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Journalism: Definitions, News Values, Important Dates, Theories, and Diversity
Compiled by Paula M. Poindexter, University of Texas at Austin
Defining News. “News is a perishable commodity, remaining news only until "it has reached the
persons for who it has 'news interest'." (Robert E. Park, "News as a Form of Knowledge: A
Chapter in the Sociology of Knowledge," The American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 45, No. 5
(March, 1940), 669-686.)
“New information about a subject of some public interest that is shared with some portion of the
public". (Mitchell Stephens, A History of News (Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace College Publishers,
1997), 4.)
News as Culture. As culture, news is both a product and a process. It is both the morning paper
or evening newscast and a set of subtle values and rituals that have been adapted to historical and
social circumstances…. As culture, then, news in the twentieth century has become the process of
gathering information and making narrative reports--edited by individuals in a news organization-
-which create selected frames of reference; within those frames, news helps the public make
sense of prominent people, important events, and unusual happenings in everyday life. (Richard
Campbell, Media and Culture: An Introduction to Mass Communication (NY: St. Martin's Press,
1998) 388).
Criteria for Judging News Value: audience, impact, proximity, timeliness, prominence,
unusualness, and conflict. For broadcast news, visual or audio impact is added to the criteria.
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Important Dates in Journalism and News Coverage Diversity
1440: Johann Gutenberg introduced movable type to Europe. He printed the Bible in the 1450s.
(The Press and America: An Interpretive History by Edwin Emery and Michael Emery)
1690: Publick Occurrences, Both Forreign and Domestick, published September 25, 1690 by R.
Pierce and considered by some to be first American newspaper. Because it was banned after the
first issue, some experts say Publick Occurrences does not meet the criteria for being considered
a newspaper. (Emery and Emery, p. 22)
1776: Declaration of Independence, signed July 4.
1787: U.S. Constitution adopted September 17, 1787.
1789: First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the cornerstone of press liberty, adopted as part
of the Bill of Rights, the first 10 amendments to the new U.S. Constitution. "Congress shall make
no law…abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press."
1808: First Latino newspaper El Misisipi published. (Race, Multiculturalism, and the Media:
From Mass to Class Communication by Clint C. Wilson II and Felix Gutierrez, pp 177-181)
1827: First African-American newspaper Freedom's Journal published. In the first issue, the
editors Cornish and Russwurm said: “We wish to plead our own cause. Too long have others
spoken for us.”
1828: First Native American newspaper Cherokee Phoenix published. (Wilson and Gutierrez, pp.
184-189)
1851: The Golden Hills' News, which is considered to be the first Asian American newspaper,
was published. (Wilson and Gutierrez, pp. 189-195)
1890's: "Objectivity" became codified as the great law of journalism. Objectivity rose while
bias declined. News and editorial became two distinct forms of writing. (Just the Facts by David
T.Z. Mindich, p. 114) The "objective" ethic that emerged in the last part of the 19th century
paralleled a rising sense of journalism as a profession. Before the Civil War there were no
professional societies, college programs, or textbooks for journalists in the U.S. American
journalists thought of themselves as professionals as early as 1876 when the Missouri Press
Association was formed, complete with its own code of ethics. (Mindich, p. 115)
1922: The concept of stereotype was introduced and elaborated upon in Walter
Lippmann's Public Opinion. In his elaboration of stereotypes, noted newspaper columnist
Walter Lippmann asserted that generalizations are drawn from samples that are unrepresentative.
He said the “tendency of the casual mind is to pick out or stumble upon a sample which supports
or defies its prejudices, and then to make it the representative of a whole class.” p. 97. In this
book, which Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly called one of the most important
journalism books of the 20th century, Lippman also introduced the phrase "the world outside and
the pictures in our heads," which inspired agenda-setting research almost 50 years later.
1923: First meeting of the American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE) in which a code
of ethics called "Canons of Journalism" was adopted. The code emphasized responsibility;
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freedom of the press; independence; sincerity; truthfulness; accuracy; impartiality; fair play; and
decency. In 1975, the Canons were replaced with ASNE's "Statement of Principles." (Emery and
Emery, pp. 511-512).
1947: Publication of 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, ILL: The University of Chicago Press, 1947. Robert M. Hutchins,
President of the University of Chicago, chaired the Commission, which was funded by Time, Inc.
