Category: Journalism

In the frames of the current journalistic trends, the participative approach to writing prevails, allowing authors to express their personal attitude to the events. Willis (2003) noted that What you give up in terms of arms-length objectivity, you more than gain in terms of understanding and empathy (p. 21). The modern genre of a feature story presupposes conveying journalists emotions and subjective views using the appropriate techniques and structure. Using the participative approach in his feature stories, John Heilpern managed to involve his readers into the atmosphere of interviews The importance of being Oscar and The offending champion published in Vanity Fair by implementing the techniques of maintaining his voice, quoting jokes, using the regular structure and showing rather than telling.

All techniques chosen by the author are aimed at enabling the readers to look at the interviewees and conversations with them from the journalists perspective. Heilpern reproduces the atmosphere of real-life communication exchange instead of an official interview, expressing his opinion of the events throughout the stories. Describing the conversation and his interlocutors, the journalist chooses the words with evaluative meaning. With the aim of persuading the readers in objectiveness of his opinion and creating the full picture, he tells the story, starting from sharing his knowledge and impressions from the interlocutor before proceeding to the interview itself. Presenting the conversation and his interviewees from his own perspective, Heilpern considers the peculiarities of the readers perception.

For producing the effect of readers physical presence at lunches with celebrities, these feature stories allow observing the process of establishing the rapport between the two people and following the conversation that seems to be rather sincere due to the techniques aimed at imitating the informal situation, such as irregular questions, short answers, and repetition of certain fragments with the aim of emphasizing ones idea. For example, Oscar admits: Let me tell you, it was never the ladies who lunch. They never lunched! They always wanted to stay thin (Heilpern, 2009, The importance of being Oscar). Personal knowledge and the process of live communication are the main sources used in the interviews. For this reason, the author does not omit jokes which would be unaffordable for a news story, for example.

The humorous key of these interviews is not Heilperns attempt to demonstrate his own wittiness or to entertain the readers. Incorporating the jokes in these feature stories, Heilpern managed to make the reproduced communication exchange more natural. The quoted jokes and anecdotes could be easily omitted without distorting the general idea of the stories but they are important for reproducing the situation and revealing the writers attitude to it. For example, Oscars explanation for being stylish and wearing a tie for not to be confused with a member of a Latin band is not significant, still, demonstrates the designers humanness and a side of personality upon which the light is rarely shed in media. Reflecting on his interviewees and incorporating the jokes into the stories, Heilpern makes his readers believe him and feel like participating in the talk themselves.

Despite the aim of reproducing the process of live communication, the author managed to organize the material in a proper way and to describe the real-life conversation at the same time. Heilperns stories consist of an introduction, in which the settings and the interviewees are described, the beginning of the communication exchange, presupposing establishing personal rapport, development of the conversation and the final statement representing the conclusions part. Ricketson (2004) noted that A feature needs a coherent structure, with an arresting opening, well-organized material and an ending that, in direct contrast to the hard news story, reaches a satisfying conclusion (p. 3).

The author followed this regular structure as the introductions pointing at the importance of the person intrigue the reader, while the conclusion is rather satisfying than logical resembling a final dot of a story though this conclusion could not be made from the previous parts. In the main body, Heilpern pays attention to the development of his characters. In a brief introduction part, the author presents an interviewee officially, but his main aim is to demythologize his characters. Reproducing the friendly conversation and the ways in which he builds bridges to his interlocutors, the journalist enables readers to see the celebrities from a new perspective, proving that they are ordinary human beings with their feelings and weaknesses.

In the story The offending champion, Don Rickles speaks about his girlfriend which was impressed with his acquaintance with Sinatra, and the reader can associate himself/herself with this girl, seeing the situation through her eyes but taking advantage of being initiated into the secrets of the interlocutors. Heilpern does not express his opinion directly categorizing the events as good or bad, but his attitude to the characters is seen from his choice of original epithets aimed at evaluating the celebrities, their words, and behavior. For example, Oscar de la Renta is described as looking impossibly elegant, while no man could look more refined than he (Heilpern, 2009, The importance of being Oscar).

Don Rickles is defined as a legendary comedian (Heilpern, 2010, The offending champion). The evaluative shade of meaning of these epithets is helpful for understanding or even feeling the authors attitude to his characters. Providing the readers with seemingly insignificant details of the interviews, such as Rickles ordering Bloody Mary and burger or lunch of salad Caprese served at de la Rentas office, the author involves the audience in the situation appealing to the readers senses. However, being included in the whole picture, every trifle becomes significant having an impact on readers perception of the stories producing the effect of their physical presence at interviews and making them share the authors opinion of it.

Due to the participative approach implemented in the feature stories The importance of being Oscar and The offending champion by Heilpern, a person gets involved into the process of communication exchange between the journalist and his celebrity interviewees and is enabled to see Oscar de la Renta and Don Rickles through the authors eyes.

Reference List

Heilpern, J. (2009). The importance of being Oscar. Vanity Fair[online]. Web.

Heilpern, J. (2010). The offending champion. Vanity Fair[online]. Web.

Ricketson, M. (2004). Writing feature stories: How to research and write newspaper and magazine articles. Australia, Allen & Unwin.

Willis, J. (2003). The human journalist: Reporters, perspectives, and emotions. Westport, Praeger Publishers.

Introduction

The truth in the case

From a close evaluation of the story, one is in a position to tell that the Rolling Stones version of the story, A Rape Case on Campus, is a story of journalistic failure that could be avoided. The narratives failure involved poor reporting, editorial mistakes, and carelessness in evidence checking. The magazine overlooked various essential practices of reporting that if accounted for, would have influenced the magazines editors to rethink publishing the story.

The retraction of the story following the lack of evidence reflected individual, procedural, and institutional failure of which so many people involved in editing had the chance to close the gap and avoid reporting without sufficient facts. Erdely, the journalist following Jackies story, failed to consider important information that could have raised questions about the validity of the story. Jackie, who was the alleged victim, exaggerated the attack and further investigation identified that she gave false report since there was no evidence.

In March, Charlottesville reported that they lacked substantial details to conclude that the incident had occurred. The Rolling Stones managing editor, Will Dana, apologized to all those affected by the story. In addition, Sabrina Erdely, the author of the article, also apologized by taking responsibility for failing to get the story right.

A plaintiff refers to the party that moves to court and launches a formal legal case against another party. For this case, the University of Virginia Associate Dean of Students, Nicole Eramo, was the plaintiff accusing the magazine of portraying her as an apologist aiding in suppressing sexual-assault allegations in the campus. On the other hand, a defendant is the party sued before a court of law. The defendant is the accused party. In this case, the defendant is the Rolling Stone whom Ms. Eramo believes violated journalistic standards intentionally by reporting the story without collecting substantial evidence in the entire institution. The second defendant is Sabrina Erdely, the storys author, for failing to take corrective measures while conducting these investigations.

Defamation

Defamation is the act of destroying the reputation of someone, institution, or a company. The Rolling Stone magazine provided unproven statements that harmed the reputation of Phi Kappa Psi fraternity and in particular various individuals such as Ms. Eramo since she is charged with the Universitys handling of sexual assault claims. In a bid to win the case, Ms. Eramo proved damages on her reputation since the article had been viewed 2.7 million times online and she had received emails accusing her of trying to cover the rape case intentionally. She also proved negligence of the editor for reporting without enough facts. This negligence was enough to warrant the plaintiff remedy for the damages caused.

