst re Cuba and WWI propaganda • Idealistic belief in science

11. Guest Speaker Dr. Alma Kadragic Globalization and Human Rights: New Media, More Truth

12. Schedule for rest of semester Week of April 16 – Catch up with Week 10 readings: circulation, ratings, and survival; Report due Week of April 23 – no class Monday or Wednesday work on Team Presentations for April 30; work on final Essay Week of April 30 – discuss Week 11 readings; Team Presentations Week of May 7 – discuss Week 12 readings: first draft of Essay due by 6 pm Monday; work with Karen on it

13. Coming Up • MMC 911 meets in KV14 – G03 on Wednesday, April 11 • Online version of Field Trip Story 1 due before 6 pm • MMC 910 - work on Report and send to Turnitin.com before submitting to me • Continue Week 10 readings in updated syllabus: Circulation, ratings, and survival See you Wednesday!