test 2 Flashcards

Question

Is Journalism a Profession?

Answer 1

``` Society for Professional Journalists But, can’t control own membership. Organization cannot exclude from profession. • Seldom see journalists fired for violations of ethics ```

Answer 2

Examples in practice. Most organizations have policies. Many at journalism.org. LA Times code of ethics: “Credibility is a newspaper’s most precious asset. It is arduously acquired and easily squandered and can be maintained only if each of us accepts responsibility for it.” Example: Sony leaks reveals a number of ethical violations. • “Finding Your Roots,” PBS genealogy show. Ben Affleck requested his story not be broadcast after found that ancestors were slave-owners in Savannah, Georgia.

Answer 3

Norms are unwritten rules. Examples: • FDR • Haiti earthquake photos v. Afghanistan/Iraq photos • Dilbert cartoon -We study by examining variation over time and across news outlets, e.g. : • Partisan press encouraged one-sided editorializing • “Ritual of objectivity” in present journalism. Rosenstiel and others imply that increased competition diminishes the power of journalistic professional norms and values. Major change in focus on personal lives of politicians.

Answer 4

Previously, personal lives were off limits. David Broder (WP):“When I started covering presidential politics in 1960, there was a very clear rule. We dealt with the public life of public officials, and what they did in off hours was their business and not our business. I have to tell you that this was not a terribly altruistic philosophy in the press corps, it was largely an all-male political world, and largely an all-male press world at that time, and there was a lot of sort of mutual protection, I think, involved in this rule." “When I first got on the press bus, in 1960, Bill Lawrence, who was then the senior political correspondent for the New York Times sat down next to me and said, kid, I want you to understand something. And I said, what's that, sir? He said, I want to tell you about the west of the Potomac rule. And the west of the Potomac rule was very simple, you don't talk east of the Potomac about what you see or hear or observe your colleagues doing west of the Potomac. And the same thing was -- generosity was extended to the politicians. So it was a very clubby, self-protective kind of a rule.”

Answer 5

Gary Hart was a big break. 88 presidential primary campaign Especially because he dared the press: “Follow me around. I don't care. I'm serious. If anybody wants to put a tail on me, go ahead. They'll be very bored.”

Answer 6

2/06: Edwards and Hunter reportedly flirt at bar 6/06: Hunter starts recording footage of Edwards on trail Fall 06: four staffers fired or resigned; Hunter paid $100k 8/07: Page 6 NY Post “blind” gossip story about a politician who likes to visit NYC “because he has a girlfriend who lives downtown? The pol tells her he'll marry her when his current wife is out of the picture.” 9/07: HuffPo noted Hunter’s videos taken down 10/07: National Enquirer story alleges Edwards was having an affair with an unnamed staffer (HuffPo & NY Mag did related stories) Speaking of prior restraint, Edwards and Elizabeth tried to get the story killed. How? “the Edwards campaign was in damage-control mode, going into overdrive to dissuade the mainstream media from picking up the story, denouncing it as tabloid trash. Their efforts at containing the fallout were remarkably successful. The Enquirer’s exposé gained zero traction in the traditional press and almost none in the blogosphere.” Post Iowa -10/07: Allegations that Edwards fathered child with Hunter Response? Statements denying paternity; devoted aide claimed he was father Still virtually no coverage in other news outlets Clear Edwards wouldn’t win nomination angling for VP or AG in exchange for endorsement of Obama or Clinton July 22: Biggest National Enquirer story: Caught Edwards secretly visiting Hunter and baby at Beverly Hills Hotel Almost no news organizations covered (see July 28 LAT memo in a couple slides) New media (bloggers, cable, late-night hosts) pushed story. Edwards tried a Nightline interview timed to start of summer Olympics in early August. First story mentioning scandal in NYT: August 8, 2008. CNN: August 6

Answer 7

Another example where major evening newscasts & outlets like NYT didn’t want to “touch it,” [preferred return to ignoring private conduct unless it affected public duties] but felt “trapped” & lacked oligopoly. Underscores argument about competition and content Newspapers, local news, “tabloid” news, even competing shows within networks ran with it. Rosenstiel understates degree to which press believed rumors before. (Almost every reporter did believe them beforehand.) Contrast to ROTC/draft letter What was the ROTC/draft letter issue? Why wasn’t it reported? “too complicated for evening news”

Answer 8

Objectivity, fairness and balance. 'Objectivity is seeing the world as it is, not how you wish it were.' From LAT: “A fair-minded reader of Times news coverage should not be able to discern the private opinions of those who contributed to that coverage, or to infer that the newspaper is promoting any agenda. A crucial goal of our news and feature reporting – apart from editorials, columns, criticism and other content that is expressly opinionated – is to be nonideological. This is a tall order. It requires us to recognize our own biases and stand apart from them. It also requires us to examine the ideological environment in which we work, for the biases of our sources, our colleagues and our communities can distort our sense of objectivity.”

Answer 9

Resurgence of partisanship in the press: many reject objectivity in favor of overt bias (toward the “correct” side).

Answer 10

Bias as an attitude A person or organization’s inclination to favor one side versus the other in a dispute (prejudice in the sense of pre-judging); or cognitive biases. Bias as an outcome News that shows a partial or unfair picture of reality Attitude is neither necessary nor sufficient to produce bias as outcome

Answer 11

Passing the ball Switching people Implicit Association Test

Answer 12

Distortions in the ways that humans see reality. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases for a daunting list of cognitive biases Example: apophenia (tendency to perceive patterns in random or meaningless data). Inkblots, poll “changes,” trend stories

Answer 13

Confirmation bias: tendency to search for and interpret information in ways that confirm prior beliefs Disconfirmation biases: tendency to avoid and scrutinize information that contradicts preconceptions Tolstoy (1897): “The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slowwitted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of doubt, what is laid before him. Often see in politics with partisan biases. Example: Did inflation go up or down during Obama’s seven years in office? DOWN: January 2008: 4.3% September 2015 0.0%

test 2 Flashcards

(37 cards)