Other parties that could sue Rolling Stone

The alleged attackers are also legible to initiate a lawsuit against the Rolling Stone for damaging their reputation. They should sue the magazine because defamation is a serious issue in this era where irresponsible reporting has become common with the proliferation of digital media in journalism. The Bible is against slander and Erdely was essentially involved in this kind of sin. Mathew 12:36 warns against the careless use of words because people will be held accountable for what they say. Therefore, by following this scripture, the alleged attackers should hold Erdely accountable for her words by suing her.

Introduction

When it comes to arguing in favor of a particular point of view, it is important to keep the would-be deployed line of argumentation free of logical fallacies. The reason for this is apparent  the fewer of these flaws can be found in the written/orally delivered rhetorical piece, the more likely will it be for the audience to recognize the authors argumentative stance fully credible. Unfortunately, many authors appear incapable of adhering to the mentioned provision, especially when expounding on the politics-relates subjects.

The 2014 article Tougher sanctions now: Putins delusional quest for empire (by Aurel Braun) can be seen as a perfect example that substantiates the validity of this suggestion. In it, the author aimed to convince readers that Vladimir Putin is obsessed with the thoughts of world domination and that the West should continue enacting the ever-tougher economic sanctions against Russia, which according to Braun will result in isolating this country from the civilized world and bringing about the eventual fall of Putins regime. Nevertheless, the concerned article is filled with so many logical fallacies that one cannot help wondering as to how it was allowed for publishing in World Affairs (a well-established academic journal) in the first place. In this paper, I will outline three of the most notable of them.

Explanation of the Flaws

Even a glance at the article in question will reveal that Braun did strive to ensure that it would emanate a strong emotional appeal to readers  something that explains the abundance of the emotionally evocative terms and notions in it. However, it appears that while taking practical advantage of the appeal to pathos rhetorical principle, the author remained unaware of what accounts for the logical fallacy of damning the source. To illustrate the suggestions soundness, we can refer to the articles second sentence, As the leader of an economically weak and vulnerable country with a corrupt governing class, the Russian President acted with brazen disregard for international law and norms, while the democratic West played a totally reactive role (Braun, 2014, p. 34).

Given the fact that Brauns damning reference to Russia/Putin takes place before the audience had a chance to be exposed to her rationale-based arguments, in support of the claim of Russias vulnerability, readers will be likely to regard it as the indication of the authors ideologically driven biasness. In its turn, this will result in undermining the legitimacy of the articles overall discursive premise in the audiences eyes. After all, ones tendency to condemn a whole country as evil and backward without backing the concerned claim with any supporting evidence, whatsoever, can be deemed as anything but the proof of his or her perceptional objectiveness.

As one proceeds reading through the article, there will emerge more and more indications that the line of the authors argumentative reasoning is innately fallacious. Yet another proof that this is indeed the case can be deemed Brauns predisposition to shift the argumentations actual focus on numerous occasions throughout the articles entirety. For example, through the initial paragraphs, Braun continues to refer to the ongoing geopolitical confrontation between Russia and the US as having been triggered by the process of Vladimir Putin becoming increasingly inadequate, in the mental sense of this word. According to the author, this explains Putins presumed obsession with trying to conquer democratic Ukraine, Former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has characterized Putins current actions as delusionary (Braun, 2014, p. 35).

However, on the very same page Braun comes up with the suggestion that refutes her earlier claim of Putins insanity, Rather than carefully blueprinting a realistic Russian future, it seems that he (intents on)&restoring Russias great-power status (2014, p. 35). Given the sentences context, the authors reference to a realistic Russian future appears strongly euphemistic. Braun has in mind Russias would-be willingness to remain Americas yet another client-state, just as it used to be the case during the nineties. Having grown powerful enough under Putins leadership, however, Russia naturally aspires to restore its greatness  especially given the fact that Russia has always been considered one of the worlds most powerful countries ever since the 17^th century (Kanet, 2015, p. 507). What this implies is that Putins alleged madness has very little to do with the Wests willingness to punish Russia  Braun unintentionally revealed this countrys guilt originating from its refusal to take commands from the self-proclaimed beacon of democracy(the US). It is understood, of course, that this effectively shifts the articles argumentative emphasis  something that accounts for the classical fallacy of equivocation, on the authors part.

The credibility of the discussed article is also greatly undermined by the authors inability to refrain from indulging in the so-called fallacy of bifurcation  especially when she interprets the significance of Russias suggestions as to what should be done to put an end to the ongoing civil war in Ukraine. For example, according to Braun, He (Putin) continues to insist on federalism in Ukraine, which& is a prelude to annexation (of Ukraine by Russia) slice by slice (2014, p. 40). What is particularly notable about this statement is that it denies the possibility that there may be any other effects to such a development (federalization of Ukraine) but the countrys eventual occupation by Russia. While coming up with this suggestion, the author tactfully avoided mentioning the fact that 80% of people in Ukraine consider Russian their native language and that they certainly do not enjoy having been turned into the second-class citizens in the aftermath of the US-endorsed seizure of power by the Ukrainian nationalists/neo-Nazis in February 2014 (Mearsheimer, 2014, p. 83).

It is no wonder that many of Ukraines Russian-speaking citizens in the countrys eastern part have taken to arms as a way to address the prospect of being subjected to ethnic cleansing. For them, having to put up with the nationalists being in power is the same as it would be for the majority of Americans having been forced to live under the rule of the Ku-Klux-Klan. Therefore, transforming Ukraine from being a unitary state into a federation would help to restore peace in this country. Braun, however, deliberately refuses to acknowledge the viability of such a scenario while trying to mislead readers into believing in the realness of Russian aggression against Ukraine. Fortunately enough, most Americans have proven themselves smart enough not to be persuaded by the peddlers of anti-Russian propaganda, such as Aurel Braun  the Presidential victory of Donald Trump can be seen as the best proof in this respect.

Conclusion

In light of what has been said earlier, Brauns article is best referred to as such that does not have what it takes for people to even consider reading it  all due to the sheer fallaciousness of most argumentative claims contained in it. I believe that this conclusion is consistent with the papers initial thesis.

References

Braun, A. (2014). Tougher sanctions now: Putins delusional quest for empire. World Affairs, 177(2), 34-42.

Kanet, R. E. (2015). The failed Western challenge to Russias revival in Eurasia? International Politics, 52(5), 503-522.

Mearsheimer, J. J. (2014). Why the Ukraine crisis is the Wests fault: the liberal delusions that provoked Putin. Foreign Affairs, 93(5), 77-89.

The beginning of the year 2016 was darkened by the sad events that took place in German cities that accepted large groups of refugees from the Middle East countries. Only after one to two weeks since the outrageous events took place, the press began to gradually speak the truth about the real problem that exists in German cities due to the uncontrolled masses of male refugees from Middle East countries.