($200,000) and Encyclopedia Britannica ($15,000). The impetus of the Commission was Henry
R. Luce, founder of Time, Inc. who in December 1942, suggested an inquiry into the present state
and future prospects of the freedom of the press.
In addition to answering the question: Is the freedom of the press in danger?, which the
Commission responded affirmatively, the Commission laid out five requirements of a free society
that the press (media) is expected to meet. The Commission then evaluated the press on its
performance and made recommendations for improvements.
Five requirements that society is entitled to demand of its press:
1. “A truthful, comprehensive, and intelligent account of the day’s events in a context
which gives them meaning.” p. 21
2. “A forum for the exchange of comment and criticism.” p. 23
3. “The projection of a representative picture of the constituent groups in the society.” p. 26
“People make decisions in large part in terms of favorable or unfavorable images. They relate
fact and opinion to stereotypes. Today the motion picture, the radio, the book, the magazine, the
newspaper, and comic strip are principal agents in creating and perpetuating these convention
conceptions. When the images they portray fail to present the social group truly, they tend to
pervert judgment.” p. 26
“Such failure may occur indirectly and incidentally.”
“Responsible performance here simply means that the images repeated and emphasized be such
as are in total representative of the social group as it is. The truth about any social group, though
it should not exclude its weaknesses and vices, includes also recognition of its values, its
aspirations, and its common humanity. The Commission holds to the faith that if people are
exposed to the inner truth of the life of a particular group, they will gradually build up respect for
and understanding of it.” p. 27
4. “The presentation and clarification of the goals and values of the society.” p. 27
5. “Full access to the Day’s intelligence.” p. 28
“Our society needs an accurate, truthful account of the day’s events. We need to know what goes
on in our own locality, region, and nation. We need reliable information about all other countries.
We need to supply other countries with such information about ourselves. We need a market
place for the exchange of comment and criticism regarding public affairs.
These needs are not being met. The news is twisted by the emphasis on firstness, on the novel
and sensational; by the personal interests of owners; and by pressure groups. Too much of the
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regular output of the press consists of a miscellaneous succession of stories and images which
have no relation to the typical lives of real people anywhere. Too often the result is meaningless,
flatness, distortion, and the perpetuation of misunderstanding among widely scattered groups
whose only contact is through these media.” p. 68
1950: Gate Keeper Theory proposed by David Manning White. Relevance for accounting
for what news gets published or broadcast. David Manning White published "The 'Gate Keeper':
A Case Study in the Selection of News" Journalism Quarterly, 1950, vol. 27, pp. 383-396.
1955: Social Control in the Newsroom. "Social Control in the Newsroom: A Functional
Analysis," Social Forces, 1955, Vol. 33, pp. 326-355. This study examined how policy
in a newspaper is maintained and where it is bypassed. Although new reporters are never
told what policy is, they learn policy so they can win rewards and avoid punishments.
Reporters learn policy in the following ways:
1. A new reporter reads his own paper every day and learns how different groups are
treated; 2. Certain editorial actions taken by editors and older staffers also serve as
controlling guides; 3. New reporters observe and learn characteristics, interests, and
affiliations of their editors; 4. When new reporters have news conferences with their
editors to outline their stories, editors discuss how to shape the story; 5. New reporters
learn from newsroom gossip, house organs, and observing editors when they meet
various leaders and the editors voice their opinions.
1963: Social Learning Theory (a.k.a. modeling or observational learning) proposed by Albert
Bandura. Relevance for learning anti-social and pro-social behavior from television and film. By
using nursery school children in an experiment at Stanford University, Bandura and his
colleagues were able to document that filmed aggression had an impact on aggressive behavior
in young children.
1963: Four Theories of the Press published by Fred Siebert, Theodore Peterson, and Wilbur
Schramm. The four theories included: 1. Soviet-Communist; 2. Libertarian; 3. Social
Responsibility; 4. Authoritarian.
In Soviet-Communist systems, the mass media have clear and explicit mandates from the party
and government to carry out Communist theory and policy to the masses, rally support for the
party and government, and raise the general cultural level of the people. To achieve these aims,
the party and government exercise relatively strict control over the media and their operation.
Under Libertarian theory, emphasis is on freedom of the media, especially from government
control.
