J 301F Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Walter Lippmann, News Values, Scale-Invariant Feature Transform
11/21/16
Blur Chapter 9: What We Need fro the Next Jouralis
• The most ambitious and idealized description of how journalists saw their role in the twentieth century
came from Walter Lippmann.
• Lippmann thought that if democracy were to survive journalism needed to find a clearer sense of its role
and elevate itself to perform that role.
• Journalists select and order the medley of face, propaganda, rumor, and suspicion and transform them
into news that is true and reliable.
• The newsroom was the sole intermediary between the citizens and newsmakers.
• Aoe ho ated to eah the puli ith ifoatio eeded to go though the okig pess.
• The gatekeeping function of the press does not disappear entirely, but it is now a smaller dimension of
hat the pess ust poide ad itself is iadeuate to eplai the pess’s ole.
• The norms to which professional journalism aspires include independence, verification, a primary
allegiance to citizens rather than political faction or corporate interests, and a dedication to consideration
of events, rather than a commitment to forcing a specific outcome or policy solution.
• The press should employ an objective and transparent method of gathering and verifying the news.
Beyond Gatekeepers: The New Metaphor
• The reliance on multiple sources and continuous news consumption, represent an enormous shift with
profound implications about public learning.
• Instead of getting the news all at once in an ordered way, scanning the newspaper or watching the whole
newscast, we increasingly acquire our news one story at a time, subject by subject, at different times and
in fragments.
• A lea foad epeiee: i hih e look fo thigs i the es e ae iteested i-for answers to
our question.
• A lea ak epeiee: i hih e put ou feet up ad hae a ahopeso tell us hat’s happeig
or flip through the newspaper.
• Consumers still want traditional news values and sources and a wide array of subject matter. We just
access what we want when we want it.
• Journalism must shift from being a product-oe es ogaizatio’s stoies o ageda- to being more of a
seie that a ase the audiee’s uestios, offe esoues, poide tools.
• In the future, the press will derive its integrity rom what kind of content it delivers and the quality of its
engagement, not from its exclusive role as a sole information provider or intermediary between
newsmakers and the public.
• Authenticator
o We will require the press to help authenticate for us what facts are true and reliable.
o We will need some way of distinguishing what information we can trust, and some basis in
evidence for why that is the case.
o We need some way of sorting out what is believable and accurate amid the growing array of
arguments coming at us from all sides.
o It will require that journalists provide this information with more documentation and
transparency about sources and methods than in the past.
o We can no longer assume that something is trustworthy because we ready it in the paper or
heard it from the media.
• Sense Maker
o To put information into context and to look for connections so that, as consumers, we can decide
what the news means to us.
o The expansion of available information has made creating knowledge more difficult.
o When information is in greater supply, knowledge becomes harder to create, because we have to
sift through more data to arrive at it.
o Sense making is not the same thing as interpreting the news.
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11/21/16
o Sense making implies looking for connections among facts to help us answer questions on our
own.
o It implies looking for information that explains why or how things happened.
o It implies looking at the implications of the news and identifying what questions are left
unanswered.
• Investigator
o Journalism that exposes what is being kept hidden or secret is so central, so essential, to a
democratic government that its importance is fundamental to the new journalism as well as the
old.
o The press stands as an independent prosecutor of sorts.
o It shapes agenda, it does not follow agenda.
• Witness Bearer
o Simply showing up and bearing witness to events.
o There are certain things that occur in any community that should be observed, monitored, and
scrutinized.
o When they are not, government and the people who want to exploit it are more apt to act out of
self-interest than public good.
o A critical step is to identify those places in the community that must be monitored for basic civic
integrity and to show up, and by having a presence, tell those in power they are being watched.
o If resources do not exist, here lies a potential for the creation of new partnerships with citizens,
new bonds that can energize communities.
o It is possible that more self-interested groups will fill this space to control the information flow
about critical points.
o Journalism is apt to do stories that people are already talking about rather than those that focus
on what is being ignored.
o We need journalism to make a special effort to gather the news others ignore and not just add
another voice to the chorus because it is an easy way to bring traffic to a Web site.
• Empowerer
o Mutual empowerment
o The citizen is empowered by sharing experience and knowledge that informs others-including
journalists.
o The journalist is empowered by tapping into experience and expertise beyond his or her formal
and official sources.
o It starts with recognizing that the consumer or citizen is a powerful partner in this process,
someone to be listened to and helped, not lectured at.
o How to put information in a context that is useful, that offers consumers ways to act on it, that
tells them how they might do so, and where else they can go for more information, and does so
while events are still unfolding.
o The journalist and the consumer also must respect one another.
o The consumer must accept that the journalist is dedicated to facts and is trying to present them
to help the consumer think for herself.
o And the journalist, whether in an old newsroom or new, must respect the citize’s apait to
understand information and act on it.
• Smart Aggregator
o We need a smart aggregator that patrols the Web on our behalf and goes beyond what
computer algorithms or generic aggregator Web sites can offer.
o For a news organization to be really helpful, it must also point its audience to other Web sources
that it considers valuable.
o Smart aggregators should share sources they rely on, the stories they find illuminating, the
information that informed them.
o Should save people time and steer them to trusted sources.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Blur chapter 9: what we need fro(cid:373) the (cid:862)next jour(cid:374)alis(cid:373)(cid:863) The most ambitious and idealized description of how journalists saw their role in the twentieth century came from walter lippmann. Lippmann thought that if democracy were to survive journalism needed to find a clearer sense of its role and elevate itself to perform that role. Journalists select and order the medley of face, propaganda, rumor, and suspicion and transform them into news that is true and reliable. The newsroom was the sole intermediary between the citizens and newsmakers: a(cid:374)(cid:455)o(cid:374)e (cid:449)ho (cid:449)a(cid:374)ted to (cid:396)ea(cid:272)h the pu(cid:271)li(cid:272) (cid:449)ith i(cid:374)fo(cid:396)(cid:373)atio(cid:374) (cid:374)eeded to go th(cid:396)ough the (cid:862)(cid:449)o(cid:396)ki(cid:374)g p(cid:396)ess(cid:863). The gatekeeping function of the press does not disappear entirely, but it is now a smaller dimension of (cid:449)hat the p(cid:396)ess (cid:373)ust p(cid:396)o(cid:448)ide a(cid:374)d (cid:271)(cid:455) itself is i(cid:374)ade(cid:395)uate to e(cid:454)plai(cid:374) the p(cid:396)ess"s (cid:396)ole. The press should employ an objective and transparent method of gathering and verifying the news.