In the early days of the year beginning, the press was speaking about a calm and wonderful New Year Holidays in Köln and other German cities. Meanwhile, hundreds of women were attacked by violent men. The worst fact is that police preferred not to react to the situation. Women, who are legal German citizens with assumable all basic human rights and freedoms, remained unprotected in the heart of the western world. No one helped. Moreover, no one informed the wide public. The press kept on reporting wonderful winter holidays and discussed how well the celebrations continued.

The actual situation was shown in the press much later when the world public began to hear about the violations from alternative sources (Unveiled, 2016). As a result, the German press could no longer hide the violations of authorities. Journalists began to speak about the good things, or in other words, they started to speak the truth of what actually took place in Köln and other big German cities in the first days of the New Year. As a result, the world eventually began to learn about the assaults, robberies, rapes, and other crimes committed against German women without any law enforcement consequences.

This illustration from the media shows that journalists are not in a hurry to follow their professional ethics rules. If politics ask or threatens them somehow, the media workers are ready to engage in big lies. These are undoubtedly the bad things about the media. Seeing the violations in the media and informational environment, the growing number of people begins to lose their trust in media. Of course, this is not the case with the majority of consumers. The illustration with the German women and German media reluctant to provide true information about the utter violence and ignorance on the part of authorities shows that currently, it is not the time to accept every piece of information in the media as the good. On the contrary, mass media keeps on telling the bad.

Evaluating the experience that took place, the good and bad in the work of the media is how the media specialists choose to present the information. At times, they can even speak about the real and true events, but they may interpret them in a bad or untrue way. For instance, it is true that Köln was celebrating the New Year holidays. It is also true that thousands of people were in the city streets. It is even true that the city provided a special atmosphere of celebration to the citizens and the guests of the city.

However, the journalists failed to inform that not all city residents were really happy about the special celebration atmosphere. Eventually, the truth came up. The whole world has learned about human rights violations in Germany. German citizens who pay enormous taxes to the budget and actually feed the refugees from their pockets were brutally attacked, and no representative of police they finance actually helped.

Reference

Unveiled, S. (2016). German police caught concealing numerous cases of rape and molestation by Muslim asylum seekers. WordPress. Web.

Journalism entails reporting on ongoing and emergent events through the gathering of information and presenting it in the most appropriate way to the public. Journalists range from reporters, video, or photojournalists to writers, and each uses a particular medium to come up with stories that engage the public and relay important information. The critical part of a journalist is identifying a topic important to the public, from covering the trending events to presidential election reporting, and finally generating a story that is well-researched based on the topics. The journey of a journalist is not a smooth one that involves getting information and reporting, but requires commitment since long hours, high competition, and the constant shift of media landscape is involved. This paper discusses the main aspects of news reporting and journalism, which I learned through the course, and highlights challenges and lessons learned through practice and the media.

The news writing process is challenging and exciting at the same time. It is surprising how, just like other processes such as dressing, it requires logical steps and a pattern. The success of the process requires the writer to focus, order, draft, and revise. The first step involves the gathering of information. This is the step that consists of collecting details to include in the report. The details should be facts, hence well researched. The second step involved deciding what to focus on from the gathered facts. The focus contains the dominant idea. This part was quite challenging in choosing the sentence to summarize the whole story and make a headline. The third step was weighing facts in order to place them logically with the most important at the top. This is the step that gives each story a plan, as each point must grow to the next so as to make the reading flow and enjoyable to the reader. After writing the story to the end, the next step involved rereading and editing until what is in the paper is what was intended.

Gathering information was the most challenging part of the writing process. The three primary methods used here include interviewing, observing, and researching. The primary method used in our news process was interviewing and involved asking questions about the story. It was, therefore, the key to the story. This required an excellent ability to interact, talk to people, and collect information. Before embarking on the interviewing mission, I had to think about how to open the interviewing session, since I learned that the opening statement marks an integral part of the interview. A lousy beginning could end an interview before starting it like it once happened when an interviewer asked Vivian Leign the part she acted in the movie Gone With the Wind (Mclntyre, 2017). Preparation was, therefore, essential to come up with relevant questions and signal the other party that I was not to be easily dismissed.

In addition, a tentative theme was worth researching and finding how it could fit in the story I was writing, as well as asking the questions most naturally. Through a journal article, I came across while doing research, and I learned that one needs to create a natural relationship with the interviewee at the start of the interview in order to kick start it. For instance, the interview Liebling held with Arcaro, and he began by asking him why his left stirrup was longer than his right (Hatfield, 2006). An important aspect I learned was that interviewing not only involved questions and answers but a keen observation of the other party’s distinctive characteristics, body language, mannerisms, and facial expressions, which significantly contribute to recording what may not be said, hence painting a worthy story for readers.

News reporting may, at times, involve topics and stories that may raise ethical concerns. Some of the challenges that I faced and other journalists I observed in the media face too include finding the most responsible way to report on topics of intolerance and hate speech, ethics behind viral photograph i.e., death and violence publishing, and handling sources of news and verifying news from online sources. Censoring speech is offensive, and most journalists face challenges in distinguishing controversial statements from statements that invoke violence (Cramer and McDevitt, 2004). Sometimes reporting may involve issues of conflict and crisis that include photographs going viral in the online platforms and pose the challenge of whether to include essential information like photographer identity and other missing information. Gathering news and obtaining the most authentic requires careful consideration, especially establishing a relationship with the source. Some interviews may involve vulnerable persons like victims of war or young people, who need journalists to make them understand the results of publishing the information they provide. With the growing technology, verifying news and images from the media has become quite tricky. Currently, images are being photoshopped and require researching and contacting the source of the content making the whole process involving.

Journalists have the ethical responsibility of being balanced and fair in their reporting. In the context of journalism, balance means that the reporter has the responsibility of being objective in spite of their own opinions, and should remain impartial on a matter by offering a mixed view. This requires one to make mixed viewpoints that allow the reader to make their selection, hence balancing the story by avoiding swaying the public towards an inevitable conclusion. On the other hand, objectivity aims at assisting the readers in deciding about an account through the facts a reporter provides.

Generally, what differentiates a good journalist from a mediocre one is the means in which news is gathered and presented to the public. Topics chosen should make headlines, and summarize the story most simply and naturally. Interviewing is among the significant ways of gathering information, and requires the reporter to be competent in interacting with the other party source the information. Through experience and the media, I have learned that most journalists face problems in authenticating the information they get either from online platforms or from other sources. Also, most journalism students and practicing reporters face difficulties in balancing and being objective in their reporting, hence making the whole idea of balancing in journalism context complex.

References

1. Cramer, J. and McDevitt, M. (2004). Ethnographic journalism. Qualitative research in journalism: taking it to the streets, 127-144
2. Hatfield, D. (2006). Press Play: Designing an epistemic game engine for journalism. Proceedings of the 7th international conference on Learning sciences, 236-242
3. Mclntyre, K. and Gyldensted, C. (2017). Constructive journalism: An introduction and practical guide for applying positive psychology techniques to news production. The journal of media innovations, 4 (2), 20-34

Journalism in America has changed in multiple ways. Due to the fact, there are vast sources of media and a variety of perspectives for the average citizen to consider. This requires the American citizen to do their diligence and utilize critical thinking skills in order to navigate multiple media outlets which leads to a more inform decision. At the core of this decision-making process is the five values which are the foundation of ethical accuracy; independence; impartiality; humanity; and accountability. Journalism without these values are indefensible and does not benefit the public.