Social responsibility theory emphasizes the moral and social responsibilities of the persons and
institutions that operate the mass media. Responsibilities include obligations to provide the
public with information and discussion on important social issues and to avoid activities harmful
to the public welfare.
Under an authoritarian system, the media, private or public, are subordinate to the state and are
restrained from expressing major criticism of the government or its officials or both. (Mass
Communication: A Sociological Perspective, 2nd edition by Charles R. Wright, pp. 25-26;
Severin and Tankard, 309-318)
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1968: Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders published.
Known as the Kerner Commission Report after its chair, Otto Kerner, governor of Illinois, the
Commission was established by President Lyndon Johnson on July 28, 1967 to investigate the
cause of race riots in American cities during 1967. The report issued a stinging criticism of the
news media for its failure to report on race relations and ghetto problems, and failure to bring
more blacks into journalism. The Kerner Commission Report also said:
1. The news media have not communicated to whites a feeling for the difficulties and frustrations
of being black in the United States. The news media have not shown understanding or
appreciation of black culture, thought, or history.
2. It is the responsibility of the news media to tell the story of race relations in American with
wisdom, sensitivity, and expertise.
3. The journalistic profession has been "shockingly backward in seeking out, hiring, training, and
promoting" blacks. News organizations must employ enough blacks in positions of significant
responsibility to effect policy. Tokenism is no longer enough.
4. Newspapers should integrate blacks and black activities into all parts of the paper, including
news, society, and comic strips.
5. Television must integrate blacks into news broadcasts, on weather shows, in documentaries
and commercials, and in dramatic and comedy series. (Report of the National Advisory
Commission on Civil Disorders, pp. 382-387)
1969: Cultivation Theory proposed by George Gerbner. Relevance for explaining the effects
of television viewing on perceptions, attitudes, and values.
1972: Agenda-setting of the press established by Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw.
Relevance for explaining the effects of the news media on the public. Prominent issues in the
news become important to the public. The less direct experience a person has regarding an issue,
the more likely are the news media to influence that person.
1975: The National Association of Black Journalists, which now has 4,000 members, was
founded December 12, 1975.
1978: The American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE) adopted a resolution
calling for racial parity in the newsroom by the year 2000. Although this industry goal to
achieve parity between the U.S. minority population and newspaper journalists increased racial
and ethnic minorities in the newsroom from 3% to 11.46% between 1978 to 1998, ASNE did not
attain its goal. (http://www.asne.org/kiosk/editor/98.dec/bailon1.htm).
1981: Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) founded. More than 2000 members
today.
1982: Although according to its Web site, The National Association of Hispanic Journalists
(NAHJ) traces its roots to 1982, its official founding was 1984. The first NAHJ convention
was held in 1990.
1984: An association of Native American journalists established. Originally called the
Native American Press Association, the name was changed to Native American Journalists’
Association in 1990.
1985: Stages of diversity in news coverage proposed in Minorities and Media:
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Diversity and the End of Mass Communication published by Clint C. Wilson, II, and
Felix Gutierrez. This was the first journalism/communication book to emphasize racial
And ethnic diversity, its history and impact in the media. The authors proposed five
stages to describe news coverage of racial and ethnic groups: (1) exclusionary, (2)
threatening issue, (3) confrontation, (4) stereotypical selection, and (5) integrated
coverage.
Early 1990s: Framing Theory applied to communication on a systematic basis. A frame is a
central organizing idea for news content that supplies a context and suggests what the issue is
through the use of selection, emphasis, exclusion, and elaboration. Much of the power of
framing comes from its ability to define the terms of a debate without the audience realizing it is
taking place. Media framing can be likened to the magician's sleight of hand--attention is
directed to one point so that people do not notice the manipulation that is going on at another
point. Relevance for explaining how groups are reported on in the news media. (Tankard, J.W.,
Jr., Hendrickson, L., Silberman, J., Bliss, K. Ghanem, S. (1991, August).Media frames:
Approaches to conceptualization and measurement. Paper presented at the convention of the
Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Boston, MA; Reese, S.D.
(2001) Prologue--framing public life: A bridging model for media research. In S.D. Reese, O.H.
Gandy, Jr., A.E.Grant (Eds.). Framing public life: Perspectives on media and our understanding
of the social world (pp. 95-106). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.)
1994: First Unity Convention held August 4, 1994. Unity is a coalition of journalism
associations representing African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, and Native Americans.
