Definition Of Journalism Research Articles

Journalism: As Seen in the Eyes of Current Journalism and Digital Media Students

The world of journalism is complex, multifaceted, and intricate. No consensus exists on the definition of journalism or its characteristics, skill set, and career choices. Differing perceptions stem from journalism’s shifts to new forms, practices, and ways of thought. The digital revolution has drastically transformed the understanding and definition of journalism. Journalists, journalism educators, and even social critics have all offered varying notions on the field. However, the students, a key element, are often neglected in this equation. This paper explores how students view journalism. The current generation is arguably highly equipped with digital media through regular practice, consumption, and exposure to digitization. Journalists-to-be are considered to be the future shareholders and may be the directors of the profession. The study focused on how journalism and digital media students specifically classified journalism characteristics, the educational background they found necessary for journalists, as well as their work aspirations. As journalism is evolving and, in particular, digital journalism is a key factor in the study, the student sample was limited to those registered in the Journalism and Digital Media department at Al Maaref University. Al Maaref University has been categorized as one of the first universities in Lebanon to include the term “digital media” in their journalism degree in hopes of reflecting the fast-changing industry. This study used a quantitative approach based on a survey questionnaire administered online to all students enrolled in the above-mentioned department. Findings showed that the majority of students considered the top characteristics of a journalist to include traditional journalism skills before any digital journalism skills. Students also expressed areas of study at times consistent with those skills and other times consistent with their career choices. Moreover, a majority of current journalism students aspire to work in front of the camera.

CHANGING DEFINITIONS OF JOURNALISM AND JOURNALIST IN THE CONTEXT OF DIGITALIZATION: SUGGESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

The possibilities offered by digital technology cause significant changes and transformations in the media sector. The circulations and revenues of legacy print media are falling rapidly, newspapers are closing, and journalists are losing their jobs. People follow the news online, especially on mobile devices rather than on print media. This upheaval process also reflects in the definitions of journalism and journalist. Today, there is an ongoing debate about which activity can be described as journalism and who can be described as a journalist. In this study, after pointing out the origins of the differences in the definitions of journalism and journalist, the approaches of various professional organizations are examined, and some suggestions thought to contribute to the healthy conduct of the discussions are also included. As a result, taking into account the possibilities of digital technology, which forces change and transformatüion in the field of communication as in the other fields, it is argued that the discussions should be based on whether the journalistic activity is carried out in accordance with its functionality and universal journalistic standards. Keywords: Journalism, journalist, print media, freedom of speech, democracy

Who, What, and How: Identifying Judicial Constructions of Journalism

ABSTRACT The networked era has made it increasingly difficult to define journalism and to separate it from other types of information. This is no small thing. The definition of journalism influences its practice and its role in democratic society. This article identifies themes from judicial definitions of journalism from recent U.S. state and federal cases. Jurists’ rationales for why a person is or is not a journalist have come as they face a variety of cases in which bloggers, message-board posters, website publishers, and others have claimed protections that have historically been primarily associated with traditional journalists. Ultimately, judges have constructed a discourse about journalism that combined concerns regarding how closely the process and practices the publishers used to gather and communicate the information aligned with traditional journalistic work, the public-service value of the information, and the journalistic credentials of the publisher. Though concern for how the work was created and who communicated it was crucial, jurists consistently conveyed the public-service role was most instrumental in their evaluations, often rationalizing broad expansions of what legally constitutes journalism.

Media and Journalism Studies in the Context of Conflictology: System-Based Theoretical Aspects

The article gives an overview of key approaches to studying the media and journalism as factors that enable participants of the current social environment to deal with disagreements and resolve conflicts. The authors prove that, from the perspective of the objet field of media studies and its integrative character, social conflicts of various scales and levels are the primary object for analysis. Large-scale theoretical generalizations require practical knowledge of conflict resolution; therefore, journalism, being the reflector of the world of everyday life, is the main source of the relevant empirical data. Thus, the authors consider journalism and media the key tools for preventing and resolving social conflicts. They also emphasize the high degree of responsibility of the media and journalists in covering and analyzing conflicts in the world arena, which is becoming even higher in the current processes of digitalization and mediatization of all social realities. The article gives a definition of journalism in the context of conflictology as a theory of social conflict resolution, highlights the importance of further researches into the new field — mediaconflictology, and recommends using empirical and theoretical approaches and the principle of interdisciplinarity. This should provide for a better sensemaking and generalization of social practices, as well as determining the key role of journalism in forecasting and diagnosing social conflicts and disagreements, in de-escalation of social tensions and forming the right culture of conflict perception by the public, which will eventually result in harmonization of social processes.