Journalism is the act of producing and disseminating viable information. Journalism is important to our society, because it helps open our eyes to what’s going on around the world and in our daily lives. Journalism stems back to ancient Rome in 59 B. C., when news was chronicled on circular’s that were stone or metal and displayed for everyone to read throughout the city.

This was handy for those who knew how to read. It detailed daily events. As time moved on journalism began to advance. In the 1930’s Broadcast journalism came into play and lasted throughout WWII. During this span of time more people were able to read. People were able to understand and keep up with current events, radio was a popular way of getting the news until the 1950’s where television became popular.

“To many, the 1950s recall an idyllic era when everyone conformed and everyone lived simply and happily. Beneath this conformity, people were stirring and new ideas were simmering; many would begin to question the status quo, some would not explode until the 1960s”. (Holt 1977) During the 1960’s we were consumed by the media and their nightly broadcast and reporting’s of the Vietnam War. This exposure to the horrors of the Vietnam war sparked protest among students who were not able to vote until the age of eighteen yet where able to be drafted into the military if they were not a full-time student. The horrific images of the conflict had a direct impact and citizens began to question why America was fighting a war that didn’t directly concern them. The media made sure to keep the Americans informed. Some call the Vietnam War the first television war. During the 1960’s the media also focused on the assignation of President Kennedy, Civil Rights Protest and Martin Luther King to name a few. All these events helped shape America to be what it is today. The media has a huge impact on our society and their decisions, from choosing a president to purchasing a new home. We depend on the media to keep up informed with true and reliable information that we can use.

Television became a powerful medium. This is where American’s got most of their information from. Society has grown to depend on television for news, sports, weather, culture to name a few. The Committee to Protect Journalist is an organization that promote press freedom to defend the rights of journalist to report the news safely without fear of reprisal. Under this protection, it allows the journalist to give society the information they need to make decisions based on what they hear and see. We depend on journalist to report factual and accurate information; even if it goes against the status quo, our democratic government, or big corporations. Americans expect updates on current events and full disclosure including missing information. This new or missing information could mean a no as opposed to a yes or a left instead of a right. It is important that the information being disseminated is coming from an honest and reliable source.

Today we rely not only on television to receive current events, but we also rely on radio and newspapers and the internet to be informed as to what’s going on in America as well as other countries. all the information being reported from multiple countries can bombard citizens with agendas of the powerful. For example, Under the Trump Administration there’s never a dull moment. Every day the media has something to report. In 2018 President Donald Trump shut down the United States federal government for over a month. Every day the media broadcast the status of the shutdown. This was the longest closure of the federal government involving furloughs. This happened because he couldn’t get the funding needed to help build a wall that borders Mexico. The big question is, can we have an equitable and just society without journalist? WikiLeaks is an organization that publishes news leaks. “ On 22 June 2018, Wikileaks published documents containing the personal details of many U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) employees with the declared aim of ‘understanding ICE programs and increasing accountability, especially in light of the extreme actions taken by ICE lately, such the separation of children and parents at the US border”. (WikiLeaks 2018) This information not only sparked outrage, but a congressional hearing. Without journalist exposing the truth of what goes on behind closed doors the American citizen would not know the facts to make an informed decision. Journalist are the watchmen of American society; they make sure the rules are followed and no one is above the law. They are valuable to American society for it is their job to expose their truth so all Americans can make informed decisions and empowers its citizens to act when change is needed.

Journalism has advanced throughout the years. We receive information Through multiple media sources, which allows use to consume what we have learned and make a well thought out decision. Journalism is well and alive and it’s here to say.

References

1. A Brief History of Journalism: How We Arrived to Where We Are. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://universalclass.com/articals/writing/journalsim-a-brief-history.htm
2. Dancis, B. (2014). Resister: A Story of Protest and Prison during the Vietnam War.
3. Kovach, B., & Rosenstiel, T. (2007). The Elements of Journalism: What Newspeople Should Know and the Public Should Expect.
4. General Bruce Palmer, J. (Ed.). (2014). The 25-Year War: America’s Military Role in Vietnam.

Journalism: an academic study concerned with the collection and editing of news or the management of a news medium (Merriam-Webster). What qualities shall one have to become a journalist? What abilities or skills can one acquire by studying journalism? What are the careers as a journalist or what can one specialize in? As Napoleon Bonaparte once said, “I fear three newspapers more than a hundred thousand bayonets” (Picture Quotes). This quote from one of the most powerful men and general that has been on Earth, best describes the power a journalist has to compel from one baby to a mass of people. This broad and competitive study might be for any of us.

Talent

Not everyone can become a good journalist. Good writers are critical thinkers; they access, investigate, synthesize, and retain crucial information. A visual explanation of what a journalist is was once said by the German writer Arthur Schopenhauer, he said, “journalists are like dogs, whenever anything moves they begin to bark” (Quote HD). Curiosity and persistence come in handy to obtain the best version of the truth and verify it. As professor and author Noam Chomsky once said, “The duty of journalists is to tell the truth. Journalism means you go back to the actual facts, you look at the documents, you discover what the record is, and you report it that way” (NYU Journalism). It is evident that communication skills, both written and verbal, are key components for a successful career in journalism… so the ability to express oneself clearly and logically, and to maintain strong interpersonal relationships is crucial (Learn How To Become). Journalists have the intuition to detect a good story and be good communicators while using tools to produce drama, tension, and suspense. For the writing process, they ought to be objective, have the ability to work long hours in a fast-paced environment, and have basic computer skills. To conclude, journalism is a profession that depends on the interest of the public so they ought to know how to package their stories by converging the tools of print and broadcast mediums.

Study

“Some work from a quiet office, others put themselves in harm’s way. Before they enter the field, however, most journalists pursue formal education” (Learn How To Become). As previously stated, students learn base skills required for journalism and journalism-related careers; from reporting and writing to photojournalism and multimedia. Evidently, the two main branches of journalism are print and broadcast, which come together to form the multimedia industry. Moreover, on-campus courses often combine formal classroom instructions with hands-on learning projects, such as sports reporting on the campus’s newspaper. Many large schools have not only student-run radio stations, websites and blogs, and newspapers, but also on-site television studios. Undergraduate degrees offer robust internship programs where one can learn sports journalism skills assisting professionals in the real-world environment. For instance, a specialty could be sports journalism, a program offered by many different universities that covers from kinesiology for a bachelor’s degree to in-depth researches about sports’ impact on society or the business and economics of sports, for a masters degree. Overall, the main reason for a journalism degree is to help students develop the abilities and skills to be compelling story-writers, visually and written.

