COMM 168 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Investigative Journalism, Transmedia Storytelling, Ben Bradlee
What do we expect from the news?
● Accuracy and verification
○ Reporting facts accurately, and telling the truth about facts
● Fairness
● Neutrality
● Integrity (ethics)
● Proportion (weighing different information differently)
● Taste
● Accountability
● Courage
Why is journalism different from other forms of literature?
● Accuracy
○ True, not made up, distorted, twisted or rigged
● Verification
○ Proving rather than asserting
● Attribution
○ Where does the info come from?
○ What are the motives of people who give the information?
■ Consumers don’t like anonymous information
● Balance and fairness
○ All sides are represented and acknowledged
○ But not necessarily given equal weight
● Neutrality (in news reporting)
○ Don’t express opinions
○ Don’t take a side
○ Don’t participate
■ “No cheering in the press box”
● Clarity
● Social Responsibility
○ Give a voice to people who are voiceless
The Media Food Chain
● News story or article
● Column
● Editorial
○ LIke a column but signed by no one
● Commentary
● Release or press release
● Posts, blogs, tweets, etc
● Advertorial
find more resources at oneclass.com
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○ Changing delivery platforms have made something that used to be
obvious very difficult
DON’T confuse these things
News Story
● Written in a newsroom by news staff
● Unbiased and fair
Column
● A signed opinion piece
● Gives personal views of the writer
Editorial
● Institutional voice of the newspaper, TV station or website
● Unsigned
● Usually advocates course of action
● News and editorial staff are completely separate
● Not intended to be fair
Commentary
● “Talking heads”
● In TV or Radio, often journalists and former journalists, academics or experts
○ Goal is to promote ideology or or policy
● Opinion based rather than fact based
● Advertorial: advertising made to look like a news story
● Sponsored content- internet site
● Video news releases “the original fake news”
● Must be clearly identified as advertising
Why is that a story? The elements of news
● Impact
○ Weather, taxes, tuition at PSU
○ Open during shutdown”
■ Law enforcement, military, social security, post office
● Timeliness
○ “There’s nothing older than yesterday’s news”
○ Some stories has “short shelf life”
■ Sports, politics, crime
○ Some have longer
■ Investigations, enterprise stories, Narrative and reconstruction,
Analysis
● Prominence
○ “Names make news”
■ If I get mugged no one will care, if the president did, they’d care
○ Celebrity “News” “names make news”
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● Proximity
○ More people get their news from local TV than any other source
■ Traffic, weather, sports
● Conflict
○ “If it bleeds it leads” “controversial”
■ Could include politics or arguments and debates
● Novelty/Rarity
○ “When a dog bites a man, it’s not news. When a man bites a dog, that’s
news”
● Human interest
○ Find people like me, MAKE ME CARE
All news is not equal
● Real news:
○ Breaking news or “hard” news
● Scheduled news
○ An election, the academy awards,
● Manufactured news
○ Press releases, photo ops, and publicity stunts
● Enterprise
○ Finding out things that you wouldn’t know if the news didn’t cover them
Ethical Journalism
● Codes of ethics
○ Seek (and tell) the truth
■ Tell everything that needs to be told
■ Do not add something that didn’t happen
■ Report the facts accurately and tell the truth about them
○ Act independently
■ Your loyalty is to the truth
■ You represent no one but the public
■ You are an observer not a participant
■ Avoid conflicts of interest
○ Minimize harm
■ Do no harm unnecessarily
■ Show compassion
■
■ Respect ordinary people caught in extraordinary events
○ Be accountable
1/30/18 History of American Journalism - 200 Years of history in 75 minutes
● Early means of communication: church, tavern, post office
○ Unreliable, story can change
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Reporting facts accurately, and telling the truth about facts. True, not made up, distorted, twisted or rigged. Give a voice to people who are voiceless. Like a column but signed by no one. Changing delivery platforms have made something that used to be obvious very difficult. Written in a newsroom by news staff. Institutional voice of the newspaper, tv station or website. News and editorial staff are completely separate. In tv or radio, often journalists and former journalists, academics or experts. Goal is to promote ideology or or policy. Advertorial: advertising made to look like a news story. Video news releases the original fake news . Law enforcement, military, social security, post office. If i get mugged no one will care, if the president did, they"d care. More people get their news from local tv than any other source. Could include politics or arguments and debates. When a dog bites a man, it"s not news.
