Journalism

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the Hutchinson report concerning journalism and contends that perhaps the only thing to be learned from the theories about journalism is that they are just that: theories. The paper claims that journalists are seen as terribly influential, or totally ineffective, depending on the position of the observer. It points out that the notion of truth does not enter into either the theories or the practice; in fact, accuracy is the intent of good journalism, apparently, but it is subordinate to choice. The paper assesses that journalism can be explained very simply in the end, without need of a Hutchinson report. The paper defines journalism as any response to any event, filtered through whatever person tells the story, as well as the attitudes of those who receive it.

From the Paper:

"However, in explaining why journalism is more than reportage, which is what the foregoing describes, the Hutchinson Commission also recognized that values were important as well. In fact, it went so far as to say that "societal values need to be 'presented' to and 'clarified' for the public (Baker, 1998, Highbeam Web site). As Baker notes, that immediately turns media into educator, and not only that, but as educator of the existing norms of a society. The U.S. media, for one, adopted "codes of performance, which urge the media to respect accepted values and to portray the traditional virtues" (Baker, 1998). Baker also contends that this idea was the precursor, observable already in the 1940s, to the trend that got fully underway in the 1990s of media consolidation and concentration, or as it was called, the "long trend toward media monopolies" (Baker, 1998). "

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