Sports Journalism

Sports journalism: the career that started in the 1800s for the minuscule elite social class but has now its own section in the newspapers. Sports journalism targets reporting any sports event, from amateur to professional news. Sports journalists work in all media, from print to broadcasting to multimedia or internet. Jobs go from reporting game statistics to interviewing coaches and players and offering game commentary (Learn.org). For sports journalism, the first branch is broadcast; this job consists of giving live reports and comments on sports events for TV or radio newscasts. These reports can be provided as interviews before, during, or after a game while others are provided from the inside, rocking in the edition and production of the telecasts. The broadcast industry has grown a lot thanks to technology so they have special networks, such as ESPN, to publish news and such reports. Second, comes the branch of the print medium, these journalists focus mainly on providing detailed information either from the past; such as post-game analysis, which includes scores, statistics, and team ranking, or from future predictions. The public can access this print information by different media; print such as newspapers and magazines, or online with internet links or specialized networks. Therefore, one can write for their local newspaper or get to report for a blog in ESPN or a column in The New York Times. Last but not least, the third branch for sports journalism is photojournalism; similar to the multimedia branch because it is a merge between print and broadcast regarding the way it is written, expressed, and communicated. This job consists of taking pictures of sporting events with the purpose of capturing the whole experience in one shot. The work of these photojournalists is communicated through newspapers, TV’s, internet, or magazines (for example Sports Illustrated). In conclusion, technology and new forms of internet blogging have pushed the boundaries of sports journalism while following the basic structures and rules of it.

Print media

“The print media is the most powerful entity on Earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that is power. Because they control the minds of the masses.” by Malcolm X (Slide Share). To begin with, all sentences are structured by mentioning the information first and then the source in the end, for example: “Oklahoma is likely to see more severe weather this month, said meteorologists at the University of Oklahoma”. The style for print journalism starts with a lead which is the opening statement that gives an incite into the story to get the audience’s attention. Next comes the nut Graf, this name is derived from the word nut because it contains a kernel which represents the essential information, and graf as in paragraph. The nut-graf tells the readers about the 5 W’s ( being who, what, when, where, and why) of the story to indicate the theme. In conclusion, the nut graf can be compared to the thesis statement for an academic paper. Third comes the crucial information which is basically what the story is about. This is followed by the non-crucial, also called background information which has the purpose of leading the audience to find more reactions to the story. Finally comes the conclusion, which works to remind the reader of the story’s object while also, as mentioned before, looking ahead to allow readers to have a follow-up in the article.

Broadcast media

Broadcast journalism mainly differs from the print’s structure because of how sentences are written in order to please the auditive or visual audience. In the media, sources are mentioned at the beginning of the sentence, rather than in the end, to emphasize the information in the end. For example, “Meteorologists at the University of Oklahoma say that Oklahoma is likely to see more severe weather this month.” Sentences in broadcast news are generally made of one simple idea with no extra clauses to make it easier for the anchor who is the person responsible for presenting the stories on-camera. In addition, broadcast scripts use a more conversational style and segments are short with packed information. Furthermore, these stories begin with a general simple sentence called the lead sentence, just like in print journalism, which cues the opening of the story. Broadcast news has to be visually and auditory appealing; for this purpose, images are used and then text complements them. Given these points, broadcasters have to learn to please the audience correctly because they are listenings, not reading. In order to do so, broadcasters use and mix many literary devices such as imagery, sensory detail, and language structure. To conclude, broadcast journalism, which goes from radio stations to TV studios, follows a similar structure to the print but differ because of the way the audience is receiving the information provided. Ultimately, both meet the same purpose in mind, to inform.

Conclusion

The qualities of a journalist shall determine in which field one can specialize. A journalism study has the purpose to teach the basic principles and ethics of the job while showing basic skills and techniques to succeed as a journalist. This study opens one’s frontiers into the broad field of journalism to decide their specific study, from broadcast to print, for instance, sports journalism. For an amateur with love for writing and sharing, this is the ideal career. Despite the competition and dedication required, with persistence and following the structure, one can win the Pulitzer award while earning around 60,000 a year and gaining the experience of a lifetime. As mentioned earlier, journalism is a very broad and competitive field that requires certain skills to please the audience with the necessary information based on facts. Finally, as a famous English author and playwright once said, “Ratings don’t last. Good journalism does.” By Dan Rather (Don’t Look Now). She was Dame Daphne du Maurier, Lady Browning, and wrote this in the innovating film called Don’t Look Now in 1973 by Nicolas Roeg.

Globalization process and information technologies development have led to fundamental changes in understanding Journalism. Global journalism is a term merged out of this development and so gives your conceptual understanding of the practices and theories at present.

Stephen 2008, define global journalism as a system of newsgathering, editing and distribution not based on national or regional boundaries where it is not expected that shared national or community citizenship is the common references uniting news makers, journalists and audience. Example Cable News Network (CNN), British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and Al-Jazeera.

Technological advancement has led to global journalism which becomes an extension of recent world communication strategies and opportunities by enhancing transparency and accountability in media coverage. It also covers relations that are influenced by different technological development like transnational across and continental relations generated by political issues, trade, armed conflicts and media.

New information technologies such as internet have led to changes of people’s work, communication and news floor hence internet become more important in political, economic and others. The internet expands and greatly influences more mediation between and among various different communities in interactivity, receiving of information and feedback.

In other way, global media have pushed away some communication barriers such as time, space and national borders. The growth of global journalism as well as new media like social media provide a great chance of getting and accessing worldwide information, facts and events to the global order.

Global journalism has led to simple sharing and access of different information that concern the global public spheres of influence this is due to the fact that today’s world communication barriers like place is not existing. Also, media coverage is increasing from day to day so enhance discussion among public members.

It’s true that globalization process and information technologies development have led to various fundamental changes in media communication. The merging of global journalism associated practices and some of mass communication theories. One of theory which supports global journalism practices is Two Step Flow Theory. It is a theory which influences different practices of global journalism.

Two step flow theory was first introduced by Paul Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson and Harzel Gaudet in The People’s Choice Study during Presidential election campaign. The study conducted in 1944 and focused on the process of decision making. The theory asserts that information from the mass media to their audiences flows into two ways, firstly from the media to a certain individuals as opinion leaders meaning people who are active media users , collect and pass their own interpretations in addition to the actual media content and secondly or later to the audience and public.

Also, founders of the theory express out many of people obtain information and opinions from other people apart from media or other sources of influence such as family members, friends and opinion leaders. Opinion leaders get messages from the mass media recast and make interpretation with their actual understanding of the media content and pass to the audience.

Global journalism has practices and theories which support the present media coverage. In consideration of two step flow theory, the following are the practices which accelerate and influence global journalism;

The theory support global journalism because it increase new media influence in decision making; This is true because issues which have been discussed by opinion leaders and passed to the media audience and public tend to influence and seem as a solution for a certain problem hence it asserts decision making.

Global journalism determine the circulation of political information; Through two step flow theory, global journalism practicing in determining the information cycle especially political as the most sphere of influence which takes the large percent of global issues. Most of information’s are coming from media and opinion leaders pay attention to the message and interpret to their own understanding of content and later moves to audience or publics.

Also the theory is applicable in global journalism at present time because opinion leaders are highly influential in changing people’s attitudes and behaviors; Most of opinion leaders done their media interpretation which later on help to change audiences behavior regarding to political or economic information and events. Example, the role of political leaders in enhancing nation’s political peace through different media programs.

