The Two W's of Journalism: The Why and What of Public Affairs Reporting

by Merritt,Davis Buzz

• ISBN13: 9780805847307
• ISBN10: 0805847308
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-09-01
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

In the information-rich 21st century, the journalist's task of providing news has become more and more complex. Technological advances allow access to an increasing amount of information, making more difficult the task of deciding what to pass along and how it should be framed. In particular, this circumstance has huge implications for the news media's unquestioned agenda-setting function in society. In this timely volume, authors Davis "Buzz" Merritt and Maxwell McCombs explore public affairs journalism, a practice that lies at the core of the journalism profession. They go beyond the journalistic instruction for reporting and presenting news to reflect on

Author Biography

Davis "Buzz" Merritt was a reporter and editor for Knight Newspapers and Knight Ridder Inc. for 43 years, retiring after 23 years as editor of The Wichita Eagle. Since leaving The Eagle, he has taught media ethics and a seminar on journalism and democracy at the University of Kansas and Wichita State University, consulted with news organizations and written articles, newspaper columns, and books Maxwell McCombs, who is internationally recognized for his research on the agenda-setting role of mass communication, holds the Jesse H. Jones Centennial Chair in Communication at the University of Texas at Austin and is a professor on the associated faculty of Catholic University in Santiago, Chile. Prior to joining the Texas faculty, McCombs was the John Ben Snow Professor of Research at Syracuse University and also served simultaneously for 10 years as director of the News Research Center of the American Newspaper Publishers Association. McCombs has been on the faculties of the University of North Carolina and U.C.L.A. and a reporter for the New Orleans Times-Picayune

Table of Contents

About the Authors	p. xiii
Preface	p. ix
Introduction	p. xi
The Why	p. 3
Why We Have a First Amendment	p. 9
Conflicting Visions of Democracy	p. 19
The Evolution of Journalism	p. 31
What the Public Needs to Know	p. 40
Three Publics for the News	p. 50
Technology and the New Millennium	p. 60
The What	p. 69
Sampling the News	p. 72
Framing Stories and Positioning Citizens	p. 80
Positioning Ourselves as Journalists	p. 91
Deliberation	p. 106
Elections	p. 119
Polling--Use and Abuse	p. 132
A Map of the Future	p. 146
Author Index	p. 151
Subject Index	p. 155
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