1999: ASNE parity goal is revised. After it became clear that newsrooms would not
achieve the parity goal adopted in 1978, American Society of Newspaper Editors adopted
progressive benchmarks to guide its efforts in more than doubling the percentage of
minorities in newspaper newsrooms by 2025. The benchmarks included: increasing
overall newsroom minority employment; increasing the number of minority interns;
increasing the number of minority supervisors; reducing the number of newspapers with no
minorities on staff; and measuring whether newspapers have achieved parity with their
communities
In 1999, minorities comprised 11.55 percent of the reporters, copy editors, photographers, graphic
artists and supervisors at U.S. daily newspapers while minorities comprised an estimated 28.4
percent of the U.S. population. Since by 2025, the minority population of the United States was
expected to grow to an estimated 38 percent, to reach parity, newspapers would need to increase
their percentage of minorities in the newsroom by 229 percent.
(http://www.asne.org/index.cfm?id=1416)
2001: Publication of The Elements of Journalism: What Newspeople Should Know and the
Public Should Expect by Bill Kovach & Tom Rosenstiel. (NY: Three Rivers Press, 2001, 2007)
In 1997, 25 journalists gathered at Harvard University because they thought something was
seriously wrong with journalism. Instead of serving a larger public interest, they thought they
were damaging it. The group decided to engage journalists and the public in a careful
examination of what journalism was supposed to be. Public forums, depth interviews, and
surveys were conducted. From the analysis, the authors identified nine clear principles that
journalists agree on and that citizens have a right to expect. These principles were called the
elements of journalism. In 2007, the authors added a tenth element. The purpose of journalism is
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to provide people with the information they need to be free and self-governing. To fulfill this
task:
1. Journalism's first obligation is to the truth.
2. Its first loyalty is to citizens.
3. Its essence is a discipline of verification.
4. Its practitioners must maintain an independence from those they cover.
5. It must serve as an independent monitor of power.
6. It must provide a forum for public criticism and compromise.
7. It must strive to make the significant interesting and relevant.
8. It must keep the news comprehensive and in proportion.
9. Its practitioners have an obligation to exercise their personal conscience.
10. Citizens, too, have rights and responsibilities when it comes to the news.
2008: Diversity in News Coverage Defined.
In recognition of the central role that diversity plays in achieving quality journalism, diversity in
news coverage is defined as the inclusion of as well as accurate and fair reporting about groups
that historically have been excluded, stereotyped, or devalued because they were born with
certain enduring and discernable attributes that differ from the dominant racial group. Diversity
in news coverage requires that the definition of newsworthy be expanded to include issues,
events, communities, and people who historically have been excluded from the news. It also
means including sources, both experts and ordinary people, and experiences that represent people
of color as well as angles that directly affect communities of color when reporting mainstream
stories. (Paula Poindexter, "Diversity in News Coverage." In Encyclopedia of Journalism, edited
by Christopher H. Sterling and D. Charles Whitney, Sage Publications, forthcoming)
2008: Taxonomy on Diversity in News Coverage created. Paula Poindexter reviewed 30 years
of research studies on people of color and created a taxonomy to illustrate what was known about
the news coverage of African Americans, Latinos, Asians, and Native Americans. Poindexter
concluded from the review that there are actually two dimensions of news coverage: exclusion
and inclusion. Inclusion ranges from stereotypes and segregation to under-representation in news
coverage that is positive and a slice of everyday life.
2008: Barack Obama, first African American, elected President of the United States,
November 4, 2008.
2009: Barack Obama sworn in as 44th President of United States, January 20, 2009.
2009: The percentage of minorities in newspaper newsrooms stood at 13.41 percent, a
decline of .11 percentage points from a year ago. The American Society of News Editors
annually conducts a census of newsrooms as a means of measuring minority employment. In
2007, minorities represented 21.5 % of broadcast journalists.
(http://www.rtnda.org/media/pdfs/communicator/2007/julaug/20-25_Survey_Communicator.pdf).
