Interesting:
Lincoln Steffens
The whole “crime wave” in this story was false. It wasn’t that more crimes were being committed: it was just that the two reporters (Steffens and Riis) were competing to report crimes before the other. I found this part of the book really interesting because it made me realize that what journalists report really have an impact on what I do. If I hear about a mugging or a rape in a specific area, I will be more careful when I go into that area, if I go into that area at all.
Themes:
What is Journalism?
Journalism produces and distributes information usually on a daily basis about issues or events going on in society that are important or are related to the public’s interest. Basically, the general function of journalism is communication – communication through shared symbols and meanings. According to Alexander, journalism is “information and commentary on contemporary affairs taken to be publicly important.
Does News Matter?
It seems that news does have the power to create the world we live in because members of the media do have the ability to depict the world through their own thoughts. The idea that news has the power to create the world we live in may come from the fact that we are unable to escape media because it comes in so many different forms and is always on, but there are other less noticeable factors that are influential as well. However, proving the media actually does have any influence is extremely hard to prove. This could be due to several factors: we oversimplify how the media affects society; there is also proof that families, schools, etc. also have great influence over society; and news only distributes information, it can’t provide rewards or punishments.
The media helps to equalize the audience because it provides the idea of commonality and it helps to sustain the idea of democracy. The audience is omnipresent, comes from all walks of life, and has the ability to react to news stories either positively or negatively.
Media Bias
In journalism, the idea of bias is “that the reporter, editor, or news institution owner knows what the real event looks like, but will color it to advance a political, economic, or ideological aim.” But this idea of bias has been almost completely replaced by framing. Framing refers to the way stories are selected, what points or ideas in the story are emphasized as important and how the story is presented to show its impact on the world.
A few examples of framing are that many critics say journalists have a very liberal outlook, most journalists believe they are professionals and aren’t partisan and journalists tend to report more on issues that involve those that are most like them. Obviously, framing and bias do exist in journalism. However, we have to remember that news isn’t able to reward or punish, it is only able to relay information.
Questions:
Do you believe the media influences your behavior and shapes your world?
What do you think Obama was trying to achieve by appearing on The Tonight Show rather than CNN or another news program?
In our book, Alexander states that, “So long as information is publicly available, political actors have to behave as if someone in the public is paying attention.” Do you think this is a true statement regarding political figures and why?
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Great thought provoking questions Alexi! Thanks. I look forward tomorrow's discussion.
ReplyDeleteIn the second page of the reading in "The Sociology of News," it says that journalists not only report reality but create it. Don't journalists find the reality that people are unaware of and expose it? And doesn't "creating reality" mean that you are simply making something up? I thought journalists revealed reality, but did not create it.
ReplyDeleteMaking News:
ReplyDeleteI do not believe that the “crime wave” was false. This section of the book was describing how journalists are able to cut and highlight sections of a story to create a more elaborate or interesting story. I agree that during the “crime wave” there was no dramatic increase in crimes but there was a change in how the news portrayed each crime and the number of crimes the news covered.
Does Media Matter?:
Media is extremely powerful. I believe it shapes the World we live in. People will base their actions over their knowledge of a situation. For example, the Y2K scare crated a contagious spread of fear over the World and influenced the daily actions of a person. The obsessive buying of batteries and canned foods were actions committed because of how the media portrayed the coming of the year 2000. After the Columbine shootings, High Schools were influenced to take action for their own students and became more cautious. The portrayal of the Vietnam War in the media developed a huge anti-war movement. Even the anti-war protests that were covered by the media determined whether or not a person left their home on a certain day. This theory of the media determining the outcomes of a situation is not measurable and could never be proven. But the actions that humans put into a cause can only be possible by knowledge of that cause that is most likely derive from the media’s coverage. The media controls how every significant event is portrayed, and like journalists, the media can cut and highlight however they want to. The media does matter and does influence the World we live in.
Questions:
Is journalism seen today as a honest and accurate source?
How have you changed your behaviors because of the medias coverage? http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=2313342n%3fsource=search_video