Barbie Zelizer Research Articles

Embracing the subjunctive voice: An analytic for ecologically uncertain times

ABSTRACTIn this article, I assess viral videos depicting environmental crises and species loss, theorizing the “eco-subjunctive voice” as a rhetorically productive perspective for engaging extinction imagery. Building on Barbie Zelizer's notion of the “subjunctive voice” in images, I explore how viral videos of a polar bear and a sea turtle in jeopardy unite despair and hopefulness, strategically deploy “about-to-die” moments, and make the “hyperobjects” of climate catastrophe more intelligible. Additionally, an eco-subjunctive reading of each video demonstrates the limits of the synecdochic logic commonly employed in ecological discourse. The eco-subjunctive voice is an analytic useful for academics, activists, and audiences. Its capacious character and ability to accommodate contingency and complexity make the eco-subjunctive voice a powerful rhetorical resource in the effort to combat ecological disaster.

Sulejmanpašić and Zelizer

Although the book Journalism – the Destroyer of Humanity is one of the most sharply intoned critical reviews of journalism we have read, we believe that this book is also some kind of a call for change. It is interesting that back in 1936 Sulejmanpašić accurately dissected journalistic reality, distinguishing sensational journalism from professional journalism. Thus, he leaves us room for a different, purposeful and visionary journalism. The author discusses the impact of journalism on various spheres of human social and his psychological life, and this impact is, from his perspective, mostly negative.Although the lessons of Sulejmanpašić’s book are profound, and the arguments are so strong that they are difficult to refute, we want to believe that there is still hope for the journalistic profession. This paper will compare the reflections of Dževad Sulejmanpašić and Barbie Zelizer in their different, but somewhat similar, views of the profession. While Sulejmanpašić emphasizes and perfectly recognizes all the shortcomings of the profession, Zelizer gives recommendations and in a different, modern digital or online context, devising journalism that would serve humanity, instead of destroying it.

The Warsaw Ghetto in American Art and Culture

The Warsaw Ghetto in American Art and Culture

Always Already Hailed

This autoethnographic essay explores experiences of two White female media-scholars at the Newseum in Washington, DC, on August 10, 2013. It considers the Newseum’s role in how we remember and why we forget certain aspects of U.S. American journalism and the relationship between this institutional site of memory and our individual and collective identities. The self-reflexive, autobiographical methodological form allows the historians of media and culture to consider the calls of Barbie Zelizer, Carolyn Kitch, Janice Hume, and Alexander Dhoest for more conceptual clarity in our understandings of public, social, cultural, and collective memory and for new understandings of the negotiation and reception of media memory-texts and sites of memory.

The seriousness of storytelling: What constraints to professional news routines reveal about the state of journalistic autonomy in local television newsrooms

This study follows the advice of scholars James Carey and Barbie Zelizer in that it takes journalism seriously. The seriousness comes from the concern that modern corporate approaches to news production are contributing to the erosion of the professional status of journalists with restrictions to storytelling routines serving as one example of this issue. Using a multiple case study method, this research presents 180 hours of newsroom observations and interviews with 62 news professionals to identify some of the constraints to local television news storytelling routines, further illuminating the struggle between market-driven news production and journalistic autonomy.

Remembering World War I

Examining Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front through Barbie Zelizer’s work on collective memory, this study argues that Remarque garnered the authority to tell the story of the WWI experience. This shift in storytelling simplified the account of trench warfare and provided to a general audience what Zelizer calls the ‘important, preferred, and appropriate’ story of the WWI soldier to a transnational public sphere. As the public accepted the collective memory account in Remarque’s story, they grew to distrust and de-authorize the official memories of nation states and media outlets.

Jornalismo, Memória e Testemunho: Uma análise do tempo presente

O objetivo do artigo é relacionar jornalismo e memória, a partir do maior vínculo entre eles: o testemunho. A análise tem como apoio metodológico uma pesquisa realizada com 103 jornalistas do Rio de Janeiro no primeiro semestre de 2017 sobre seus ícones na profissão. O resultado é interpretado com o respaldo teórico de pesquisadores da memória, como Barbie Zelizer, Andreas Huyssen, Maurice Halbwachs e Philippe Joutard. A questão do testemunho é estudada em duas dimensões: o testemunho como ferramenta histórica de produção do jornalismo e o testemunho do jornalismo sobre si mesmo, em um tempo acelerado, que privilegia o presente em detrimento do passado ou do futuro.

