Thursday, October 06, 2005
ASSIGNMENT: Ex-Post Dispatch editor says journalists need to accept some blame for failures of journalism
An assigment for the Tuesday, Oct. 11, class it to read the hand-out full-text version of Cole Campbell's essay, described in the review below.
Media Giraffe Project --
Link & reference blog: OPINION: Ex-Post Dispatch editor says journalists need to accept some blame: "Wednesday, September 28, 2005
OPINION: Ex-Post Dispatch editor says journalists need to accept some blame
ORIGINALLY REPORTED IN THE CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
HEADLINE:
A glance at the current issue of The Kettering Review: Fixing journalism
Reviewed by Jamie Schuman
To offset criticism about their profession, journalists need to do a better job of relating the opinions of everyday citizens, writes Cole C. Campbell, dean of journalism at the University of Nevada at Reno and a former editor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Many critics say that the quality of journalism and the public's regard for the field have dropped in recent years, and they often attribute the decline to corporate influences. But journalists need to start blaming themselves -- and not business pressures -- for problems in their profession, writes Mr. Campbell. After all, newspapers have long been for-profit entities.
'The economic explanation of journalism's failings takes journalists off the hook,' Mr. Campbell writes. 'It makes journalists victims, not agents.'
Mr. Campbell criticizes journalists for focusing too much on opinions of the 'political and social elite,' failing to place isolated events in a broader context, and wrongly believing that their stories are objective and their voices are authoritative. Instead, journalists should trust everyday citizens to be sources and contributors to their publications. They also should help people become players in the political realm. To accomplish that goal, he asks reporters to:
Provide more context in their stories to show how events are tied to larger political"
Media Giraffe Project --
Link & reference blog: OPINION: Ex-Post Dispatch editor says journalists need to accept some blame: "Wednesday, September 28, 2005
OPINION: Ex-Post Dispatch editor says journalists need to accept some blame
ORIGINALLY REPORTED IN THE CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
HEADLINE:
A glance at the current issue of The Kettering Review: Fixing journalism
Reviewed by Jamie Schuman
To offset criticism about their profession, journalists need to do a better job of relating the opinions of everyday citizens, writes Cole C. Campbell, dean of journalism at the University of Nevada at Reno and a former editor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Many critics say that the quality of journalism and the public's regard for the field have dropped in recent years, and they often attribute the decline to corporate influences. But journalists need to start blaming themselves -- and not business pressures -- for problems in their profession, writes Mr. Campbell. After all, newspapers have long been for-profit entities.
'The economic explanation of journalism's failings takes journalists off the hook,' Mr. Campbell writes. 'It makes journalists victims, not agents.'
Mr. Campbell criticizes journalists for focusing too much on opinions of the 'political and social elite,' failing to place isolated events in a broader context, and wrongly believing that their stories are objective and their voices are authoritative. Instead, journalists should trust everyday citizens to be sources and contributors to their publications. They also should help people become players in the political realm. To accomplish that goal, he asks reporters to:
Provide more context in their stories to show how events are tied to larger political"