Introduction: Hybrid journalism? Making sense of the field’s dissolving boundaries

In the last couple of years, hybridity has become a buzzword in journalism studies. Hybridity has often been used to describe ongoing transformations in journalism. In this sense, the increasing use of hybridity in the discipline can be seen as an answer, as Witschge, Anderson, Domingo and Hermida (2019, p. 652) declare, “to rising complexity in both journalism practice and scholarship”. At the same time, however, the use of the concept has itself become an object of scholarly debate: while some reject the notion as an undercomplex “catch-all” concept, others believe in its heuristic and analytical prowess. This debate is reinforced by the multiple connotations attributed to the notion, and how the term is used in positive (“a capacity for growth”; Stross, 1999, p. 257) or negative (“diluted version of [the] antecedents”; Chadwick, 2013, p. 14) senses. Either way, hybridity’s success in journalism studies certainly reflects an emancipation from conventional journalism theory, and as a call to develop “new conceptualizations, terminology, and vocabulary” (Witschge et al., 2019, p. 652) in order to grasp the current transformations in journalism – and the different forms of journalism that go beyond traditional understandings and definitions of journalism.

What Is Digital Journalism? Defining the Practice and Role of the Digital Journalist

Through the lens of theories of field and normalization process, this research seeks to understand technology’s current role in how self-identifying digital journalists define the field. The definitions of digital journalism/journalists and what constitutes digital journalism practices are essential–they shape a range of crucial activities including how journalists prioritize sources to how journalists shape their content for audience consumption. Built on long-form interviews with 68 U.S.-based self-identifying digital journalists, this article argues that the digital turn in the industry has emboldened new entrants to the field and required dominantly placed legacy media journalists to reconsider their definition of journalism as well as their practices. Rather than seeing digital journalism as a sub-field within journalism, participants saw digital journalism as business-as-usual throughout the journalistic field.

Dilemmas and Puzzles of Journalism

Editor’s Note This paper is a transcript of the keynote lecture given by Professor Dennis McQuail at the “Rethinking Media and Journalism Practice” conference hosted by the University of Winchester’s School of Media and Film in 2013. Sadly this could not be published before his passing in June 2017. Still, we are honoured to have these thoughts which offer a definition of journalism, and set out dilemmas that theoreticians and practitioners across global divides may want to reflect upon as they reconsider the subject area. The paper collates several concerns militating against our understanding and practice of journalism and the media into ten dilemmas. Responding to these should keep us busy for a while as we ponder issues identified and questions raised, as we raise our own. Scholars are invited to note and grapple with key concepts, and to consider the mapping sentence offered, and mindful of historical, socio-cultural and economic specificities in their context, appraise existing, or propose fresh models. Media practitioners, especially practising journalists, are invited to augment the submissions from an esteemed observer of their profession (or craft) with their own experiences. This transcript has been edited and condensed slightly for clarity of communication in written form. The editor’s words are set out in square brackets.

Feminization in the Professionalization of French Journalism: From La Fronde to F Magazine, or How Journalism Became a “Woman’s Job”

The model of French‐style journalism has historically been built around two figures: that of the writer and that of the politician. This model has also historically been built on male values. I will try to show in this article the effects of feminization on the very definition of journalism. To do so, I have chosen to observe three different moments in the history of journalism that are important steps in the process of journalistic professionalization. I have chosen to ”reread” three key moments in journalistic history—theturn of the twentieth century, the liberation from German occupation in 1944, and the end of the 1970s—in the light of editorial projects carried out by women and seeking to reconcile feminist or women’s interests and professional excellence. These three projects—La Fronde in 1897, Elle in 1945, F Magazine and Histoires d’Elles in the late 1970s—show how new entrants into a professional group succeed in imposing values in line with their trajectories and dispositions.

