Public Journalism and Public Life: Why Telling the News Is Not Enough

by Merritt; Davis Buzz

• ISBN13: 9780805827071
• ISBN10: 0805827072
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1997-09-01
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

The original edition of Public Journalism and Public Life, published in 1995, was the first comprehensive argument in favor of public journalism. Designed to focus the discussion about public journalism both within and outside the profession, the book has accomplished its purpose. In the ensuing years, the debate has continued; dozens of newspapers and thousands of journalists have been experimenting with the philosophy, while others still dispute its legitimacy. This larger second edition further develops the philosophy, responds to the arguments against it, outlines how specific principles can be applied, and explains the importance of public deliberation and the role of values in public journalism. Divided into three sections, it can be used as a supplement to the first edition or as a starting point for those being newly introduced to the ideas that have been the subject of debate within the profession and among those interested and involved in civic life at all levels. Section 1 summarizes two major arguments -- why journalism and public life are inseparably bound in success or failure and why the way journalism operates in the current environment fosters failure more often than success. Section 2 looks at the evolution of the profession's culture, its impact on the author's extensive career, and how he grew to believe that substantive change is needed in journalism. Section 3 deals with the implications of public journalism philosophy -- how it requires the application of additional values to daily work, its evolution in the early years and where its current focus should be, plus various questions about the future of cyberspace.

Table of Contents

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION	xi
PART I	1	(32)
ONE WHY CHANGE?	3	(14)
Journalism's Role in Democracy	4	(5)
What "Information?..."	9	(1)
... What "Agora?"	10	(1)
... And What Values?	11	(1)
Objectives and Objections	12	(2)
A Watershed Debate	14	(3)
TWO UNDERSTANDING A PECULIAR CULTURE	17	(16)
Born in a Defensive Crouch	17	(2)
The Tyranny of Space and Time	19	(4)
Declaring Winners and Losers	23	(1)
Objectivity, Detachment and Credibility	23	(3)
Does A + Z Equal Balance?....Or Accuracy?	26	(2)
The Adversary Axiom	28	(2)
Is That All There Can Be?	30	(3)
PART II	33	(60)
THREE LEARNING TO NOT SEE	35	(9)
The Uncomfortable Armor of Detachment	37	(3)
The Change of November 1963	40	(3)
More and More News	43	(1)
FOUR SOARING TOWARD A CRASH	44	(16)
The Dangers of Transience	47	(1)
Caught Up in it All	48	(1)
The Eagleton Affair	49	(3)
Journalism and Politics: Reluctant Symbiosis	52	(5)
Making Symbiosis Work	57	(3)
FIVE THE LIMITS OF TOUGHNESS	60	(8)
Post-Watergate Syndrome	62	(3)
Two Faces of Toughness	65	(1)
True Toughness	66	(2)
SIX CONNECT AND DISCONNECTIONS	68	(15)
Telling the News, Endlessly	69	(2)
Telling the News in Wichita	71	(2)
Creating Disconnections	73	(1)
How the Public Decides	73	(3)
Trained Incapacity and "The Swamp"	76	(2)
Episodic Reporting	78	(4)
The Challenge: Can We Handle Change?	82	(1)
SEVEN MAKING A BREAK	83	(10)
Developing a Different Way	84	(4)
Moving Beyond Elections	88	(3)
Public Life Changes Outside Journalism	91	(2)
PART III	93	(53)
EIGHT THE VALUE OF VALUES	95	(8)
The Fair-Minded Participant	96	(1)
Two Critical Disjunctures	97	(2)
Bright Spot in Akron	99	(1)
The Abortion Example	100	(3)
NINE THE VALUE OF DELIBERATION	103	(9)
An Unnatural Act?	105	(3)
Recognizing Deliberation: Some Examples	108	(4)
TEN SO FAR, SO GOOD ... MOSTLY	112	(9)
Public Journalism Has Journalism Done To It	113	(2)
North Carolina Election, 1996	115	(2)
Avoiding One Journalism	117	(4)
ELEVEN SOME TOOLS AND THEIR USES	121	(10)
A Different "Nut Graf"	122	(2)
Beyond Paragraph	124	(7)
TWELVE CYBERSPACE: FINDING OUR WAY	131	(8)
Alternative Futures	132	(1)
Different Communities	133	(3)
In Search of a Future Role	136	(1)
Technology is Not Enough	137	(2)
THIRTEEN SO WHAT'S IT ALL ABOUT?	139	(7)
If Not Journalists, Who?	143	(1)
Steps for Getting There	143	(3)
EPILOGUE	146	(2)
REFERENCES	148	(2)
INDEX	150