Good News, Bad News

by Iggers, Jeremy

• ISBN13: 9780813329512
• ISBN10: 0813329515
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1998-02-01
• Publisher: Westview Pr

Summary

Public dissatisfaction with the news media frequently gives rise to calls for journalists to live up to the ethical standards of their profession. But what if the fault lies in part with the standards themselves?Jeremy Iggers argues that journalism's institutionalized conversation about ethics largely evades the most important issues regarding the public interest and the civic responsibilities of the press. Changes in the ownership and organization of the news media make these issues especially timely; although journalism's ethics rest on the idea of journalism as a profession, the rise of market-driven journalism has undermined journalists' professional status.Ultimately, argues Iggers, journalism is impossible without a public that cares about the common life. A more meaningful approach to journalism ethics must begin with a consideration of the role of the news media in a democratic society and proceed to look for practical ways in which journalism can contribute to the vitality of public life.Written in an accessible style,Good News, Bad Newsis important reading for journalists, communication scholars, and students.

Author Biography

Jeremy Iggers is a staff writer at the Minneapolis–St. Paul Star Tribune. Currently the Star Tribune’s restaurant critic, he has also written an ethics column and created several public journalism projects for the newspaper. He has a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Minnesota and has written extensively on food issues, ethics, and journalism. His last book, Garden of Eating, won the 1996 Minnesota Book Award for nonfiction.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	xi
Introduction	1	(10)
Janet Cooke's Redemption	1	(5)
Are Journalists Listening?	6	(1)
Taking a Closer Look	6	(1)
The Organization of the Book	7	(4)
1 How Journalists Talk About Ethics	11	(24)
The Case of Janet Cooke	11	(4)
Ethics in Theory and Practice	15	(5)
Conversations About Ethics	20	(7)
Why Journalists Can't Theorize	27	(8)
2 Talking in Code(s): The Foundations of Journalism Ethics	35	(22)
Explicit Formulations of Ethical Principles	38	(7)
Why These Rules?	45	(5)
The Ideological Function of Journalistic Principles	50	(7)
3 Contemporary Ethical Concepts in Historical Context	57	(18)
The Early Partisan Press and Impartiality	58	(1)
The Post-Civil War Press and Sensationalism	59	(2)
The Call to Order and the Rule of Objectivity	61	(2)
Professionalism, Objectivity, and Power	63	(3)
Objectivity in Theory and Practice	66	(1)
The Rise of Social Responsibility	67	(1)
The Decline of Objectivity	68	(2)
The Cooke Case in Cultural and Historical Context	70	(5)
4 Journalism Since Cooke: The Corporate Cultural Revolution	75	(16)
The Increasing Irrelevance of Journalism Ethics	75	(1)
Technological Innovation	76	(1)
The Corporate Cultural Revolution	77	(1)
The Public and the Reader-Customer	78	(4)
The Graphics Revolution	82	(3)
Is Journalism Dead?	85	(1)
Does Journalism Have a Future?	85	(6)
5 Objectivity's Legacy	91	(18)
Is Objectivity Dead?	91	(1)
Defining Objectivity	92	(1)
Facts and Pictures	93	(3)
A Simple View of Objectivity	96	(4)
The Newspaper as a Picture of Daily Reality	100	(6)
What's Wrong with Objectivity in Practice?	106	(3)
6 The Myth of Neutrality and the Ideology of Information	109	(20)
The Myth of Neutrality	109	(2)
Journalists as Newsmakers	111	(5)
The News Media as More Than Information Services	116	(1)
The News Media and the Construction of Social Reality	116	(8)
The Importance of Community and the Public Sphere	124	(5)
7 Toward a Pragmatist Ethical Theory for Journalism	129	(12)
Democracy and Public Participation	130	(4)
Outlines of an Ethical Theory	134	(3)
Professional Principles	137	(4)
8 Toward a Public Journalism	141	(16)
Public Journalism as Journalism About the Public	144	(4)
A Richer Conception of Democracy	148	(1)
Putting Pragmatist Values into Practice: Public Journalism as Journalism with the Public	149	(2)
Increasing Civic Engagement	151	(1)
What Role for Journalists? What Role for Experts?	152	(1)
The Disappearance of Public Space	153	(2)
Beyond Newspapers	155	(2)
Notes	157	(10)
Bibliography	167	(6)
Index	173