What journalism could be, Barbie Zelizer

<i>What journalism could be</i>, Barbie Zelizer

A Community of Practice

Over two decades ago, Barbie Zelizer argued that journalists should be approached as an “interpretive community” in order to understand the processes through which journalists generate shared meanings around major political events. This article refocuses Zelizer’s concept in order to analyse the consequences of rapid technological transformation, fraught industry conditions, and disparate audience formations in the context of contemporary news media and journalism. Focusing on the challenges faced by professional sport journalists, we invoke the concept of “community of practice” to make sense of this fluid and commercially volatile context, using it to analyse empirically the experiences of journalists in Australia and Scotland. Informed by the interrelationship that exists between formats of news and the practices that produce it, this paper presents evidence drawn from in-depth semi-structured interviews with journalists, editors, news presenters and commentators who specialise in and/or work across newspapers, radio, television, online and mobile media. Understood as a community of practice, sport journalists are shown to be under pressure because of mutually reinforcing changes in mobile and digital media technologies, journalistic routines and institutional relations.

Crianças de Zuwara: imagens censuradas no Facebook

As imagens dos refugiados sírios povoaram as mídias impressas e virtuais, em setembro de 2015. Enquanto a do menino Aylan Kurdi, morto por afogamento em uma praia na Turquia, tornou-se meme, fotos de outras cinco crianças sem vida, também vítimas da guerra civil na Síria, foram censuradas no Facebook. A partir de formulações de Barbie Zelizer, Susan Sontag e Jacques Rancière compreendemos que esses dois objetos midiáticos receberam tratamentos diferenciados, pois enquanto na do menino curdo observamos “arte engajada”, na das cinco crianças reconhecemos “arte política” e “imagem intolerável”.

Doing and thinking journalism in the twenty-first century, a dialogue with Barbie Zelizer

Abstract I was gratified to receive an invitation from the editor of the Journal of Applied Journalism &amp; Media Studies (AJMS) to edit this special issue of the journal. What spurred me to accept the offer is AJMS’ thrust, with one of its major targets being greater integration between the academic and professional worlds. The construction of the special issue under the rubric of ‘Doing and thinking journalism in the twenty-first century’ was initially inspired in the dialogue Barbie Zelizer and I had in Hyderabad, India, the venue of the 2014 annual congress, which the International Association of Media and Communication Research (IAMCR) organizes every year. Barbie Zelizer is a Professor at the Annenberg School for Communication of the University of Pennsylvania and is one of the most recognized researchers in journalism today with a productivity marked by the quality of her critical reflections. Zelizer’s research focuses on the cultural dimensions of journalism, with a specific interest in journalistic authority, collective memory and journalistic images in times of crisis and war. She also works on the impact of disciplinary knowledge on academic enquiry. Here are excerpts from our conversation.

Journalism and Literature in the Egyptian Revolution of 1882

This article analyzes the news reports written by the Portuguese novelist and journalist Eça de Queirós about the crisis in 1881-1882 that resulted in the bombing of Alexandria, Egypt, by a British fleet. First, following Barbie Zelizer, we examine the communication of this historical event by analyzing how the news reports covering the event were written, taking into account the literary form commonly used during the period. For Zelizer, figures could not be trusted, and the plot and storyline were preferable. Second, as proposed by Hallin and Mancini, we analyze media practices during the period and compare the practices of the British and Luso-Brazilian print media. Eça appropriated information broadcasts by British journalists and reformulated them for his readers, emphasizing the key issues that lurked beneath the events of 1881-1882. Third, we analyze how the Egyptian army and Colonel Arabi went from being demonized to a position of heroes in modern Egypt through reports by the Brazilian periodical Gazeta de Noticias that were published in 1882 in Rio de Janeiro and were considered the culmination of its journalistic activities.

