Chapter 3: The News Media’s Role in Society

Journalism’s Purpose and Guiding Principles

Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel, The Elements of Journalism: What Newspeople Should Know and the Public Should Expect (New York: Crown Publishers, 2001). The authors discuss journalism’s purpose in essays on 9–10 and 16–19. They list the principles of the profession on 12–13.

Leonard Downie Jr and Robert G. Kaiser, The News About the News: American Journalism in Peril (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2002). The authors discuss journalism’s purpose on 6.

Ken Auletta, “Whom do journalists work for?,” the Red Smith Lecture in Journalism at the University of Notre Dame, December 2005.

“Social Responsibility” and Journalism in the Early and Mid-20th Century

David Shatz, ChaimI. Waxman and Nathan J. Diament, Tikkun Olam: Social Responsibility in Jewish Thought and Law (Jason Aronson, 1997).

Conrad C. Fink, Media Ethics: In the Newsroom and Beyond (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1998), 246–7.

Susan E. Tifft and Alex S. Jones, The Trust: The Private and Powerful Family Behind The New York Times (London: Little, Brown, 1999). Adolph Ochs’ statement is on xix.

Downie and Kaiser, The News About the News. Eugene Meyer’s statement is on 13.

Cassandra Tate, “What do ombudsmen do?”, Columbia Journalism Review, May-June 1984(Chadwyck PAO Collection 2).Tate’s article cited “a 1916 issue of American Magazine” for the stories about shipwrecked cats. The reporter’s response was quoted by Kovach and Rosenstiel in The Elements of Journalism on 39.

Neil Henry, American Carnival: Journalism under Siege in an Age of New Media (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007). Henry describes the Tulsa riot on 76.

Paul E. Steiger, “Read all about it,” The Wall Street Journal, Dec. 29, 2007. As he nears retirement, the editor Paul E Steiger comments on his 26 years with Journal and his 41-year career in journalism.

Jack Fuller, News Values (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996). Fuller’s use of deception is related on 45–6.

Robert J. Lifton and Greg Mitchell, Hiroshima in America: Fifty Years of Denial (New York: Putnam, 1995). The William Laurence case is described on 10–22; 51–2.

Reese Cleghorn, “Lippmann on the new objective journalism: In 1931 he thought a profession might be born, and then professional schools,” American Journalism Review.

The Hutchins Commission Defines Journalistic Duty

Commission on Freedom of the Press, A Free and Responsible Press: A General Report on Mass Communication: Newspapers, Radio, Motion Pictures, Magazines, and Books (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1947), 20–30.

Frederick S. Siebert, Theodore Peterson, and WilburSchramm, Four Theories of the Press (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1956).

Steven K. Knowlton and Patrick Parsons, The Journalist’s Moral Compass (Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 1995), 207–8.

An Ethical Awakening in the Profession

Mark A. Nelson, “Newspaper ethics code and the NLRB,” Freedom of InformationCenter Report No. 353, Columbia, Mo.(Academic databases)

“Games newspeople play,” The Quill, August 1973. (Academic databases)

George N. Gill, “It’s your move, publishers,” The Quill, August 1973. (Academic databases)

“Junketing journalists,” Time, Jan. 28, 1974.(News databases)

“The freebies game,” Newsweek, Feb. 3, 1975. (News databases)

Karen Schneider and Marc Gunther, “Those newsroom ethics codes,” Columbia Journalism Review, July/August 1985.(Academic databases)

Alicia C. Shepard, “To err is human, to correct divine,” American Journalism Review, June 1998. Many editors now feel that readily acknowledging mistakes can help strengthen credibility.

Is journalism a profession? Wilbert E. Moore, The Professions: Roles and Rules (New York: Russell Sage, 1970), defines a profession, 4–22.

The Challenges of Contemporary Journalism

Deborah Potter, “What would Murrow do?”, American Journalism Review, October 2008. Half a century after he castigated the broadcast industry, problems persist.

The American Editor, “What are editors doing about ethics,” a special issue for November/December 2003.

Roy Peter Clark, “Red light, green light: a plea for balance in media ethics,” poynteronline, May 17, 2005.

Ellen Hume, “Tabloids, talk radio, and the future of news: Technology’s impact on journalism,” the Annenberg Washington Program in Communications Policy Studies of Northwestern University, 1995.

Journalists’ Performance on September 11

Cathy Trost and Alicia C. Shepard for the Newseum, Running Toward Danger: Stories Behind the Breaking News of 9/11 (Lanham, Md: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Inc., 2002).

Point of View: A Manifesto for Change in Journalism

Geneva Overholser, “On behalf of journalism: A manifesto for change.” An updated version of the report from which the Point of View is excerpted.