Two step flow theory support global journalism due to the fact that opinion leaders play as source of political and communication information; opinion leaders shape political attitude and information as their social status which has greater interest in the topic. Also personal influence may provide mass media effects to audience as good news rather than depending on only media coverage of political issues.

Also opinion leaders filter and interpret message before they pass along to the public; although the theory facilitate the flowing of information in many direction through various media channels it also facilitate filtering process of media message through opinion leaders. Examples through gate keeping useful information’s are disseminated to the publics.

Global journalism through two step flow theory approach analyze media exposure and interpersonal communication; The development of information technology affect media communication because of technology being applied help in exposing media through information from opinion leaders. Also communication from one person such as opinion leaders helps in raising awareness and knowledge about global facts.

Moreover, at the age of social networking such as Facebook, Myspace and You tube the theory is still useful because it is used to track and trace different media messages and reach the system of interaction and feedback that attend them.

Even though the development of new media technologies do allow the easier targeting of message to individuals, it seems likely that large percentage of people do not trust media as much as members of social networks. Hence, publics have more access to other alternative means of information from opinion leaders.

Generally, the theory is applicable in global journalism as it helps different media to perform their practices such as influencing audience in decision making. Apart from practices, there is weakness of the theory in global journalism as it ignores mass media likely they have no ability to convey and interpret new message directly to the audience.

REFERENCES

1. Everethe, E.D. (2008). The Two Step Flow in the Internet age.
2. Jallow, A.Y. The Emerging of Global Journalism and Social Media : Global Media Journal, Vol-13, Issue 25.
3. Lloyd, R. B. (1970). The Two Step Flow Theory: Cross-cultural Implications.
4. Stephen, D. R. (2008). Theorizing globalized journalism
5. https://www.sciencedirect.com

The definition of Journalism has always been debated by various scholars throughout the development of journalism. Thus, we will first discuss two elements of journalism definitions that should be proposed by scholars. The following definition is proposed by Zelizer which defines journalism as “the organized and public collection, processing and distribution of news and current affairs material” and elsewhere defines news as “new information about an event or issue that is shared with others in a systematic and public way” (Zellizer & Allan, as cited in Shapiro, 2014). However, this definition lacks the focus on traits that a journalists should equip. It is significant to understand the traits of journalism since definitions are just a theoretical idea whilst the traits are what drives journalists to pursue practically. Hence, Deuze (2005) listed out “five ideal-typical traits or values” of journalism that are identified from various literatures, which are public service, objectivity, autonomy, immediacy and ethics. He then provided detailed explanation for these five points in his research.

At this point, we have discussed the basic tasks of journalism and the traits of journalism in society. It is acknowledgeable that most definitions today had failed to include the traits of journalism within their statement. As such, Ivor Shapiro (2014) proposed a definition that has converged both the tasks and traits of a journalist. The author defines as stated: “ Journalism comprises the activities involved in an independent pursuit of accurate information about current or recent events and its original presentation for public edification”. We believe this definition is one of the complete versions as it compromises the elements of journalism traits and basic tasks a journalist should accomplish. Therefore, this definition is to be utilized on the following discussions of our theme.

Definition of Social Media

With the rise of Web 2.0, social media has started to gain its importance in society. Before further discussing social media and journalism, a clear definition of the broad term of social media is essential. Social media may come with different forms and types, such as social networking sites, image sharing and messaging sites, video sharing sites, social blogging, and social community and discussion sites (Banhart, 2017).

Despite the varieties of social media, the definition for social media is still ambiguous due to its broad functions. Social media is usually known by the social media platforms available but not by its functions. Obar and Wildman (2015) stated in their research in which social media services are currently Web 2.0 Internet-based applications and User-generated content is the lifeblood of social media. Hence, social media is an convergence of user-generated content and Web 2.0, which are the components that builds up the proper definition of social media. Based on that premise, we define social media as “ a group of Internet-based applications that builds on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0 and allows the creation and exchange of user-generated content” (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2009). It is to take note that journalism institutions and social media users play a crucial role in the dissemination of information.

Definition of Digital Journalism

Digital journalism first surfaced on several scholarly publications during the mid-1990s when the Internet was easily accessible through the World Wide Web (Steensen, Grøndahl Larsen, Hågvar & Fonn, 2019). This term is also exhibited in different forms, such as online journalism, cyberjournalism, new media journalism, interactive journalism, and multimedia journalism (Kawamoto, 2003). Digital journalism is an upcoming yet essential trend for future research on the role of journalism in the society. On that account, digital journalism is defined as “the transforming social practice of selecting, interpreting, editing and distributing factual information of perceived public interest to various kinds of audiences in specific, but changing genres and formats” (Steensen, Grøndahl Larsen, Hågvar and Fonn, 2019). Consequently, authors believe that digital journalism shapes as well as is shaped by the new technologies, and it is able to create a symbiotic relationship with users.

In short, these definitions of the key concepts above will be used throughout this report for better understanding of this topic. This report will be addressing the doubts of traditional journalism in the future through the discussion between traditional and social media journalism. Plus, the term of “social media journalism” will be used throughout this report which has equal meanings with the term of digital journalism

Traditional Journalism and Social Media Journalism

Current State of Traditional Journalism

The best way to view its current state would be definitely viewing it from the perception of news consumers nowadays. This section can be analyzed from time spent on traditional media, readership, and circulation.

Time spent on traditional media is the most direct way to identify how significant traditional journalism plays in an individual’s daily life. As said always, time is money, consumers would never want to waste their precious time on unimportant matters. Statista.com (2020) provided a set of statistics about the average time spent daily on digital and traditional media in the U.S. from 2011 until 2020, numbers on traditional media was gradually dropping while digital media was growing rapidly. It is observable that traditional media are losing its consumers to digital media annually. Readership of print media is simultaneously affected by changing preference of consumers. As recent studies from RoyMorgan.com (2020) show that overall newspapers organizations in Australia have faced decline of their readership within one year. To discuss in-depth, the study on circulation of newspapers can directly translate to whether news organizations are making profit currently. For instance, daily newspaper circulation sales in Canada dropped 221 million dollars between year 2016 and 2018 (‘Newspaper publishers, advertising and circulation sales by type of paper’, 2019). This situation occurring around the world for traditional journalism is unfavorable as it threatens their position in society and survival in the news industry with the emergence of digital media.

Social Media Journalism

This section will be discussing statistics of social media journalism in three parts, which are social media as news source, attitudes towards social media journalism, and journalist’s attitude on social media journalism. Additionally, case studies will be related to discuss how news organizations utilize social media.

From a compiled survey among eight European countries (Pew Research Center, 2018), with at least 55% of the adults in six European countries obtain their news from social media sites. In addition, Italy showed the highest results whilst Germany’s results were the opposite. On the other hand, 68% of American adults also indicated that they obtain news from social media (Shearer & Matsa, 2018). Moreover, Facebook was the most commonly used social media platform for news among the eight European countries as well as America, while followed by Twitter and YouTube as second most used platforms for news in the respective areas (Pew Research Center, 2018; Shearer & Matsa, 2018). These statistics evidenced social media are used by the majority people in the Western countries to obtain their daily news. It is observable social media as main news source is already an trend.