Reading Magnum: a visual archive of the modern world

Foreword (Geoff Dyer) Introduction. Decisive Moments and Caustic Comments: Reading the Magnum Archive (Steven Hoelscher) 1. On Becoming an Archive (Alison Nordstrom) Notes from the Archive: Philip Jones Griffiths's Vietnam Inc. 2. War and Conflict through Magnum's Eyes (Barbie Zelizer) War and Conflict Portfolio Notes from the Archive: Eve Arnold's Black Muslims 3. The Face Redrawn: Magnum Portraits (Frank H. Goodyear III) Portraiture Portfolio Notes from the Archive: Alex Webb's Crossings: Photographs from the U.S.-Mexico Border 4. Magnum's Geographies: Toward a Progressive Sense of Place (Steven Hoelscher) Geography Portfolio Notes from the Archive: Susan Meiselas's Carnival Strippers 5. Hollywood Stars, High-Paid Llamas, and Car Shows: Magnum's Cultural Project (Erika Doss) Cultural Life Portfolio Notes from the Archive: Cornell Capa's Attica 6. Seeing the Stranger in the Mirror: Everyday Life in Magnum's Public World (Robert Hariman) Social Relations Portfolio Notes from the Archive: David Chim Seymour's Children of Europe 7. Magnum's Global Enterprise (Liam Kennedy) Globalization Portfolio Acknowledgments Contributors Illustration Credits Index

Arab Revolutions and the Social Media Effect

Arab Revolutions and the Social Media Effect

Academia to zinger

Peter Lee-Wright on Barbie Zelizer and Stuart Allan's Keywords in News and Journalism Studies; and Daniel Synge's The Survival Guide to Journalism.

Still Burning: Self-Immolation as Photographic Protest

Examining Malcolm Browne's photograph of the burning monk as well as appropriations of it by the Ministers' Vietnam Committee, I argue that self-immolation is a powerful rhetorical act that utilizes self-inflicted violence as a means of performing a visual embodiment of violence done by an “other.” I assert that the power and resonance of Browne's photograph stem from its freezing in time of what Barbie Zelizer terms “the about to die moment.” Additionally, this study expands Zelizer's concept by examining how appropriations of the burning monk image demonstrate the resonance of images of the dead and their potential to promote agency and civic engagement.

The Paradoxes of Journalism History

In order to extricate journalism from broader media history, we need to better develop ways of understanding the generic characteristics of journalism over time and across geo-political space. This paper will aim to address what could be termed certain paradoxes of journalism's history; paradoxes which relate to our definitions of the generic boundaries of journalism and flux across those boundaries. Engaging with the complexities of these historical paradoxes will, we may hope, contribute to our understanding of what makes this set of practices distinct in the present and also what we may want to retain of its range of features in some technologically reconfigured future. Journalism's current crises and opportunities, with their implications for the broader qualities of public communication, need us to consider it in all its historical complexity, not just as a profit-making machine which has broken down. Furthermore, the only way to fully begin to grasp journalism's current potential is to consider how it has formed and mutated over the centuries as a global phenomenon. Propelled by both intellectual and technological developments, journalism history is moving out from its confinement in the margins of other disciplinary areas. Journalism studies worldwide is providing a wealth of opportunities for scholars. This paper argues that we need to embrace more ambitious dialogues to clarify our understanding of journalism in itself as well as in its intersections with other fields, at the same time as becoming involved in methodological conversations about the exploitation of digital resources.