Los periodistas latinoamericanos en el siglo XXI: más allá del debate de la posverdad

La complejidad de factores que atraviesan los periodistas en los distintos países obliga a repensar la definición de la profesión que maneja habitualmente la discusión pública, basada muchas veces en modelos teóricos abstractos sin considerar los condicionantes reales de las prácticas periodísticas. Una encuesta global aporta datos para describir el periodismo de la región, una profesión que perdió la exclusividad de la producción de la información y que quedó en el medio de disputas de intereses que lo superan. Se trata, pues, de ampliar el debate para repensar el lugar del periodista en el relato informativo contemporáneo, más allá de conceptos coyunturales como el de la posverdad.

Book Review: Saving Community Journalism: The Path to Profitability, by Penelope Muse Abernathy

Penelope Muse Abernathy Saving Community Journalism: The Path to Profitability. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 2014. 256 pp.Smaller news organizations might be answer to saving journalism, and it is important that they survive in digital revolution. Community newspapers, the basis of newspaper ecosystem (p. 196) and vitamin supplements for their communities (p. 224), are treasures that need to have game plan to address today's issues. That is overall theme strewn throughout Abernathy's new book.Abernathy, former executive with Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, is Knight Chair in Journalism and Digital Media Economics at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Using industry-based and academic research, she discusses risks and opportunities newspapers face as they work to reinvent themselves and identify new revenue streams. To start this discussion, context of journalism requires an examination. Abernathy begins by tackling definition for journalism, because traditional parameters of term are out of date due to digital age. Traditionally, papers with circulation of less than fifteen thousand are classified as newspapers (p. 2).However, online technology has changed newspapers:But in digital age, when print circulation for almost all newspapers is dropping yearly- and an increasing number of readers are accessing paper's digital edition only-that definition seems limiting and out-of-date. Many daily newspapers in small and midsized markets, for example-especially those with circulation of less than 100,000-also position themselves as community newspapers. (p. 2)Consequently, her definition of journalism is based on publication's mission and characteristics of markets it relies on for revenue. Under this framework, eight thousand newspapers in United States would qualify as newspapers (p. 21).The book is divided into three sections, and chapters contained within each section act as points of strategy for newspapers to follow as part of five-year plan to revamp themselves in digital era. Several case studies and numerous experiences at wide variety of newspapers are offered as rich references in every section. The first is titled Creating New Strategy. In this section, Abernathy explores why newspapers need to survive, why newspapers must change, and how they must change. The vitality of newspapers is rooted in watchdog role of democracy and agenda-setting function for public, and without this strong foundation, democracy would suffer. Without their vigilance, such concerns might well be overlooked and ignored, and these stories would never be told (p. 17).The second section, Implementing New Strategy, focuses on leadership. The chapters guide publishers and editors to put together a guiding coalition of people within news organization to help them grow a new strand of DNA (p. …

Who Gets a Press Pass? Media Credentialing Practices in the United States

The journalism market in the United States is more diverse than ever before, with a wide array of independent newsgatherers complementing the work of institutional news organizations. But regardless of where journalists practice, it is essential to their mission that they have access to information about the activities of government and private organizations. In many cases, laws that grant the public rights of access to government (such as open meetings laws, freedom of information acts, and constitutional rights of access to judicial proceedings) also guarantee that members of the media can obtain information they need.But when journalists need access to government or private spaces beyond what is allowed to the public at large, they must obtain special permission. This frequently takes the form of a media credential, an official document or statement from an organization that the journalist is permitted to be somewhere or engage in particular activity, regardless of rules applicable to the rest of the public. The issuance of credentials is, however, far less uniformly regulated than other interactions between press and government. Diverse standards imposed by federal, state, local, and private organizations have led to confusion over who should receive media credentials in different contexts, and raised questions about the definitions of journalism used by these organizations.This study, the first of its kind to perform a quantitative examination of media credentialing in the United States, surveys the experience of journalists throughout the country in their efforts to obtain media credentials from different types of credentialing organizations from 2008 to 2013. The survey results show that one out of every five respondents who applied for a credential was denied by a credentialing organization at least once. Moreover, certain categories of applicants are more likely to be denied than others: freelance journalists were significantly less likely to receive media credentials than employed journalists; photographers were more likely to be denied than non-photographers; and respondents who identified themselves as activists were more likely to be denied than those respondents who did not.