Regardless of the social media news as the possible future trend, accuracy of news source is still a major concern for news consumers. Misleading of fake news can disrupt the social stability of countries. Statistics shows that social media are considered as the major contributor of providing misleading information compared to other channels like search engines (Newman, Fletcher, Schulz, Andi & Nielsen, 2020). In spite of Facebook being the main social media to obtain news, many countries were most concerned of Facebook (29%) as the social media platform that provides misleading information (Newman, Fletcher, Schulz, Andi & Nielsen, 2020). In contrast, WhatsApp was bringing more concern to countries such as Brazil and Malaysia with the numbers of 35% and 33% of people in both countries. Apart from the concerns mentioned, the acceptance level of news consumers on convergence of journalism and social media is also a major concern. According to Hermida, Fletcher, Korell and Logan (2012), 39% among 1600 of Canadian news consumers agreed that journalists should utilize Twitter to accomplish their job whilst only 34% disagreed to the approach. Remaining only 26% of the respondents expressed uncertainty to this approach. Thus, the high usage of social media as news source does not actually contribute to the positive attitude towards social media journalism of news consumers.

Nevertheless, from the journalist’s perspective, Michellegarrett.com (2017) stated that 42% of journalists states that more than five types of social media were used to perform journalistic tasks weekly. The research stated the leading types of social media utilized were social networks with 90% of popular usage, followed by microblogs being the second with 67% of popular usage. In fact, social media has turned out to be an essential tool for journalists as 48% of respondents claimed they are unable to accomplish their job without social media. Michellegarrett.com (2017) took a closer look on the effects of social media on journalism, majority journalists perceive that values of traditional journalism are disrupted. Journalists view social media journalism in a much more interesting way since they are the vital players in the industry. As a whole, these statistics have exhibited social media’s position in today’s society.

How News Organizations utilize Social Media

The most recent event was the massive explosion in Beirut, Lebanon on 4 August 2020 which a video of an explosion raised from the city’s port area became viral around the internet. The explosion directly affected news organizations that were located in Beirut as many buildings were damaged seriously (Allsop, 2020). Oliver Holmes of The Guardian (2020), started a live update on the incident to inform readers the situation of Beirut from time to time. It can be observed that many of the verified contents were retrieved from Twitter posted by different users. However, Allsop (2020) argued that the viralness had led many Twitter users to have ignorant discussions on the issues, which this will enhance difficulties for journalists to retrieve information.

Another case study would be George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis on 25 May 2020. The tragedy emerged from a viral Facebook video of 46-year-old George Floyd handcuffed and pinned down by a police officer to the ground with a knee on Floyd’s neck, leading to his death (Deliso, 2020). However, the statement published by the Minneapolis police department was short and lacked with detail (Burch & Eligon, 2020). The footage from social media allowed journalists to investigate the news from another perspective rather than just blindly report based on the police’s statement (Burch & Eligon, 2020). Moreover, Floyd’s death raised the racial tensions in America which led to protests in various parts of the country. Local journalists took the responsibility to report the protests in their area. Thus, journalists and news organizations posted the challenges, situations and opinions of the “Black Lives Matter” protest on Twitter by time to time (Chakrabarti & Kotsonis, 2020).

Furthermore, another relatable case study would be Malaysia’s 14th General Election (GE14) during 2018. GE14 was an historical moment for Malaysians as the opposition have defeated the ruling government Barisan Nasional for the first time in 61 years. It has been recognized by scholars that social media has played a vital role for the results of GE14 (Nizah & Bakar, 2019). News organizations utilized social media to overcome its major challenges of low immediacy. Likewise, a live report of GE14 by Malaysiakini (2018) had up to 974 shares on various social media platforms. As such, With the deep penetration of social media among Malaysians, news organizations were able to obtain and disseminate information of both citizens and politicians. For instance, The Star (2019) utilized the collection of posts among citizens expressing their delights of the election results on Twitter and Instagram.

The Future of Journalism

Could Social Media be replacing Traditional Journalism ?

By discussing all the points above, it leaves us with one main question that is always concerned. The question would be: “ Could social media be replacing traditional journalism?”. The journalism industry has always been concerned as the influence of social media journalism expands continuously alongside with the development of technology and the Internet. Being replaced basically means that one cannot exist individually. However, we address this question by saying traditional journalism cannot be replaced by social media but it should adapt with features of social media to amplify its powers. Reasons will be further elaborated in this upcoming section.

Firstly, traditional journalism is irreplaceable with its credibility that social media journalism cannot achieve. The common functions of journalism can be recognized as to report, to analyze, to filter, to edit and to disseminate (Beckett & Mansell, 2008). Unfortunately, social media journalism is only able to execute these functions without the level of professionalism that traditional journalism possesses. Besides, citizen journalists may be free from restraints such as organizational and advertisement pressures to disseminate greater plurality of perspectives (Tilley & Cokley, 2007), but again, the credibility and professionalism of the information will definitely lose to traditional media. Take the COVID-19 pandemic as an example, Jurkowitz and Mitchell (2020) identified that 57% of respondents claimed social media were the main contributors for fake news of COVID-19. Certainly, the polluted sources from social media journalism is misleading the public rather than providing greater truthfulness. Traditional journalism is irreplaceable in the society when it can provide quality news with credibility. Statistics showed 64% of the adults trust traditional media as their selected news source more than 44% of adults who said social media (‘Trust in news sources worldwide 2018 | Statista’, 2019). Thus, social media journalism’s lack of credibility level makes it hard to replace traditional journalism.

Moreover, social media should be instead viewed as a tool for journalism to amplify its power of check and balance. An expert interviewed by Judy Dempsey (2017) said that social media serves more like a medium of message and has only changed the nature of how journalistic tasks are performed. Undoubtedly, social media has brought news dissemination to another level of immediacy and timeliness. Social media has made the access for diverse information become extremely easy for news consumers and journalists. As stated by Vis (2013), the vital role Twitter plays in sourcing breaking news is contributed by its platform openness and effortless access to data for its users. Besides news consumers, journalists also benefit from social media to retrieve both breaking and routine news such as Facebook and Twitter (Paulussen, Harder, & Johnson, 2018). Transparent flow of information leads to a well-informed public which enforces the check and balance power on the government. Instead of concerning whether social media will replace traditional journalism, social media should be alternatively viewed as a tool or medium for traditional journalism to expand its power.

Other than that, traditional journalism will never be replaced as themselves are adapting to the digital trend. We can acknowledge that majority news organizations today face the challenges of decline in circulation and readership which is concerning to their survival in the industry. (“Australian Newspaper Readership, 12 months to March 2020”, 2020; ‘Newspaper publishers, advertising and circulation sales by type of paper’, 2019 ). To encounter these concerns, traditional journalism shifts their practices to the digital landscape. A study by Lily Canter (2014) proved that majority journalists from two local British newspapers are willing to adapt to the Web 2.0 trend whereby one of respondents claiming that it is a positive thing to embrace these developments. The willingness to adapt can also be seen in Malaysia as Mycen.com.my (n.d.) that listed the mainstream medias with their own Facebook pages, for example Berita Harian, China Press, New Strait Times and more. The effort to make presence on social media platforms does not mean traditional journalism will discard their original practices. Hence, adaptation of traditional journalism makes it irreplaceable yet utilizing social media to stabilize its position.