Global journalism research: Theories, methods, findings, future

Notes on Contributors. Part I: Introduction to Journalism Research. 1. Questioning National, Cultural and Disciplinary Boundaries: A Call for Global Journalism Research: David Weaver (Indiana University, Bloomington) and Martin Loffelholz (Ilmenau University of Technology, Germany). Part II: Theories of Journalism Research. 2. Heterogeneous - Multi-dimensional - Competing: Theoretical Approaches on Journalism - an Overview: Martin Loffelholz (Ilmenau University of Technology, Germany). 3. Journalism in a Globalizing World Society: A Societal Approach to Journalism Research: Manfred Ruhl (University of Bamberg). 4. Journalism as a Human Right: The Cultural Approach to Journalism: John Hartley (Queensland University of Technology). 5. The Structure of News Production: The Organizational Approach to Journalism Research: Klaus-Dieter Altmeppen (Ilmenau University of Technology, Germany). 6. Factors Behind Journalists' Professional Behavior: A Psychological Approach to Journalism Research: Wolfgang Donsbach (Dresden University, Germany). 7. Jounalism as a Symbolic Practice - The Gender Approach in Journalism Research: Gertrude J. Robinson (McGill University, Montreal). Part III: Methodology and Methods of Journalism Research. 8. Comparing Journalism across Cultural Boundaries: State-of-the-art, Strategies, Problems, and Solutions: Thomas Hanitzsch (University of Zurich). 9. Methods of Journalism Research-Survey: David Weaver (Indiana University, Bloomington). 10. Methods of Journalism Research - Content Analysis: Christian Kolmer (Media Tenor Institute, Bonn). 11. Methods of Journalism Research: Observation: Thorsten Quandt (Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Germany). Part IV: Selected Paradigms and Findings of Journalism Research. 12. Journalism Research in the United States: Paradigm Shift in Times of Globalization: Jane B. Singer (University of Iowa). 13. Journalism Research in Germany: Evolution and Central Research Interests: Siegfried Weischenberg (Hamburg University, Germany) and Maja Malik (University of Munster, Germany). 14. Journalism Research in the UK: From Isolated Efforts to an Established Discipline: Karin Wahl-Jorgensen and Bob Franklin. 15. South African Journalism Research: Challenging Paradigmatic Schisms and Finding a Foothold in an Era of Globalization: Arnold S. de Beer (Stellenbosch University, South Africa). 16. Journalism Research in Greater China: Its Communities, Approaches, and Themes: Joseph Man Chan (University of Hong Kong), Ven-hwei Lo (National Chengchi University, Taiwan), and Zhongdang Pan (University of Wisconsin-Madison). 17. Journalism Research in Mexico: Historical Development and Research Interests in the Latin American Context: Maria Elena Hernandez Ramirez (University of Guadalajara) and Andreas Schwarz (Ilmenau University of Technology, Germany). Part V: The Future of Journalism Research. 18. Re-Considering "Journalism" for Journalism Research: Ari Heinonen (University of Tampere, Finland) and Heikki Luostarinen (University of Tampere, Finland). 19. Theorizing a Globalized Journalism: Stephen D. Reese (University of Texas at Austin). 20. Going Beyond Disciplinary Boundaries in the Future of Journalism Research: Barbie Zelizer (University of Pennsylvania). 21. Journalism Education in an Era of Globalization: Mark Deuze (Indiana University, Bloomington). Part VI: Conclusions. 22. Journalism Research: Summing Up and Looking Ahead: Martin Loffelholz (Ilmenau University of Technology, Germany) and David Weaver (Indiana University, Bloomington). Index

The Changing faces of journalism: tabloidization, technology and truthiness

Introduction: Why Journalism's Changing Faces Matter. Barbie Zelizer Part 1: On Tabloidization 1. Rethinking a Villain, Redeeming a Format: The Crisis and Cure in Tabloidization. Michael Serazio 2. Can Popularization Help the News Media? Herbert J. Gans 3. Tears and Trauma in the News. Carolyn Kitch 4. Tabloidization: What Is It and Does It Really Matter? S. Elizabeth Bird Part 2: On Technology 5. The Impact of Technology on Journalism. Lokman Tsui 6. Materiality and Mimicry in Contemporary Journalistic Practice. Pablo Boczkowski 7. The Guardian of the Real: Journalism in the Time of the New Mind. Julianne H. Newton 8. Technology and the Individual Journalist: Agency Beyond Imitation and Change. Mark Deuze Part 3: On Truthiness 9. Rethinking Truth through Truthiness. Keren Tenenboim-Weinblatt 10. Two Cheers for Positivism: Factual Knowledge in the Age of Truthiness. Michael Schudson 11. The Moment of Truthiness. James Ettema 12. Believable Fictions: Redactional Culture and the Will to Truthiness. Jeffrey Jones Afterword: The Troubling Evolution of Journalism. Peter Dahlgren.

Explorations in Communication and History - Edited by Barbie Zelizer

Explorations in Communication and History - Edited by Barbie Zelizer