Why democracies need a Functional Definition of Journalism now more than ever

What is journalism? Although some democracies continue to recognize a special status for professional journalists, a clear definition of what constitutes journalistic activity remains elusive. This is a practical problem, both because the boundary-blurring effect of an evolving news ecosystem moves the literal meaning of the word ever-further from intuitive recognition, and because the notion of a free press demands that courts protect specific practices. Five proposed activity descriptors are combined to propose a parsimonious definition: “Journalism comprises the activities involved in an independent pursuit of accurate information about current or recent events and its original presentation for public edification.” This is termed a “functional” definition to distinguish it from both normative evaluation and from “class” definitions for practitioners.

When old and new media collide: The case of WikiLeaks

In November 2010, WikiLeaks released over a quarter of a million US State Department diplomatic cables to the world’s media, exposing private communications between diplomatic officials at US embassies across the globe and the State Department at Washington, DC. This study analyzes the WikiLeaks controversy through institutional views of the US news media. Our analysis of 83 newspaper editorials found four prominent themes in US newspaper discourse: (1) The contrast between the “discretion and maturity” of traditional journalism and the rash actions of WikiLeaks; (2) The need for “old media” in a new media landscape; (3) The tension between the public’s right to know and national security; and (4) The invocation of the Pentagon Papers as a way of drawing clear lines of difference between journalism’s past and its possible future. Our findings indicate ongoing tension between “old” and “new” media at a time when definitions of journalism are increasingly diffuse.

How much democracy does journalism need?

In posing the question ‘How much democracy does journalism need?’, much depends on the definition of journalism. This article suggests that journalism should be viewed not in terms of media systems but instead using journalism practice as the main frame of reference, as this allows for an appreciation of journalism beyond the confines of western democratic countries. The analysis of historical and current examples shows that journalism offering accurate and verified information resting on independent news judgement also happens in places that are deemed semi- or non-democratic. This article argues that it is not the political form of democracy that is essential to journalism but the freedom of expression and relative journalistic autonomy afforded to media workers. Democracies, as compellingly shown in recent years, may offer the legal framework for freedom of speech but they do not offer protection for journalistic services which have to be largely financed privately. The dependency on media owners is no less in many democratic nations than it is in non-democratic countries. Most importantly, journalism needs supporters who see value in independent information provision and credible news judgement.

“All Things are as They Were Then”: Radio's You are There

This article analyzes the 1940s radio series You Are There, originally titled CBS Is There. The series illuminates media history in two ways. First, it provides insight into a time of momentous change in the broadcasting industry. Its creative blend of fact and fiction challenged conventional definitions of journalism and documentary at a time when significant changes were sweeping U.S. broadcasting, underscoring the power and authority of audio journalism even as television was starting to eclipse radio as a national medium. Second, You Are There demonstrates how popular culture's depictions of the past typically speak as much to contemporary concerns as they do to those of the past. The series expressed the optimistic liberalism of its producer-director Robert Lewis Shayon in addressing postwar debates over isolationism, prejudice, and freedom of thought. At the same time, You Are There told stories of heroic individualism that celebrated classically American virtues and reproduced consensual, patriotic interpretations of US history.