In brief, it would be difficult yet impossible for social media to replace traditional journalism. The credibility that traditional journalism provides in its news content is unattainable by social media. Likewise, social media has only changed the nature of how traditional journalism operates since it is only a tool for traditional journalism. Intrinsically, traditional journalism has made its presence on social media platforms to encounter various future concerns. Therefore, regardless of the platforms journalism is practiced, it is significant for it to maintain its professionalism for the sake of a better check and balance that contributes to a more democratic society. Meanwhile, scholars changing their focus to studying “how journalism has been integrated into the digital” would be more meaningful for the future of journalism (Broersma, 2019, p. 516).

As the digital media industry grows and the print industry wears away, the author Jane B. Singer of the chapter Theorizing Digital Journalism: The Limits of Linearity and the Rise of Relationships explores the theories and differences of analog journalism and digital journalism. Singer analyzes the characteristics of journalism by creating the “Five I’s” (Singer 2016) as well as ending the chapter with a suggestion as to how further journalism studies should be done and what questions journalism scholars should be asking.

Singer begins with the ‘limited effects’ that journalism brings when defining the term – journalism. To Singer, the news is always changing and there’s never one definition because it has slowly shifted from analogical to digital. Today’s media is considered to be more intertwined when it comes to readers, viewers, and listeners. Although, Singer goes more in-depth discussing the challenges the definition of journalism may bring in today’s society and takes readers through four different theories done by communication scholars which bring light to those challenges.

One of the theories is the Spiral of Silence Theory, which, in short, as Singer describes it is “the media has a significant effect on audience behavior.” (Singer 2016) More specifically, one scholar, Noelle-Neumann, said that oftentimes when a major event happens, people will respond by taking note of the public’s opinion. Which if a person believes their opinion is not popular, then we will most likely remain silent so they are not alone or as Noelle-Neumann puts it “avoiding isolation.” (Noelle-Newmann 1993) When people do this, the more favored view becomes more prevalent, this would be considered the spiraling effect. Singer describes this notion as a “one-two punch” (Singer 2016) for news outlets. What this means is that in the beginning portion of a news outlet’s coverage, it’ll rely heavily on the basic information for people of what they need to know and then it will focus on the popular vs not popular views of an issue. This will, in turn, tell people “what is safe to say in public without being ostracized.” (Singer 2016) These same effects do not seem to stand the same when it comes to the digital environment. When it comes to the unpopular opinions on issues such as abortion or same-sex marriage, Singer found that those people who support those unsought after opinions are not shy of sharing them. It can be said that social media sites such as Facebook or Twitter can help people voice their minority opinion because they don’t have to deal with those face to face consequences.

Another theory that Singer makes note of is the cultivation theory by Gerbner and Gross. This theory implies that “watching television affects our world view, typically leading to a heightened sense of risk and insecurity.” (Gerbner and Gross 1976) Singer gives examples of how exactly TV affects our world views, one of them is that topics such as racism, crime, violence, and victimization have an impact on people’s attitudes. Another example is that those who watch a lot of action movies or shows have an increased chance of feeling anxious. As for digital media, most studies have focused on video games rather than TV, despite the fact that the theory was built for studies around the TV. Singer stated that most of the work done involving the cultivation theory includes TV and its effects on “perceptions of such matter ass materialism, immigration, and violence.” (Singer 2016) Recent studies done around the theory have found that more digital technology use often leads to decreasing trust in social institutions and participation in society, this theory was tested immensely when the internet was first introduced.

The next two theories, the Knowledge Gap Hypothesis and the Agenda-Setting Theory, have often been used to study political information within the journalism field. The knowledge gap hypothesis revolves around the idea that those with higher socioeconomic status will receive information a lot faster than those with a lower socioeconomic status, therefore creating a knowledge gap between the two statuses. Singer said that the effects of this theory are often found in areas of “general knowledge such as public affairs and health rather than areas of niche interest.” (Singer 2016) It should be noted that Singer suggested that controversy over a local issue tends to decrease the gap. This is due to people gaining motivation for themselves to look into the topic because it may affect them or also, other people they may know to tell them about the issue. In contrast to digital media, most studies at the start of the internet focused on the “digital divide between those with and without online access.” (Singer 2016) Nowadays, studies are focused on the use of digital media and the information it can provide. Oftentimes, there is still a gap in knowledge even though people may still have access to a computer or a phone. On the other hand, social media is known to maybe fix this problem or gap thanks to its ability to share a variable amount of information on people’s timelines. People often come across current new or issues when it comes to social therefore increasing their knowledge. Singer mentions that social media can’t close the gap when it comes to political participation, especially with sites such as Facebook and Twitter, which “amplify” (Singer 2016) the inequality of political participation.

The last theory, the agenda-setting theory, centers around the press and their ability to tell people what to think about rather than telling people what to think about a particular issue. This theory is considered to be the easiest to test because of its effects on people. The theory was tested on the media’s impact on political issues. It was found that voter’s shared ideas about issues that the media covered the most. Within the digital world, the theory has not been so widespread. Nowadays, online blogs along, with newspapers, have more influence to sway people’s opinions, this allows people, not just the media, to set the agenda. As far as social media, it was discovered that “media actors on Twitter have far more agenda-setting influence than other actors do.” (Singer 2016) This was especially seen in the 2016 presidential election when journalists, from larger outlets, would oftentimes set the agenda on Twitter rather than the politicians.

In this chapter by Singer, she also discusses “The Five I’s” (Singer 2016) which describes the characteristics of digital journalism today. The five I’s include immersive, interconnected, individualized, iterative, and instantaneous. Immersive refers to the fact that people today are constantly using social media or, just media in general, and it’s not a separate aspect of their lives. Interconnected specifies the theory that communication in the digital age isn’t linear meaning there isn’t just a news source giving the people news. People today can become that news source if they wanted to through social media, making the digital news aged interconnected. The word individualized points out that in today’s world, the billions of users online have their news individualized to them, meaning people can choose which news they want to see or hear. When Singer examines the word iterative, she starts to compare how newspapers and broadcast news are unchangeable while the same can’t be said for digital news. Digital news allows for a “fluid conversation” (Singer 2016) as Singer invokes to it being, in a sense, everlasting and changing. Lastly, Singer refers to digital media being instantaneous, suggesting that more than ever before journalists are more concerned about the accuracy of media because they are producing the news so fast.

Singer ends the chapter stating there needs to be “a call for ‘relationship effects.’” Singers suggest that as the linear communication within the digital world seems to be shrinking, theorists are becoming more uncomfortable. With that being said, Singer says there need to be new effects theories – “one that expressly encompasses ‘relationship effects.’” Singer adds that the relationship between journalists and audiences are extremely important, where theorists must do more research on them. “An immersive media universe invites melding the linear effects tradition with the intellectually rich understanding of how humans interact and create social and cultural connections.” (Singer 2016) Singer concludes the chapter by asking how the digital world may affect the relationships between the audiences and journalists within the future – especially since digital media allows for a nonstop flow of news.