THE HIERARCHY OF JOURNALISTIC CULTURAL AUTHORITY

Print and broadcast journalists attempt to patrol the boundaries of the field. They compete with consumer perceptions and the consequent power of television that have led to a shift in traditional definitions of journalism. Among journalists from print, national and network radio and network (non-local) television, a clear discrepancy emerges between the level of esteem journalists of each medium have among their colleagues, and their popular status with the public. This study documents and analyzes the ways in which members of the American journalistic community have articulated their beliefs about who has the authoritative voice in journalism, and who is qualified to make decisions about boundaries of the craft and preferred practices. This study finds that internally, newspaper journalists are still regarded as the legitimate craftsmen. The fame that some television journalists have achieved both reflects the appreciation of TV journalism and a loathing of it, primarily due to how this fame functions in journalistic cultural authority, as well as in practices of promotion and financial compensation for journalists. Despite these tensions, journalists of different media are also shown to exhibit solidarity and recognition that they are all colleagues in a larger community with a common goal.

Placing journalism inside memory — and memory studies

This article contends that it is important for scholars to ask what it matters that certain memory stories are told in journalistic prose and format and are received by audiences as `news'. Yet it also suggests that we must understand that journalism works within (not apart from) other cultural memory forms, and that it constructs memory not just with regard to discrete events, but across time and place. Finally, considering parallel debates across disciplines, this article is a call to reassess our definitions of legitimate subjects of study. It argues that scholars should pay attention to forms of journalism beyond elite news organizations and to recognize that journalism is a site of memory construction not only about shocking events, but also about everyday life. Indeed, if we expand our definitions of journalism and of memory, we broaden the relevance and the uses of journalism in memory studies.

Wilde’s Evenings: The Rewards of Citizen Journalism

Wilde’s Evenings: The Rewards of Citizen Journalism

Media Reporting, Mobility and Trauma

Media Reporting, Mobility and Trauma

NRJ Book Review: The Values and Craft of American Journalism: Essays from the Poynter Institute

The Values and Craft of American Journalism: Essays from The Poynter Institute, edited by Roy Peter Clark and Cole C. Campbell (Gainesville, Fla.: University Press of Florida, 2005) 202 pages, $24.95.If there ever was a time when journalists need direction, it is now.The Values Craft of American Journalism: Essays from The Poynter Institute provides that direction with a series of essays on important topics journalists: purpose and culture, leadership, community and craft. The book is a re-release in paperback of a 2002 hardback edition by Roy Peter Clark and Cole C. Campbell with an afterword added.The issues facing journalists addressed in the 2002 original publication show no signs of easing and are arguably even more complex. As journalists struggle cover the news and honor their commitment their craft, they are surrounded by external pressures brought on by an industry in crisis. Many journalists turn Poynter frequently for guidance and answers troubling situations. Clark and Campbell offer short writings in this book designed help journalists and educators bridge the gap that often divides them and, as stated in the afterword, inspire journalists strive for new levels of excellence during difficult times.The first group of essays is about purpose and culture. Of particular note educators is the first essay by G. Stuart Adam on the definition of journalism. Adam seeks qualify what journalists really do and how journalism is taught, concluding that, It is time start at the beginning, incorporate an understanding of the creative process more fully into the study of journalism, and equip students with more appropriate capacities of execution and judgment.Clark describes the characteristics of journalism, or what he calls the of journalism, in an attempt determine how teach it more effectively. His characteristics are familiar all journalism educators, but his suggestions about how more effectively teach the language of journalism are worth considering as we struggle today make journalism more relevant society.Addressing the larger role of journalism-reporting the stuff that ma tiers in the broader context of today's society-is the subject of Campbell's essay. He makes the case for the importance of this approach news writing with strong arguments for journalism that goes beyond printing news helping people make sense of their lives and their times. Campbell concludes, that to do that, we must hone our minds and our methods in order probe deeper. His suggestions of ways do that are worth considering.The second group of essays, on media leadership, is perhaps even more relevant today-given recent changes in media ownership-than when the book originally was published in 2002. Clark accurately characterizes current media trends. But he offers hope for the future of an industry in turmoil with a blueprint for leadership. He includes bulleted suggestions for improving community ties, sharing power, embracing change and inspiring a new generation of journalists as ways strengthen the profession and better serve communities. His last point, deserve the First Amendment, should be the mantra all journalists live by.Understanding what makes a good leader and why some succeed and others fail is a topic of interest across society today, but the inherent conflicts between business and journalism make our industry unique and present special challenges leaders in newsrooms. …