The RTNDA/Hofstra University Annual Survey of broadcast newsroom employment
compared results of their survey with results of the survey of newspaper newsrooms
conducted by the American Society of Newspaper Editors and found overall TV
newsrooms employed more minorities than newspaper newsrooms. Minority journalists
make up 13.5 percent of newsroom employees at daily newspapers compared to 20.1% in
TV newsrooms (non-Hispanic only). African Americans were 5.3 percent of daily
newspaper newsrooms compared to 10.5 in TV newsrooms. Hispanics were 4.5 percent
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of newspaper newsrooms compared to 6.2% of TV newsrooms. Asian Americans were
3.2 percent of newspaper newsrooms and 2.9% of TV newsrooms. Native Americans
were 0.5% of both newspaper and TV newsrooms. See:
http://www.rtnda.org/pages/media_items/the-face-of-the-workforce1472.php;
http://www.rtnda.org/media/pdfs/communicator/2008/julyaugust/survey.pdf
TV Positions by Gender and Race
Percent Percent Percent Percent Percent Percent Percent Percent
Male Female White Minority African Hispanic/ Asian Native
American Latino American American
News 71.7% 28.3% 84.5% 15.5% 3.7% 9.3% 1.7% 0.8%
Director
Assistant 51.3 48.7 81.2 18.8 11.1 6.0 0.9 0.9
News
Director
Managing 69.5 30.5 87.8 12.2 3.7 7.3 <0.1 1.2
Editor
Executive 44.8 55.2 85.5 14.5 7.0 5.8 1.6 <0.1
Producer
News Anchor 43.2 56.8 75.3 24.7 11.9 9.1 3.5 0.2
Weather- 78.4 21.6 91.3 8.7 3.3 4.3 1.1 <0.1
caster
Sports 92.2 7.8 86.0 14.0 7.6 5.8 0.6 <0.1
Anchor
News 43.3 56.7 70.8 29.2 12.4 10.8 5.5 0.6
Reporter
Sports 81.3 18.7 83.8 16.2 5.2 6.4 3.2 1.3
Reporter
Assignment 51.3 48.7 72.5 27.5 13.8 11.0 2.3 0.5
Editor
News 35.8 64.2 80.8 19.2 10.0 6.9 2.1 0.2
Producer
News Writer 36.6 63.4 76.2 23.8 11.6 8.1 3.5 0.6
News 25.0 75.0 70.5 29.5 14.7 13.2 1.5 <0.1
Assistant
Photographer 93.2 6.8 77.4 22.6 10.3 10.5 1.6 0.1
Tape Editor 68.3 31.7 70.1 29.9 13.1 13.9 2.4 0.4
Graphics 68.0 32.0 79.0 21.0 5.0 13.0 2.0 1.0
Specialist
Internet 54.9 45.1 82.9 17.1 6.3 9.1 1.7 <0.1
Specialist
Art Director 65.8 34.2 81.6 18.4 <0.1 15.8 <0.1 2.6
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Taxonomy of Published Studies on Mainstream News Coverage of Racial and Ethnic
Groups: Exclusion to Inclusion
White African Latinos Asian Native
Americans Americans Americans
Excluded:
Historically Excluded No Yes Yes Yes Yes
Included:
Inconsequential No Yes Yes Yes Yes
And Stereotyped as:
Outsiders No Yes Yes Yes Yes
Historic & Cultural Relics No Yes Yes No Yes
Exotic No No No No Yes
Noble Savages No No No No Yes
Degraded No Yes Yes No Yes
Bad & Uncivilized No Yes Yes No Yes
Vanishing Race No No No No Yes
Poor No Yes Yes No Yes
Criminals No Yes Yes No No
Threatening No Yes No No Yes
Confrontational No Yes No No Yes
Problems No Yes Yes No Yes
Societal & Government No Yes No No No
Critics
Athletes No Yes No No No
Entertainers/Celebrities No Yes No No No
Gang Members No Yes Yes Yes No
Model Minority No No No Yes No
Emotional Yes Yes Yes Yes *
And Branded with No Yes Yes Yes Yes
Degrading Labels
Underrepresented:
As crime victims No Yes Yes * *
As everyday people No Yes Yes Yes Yes
participating in everyday
activities
As educational, No Yes Yes Yes Yes
entrepreneurial, &
community achievers
Recognized authority (official No Yes Yes Yes Yes
& expert sources)
Private citizen sources No Yes Yes Yes Yes
Victims of race related No Yes Yes Yes Yes
problems
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Explanations of causes of No Yes Yes Yes Yes
problems
Solutions to problems No Yes Yes Yes Yes
And Segregated:
Representation Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Sources Yes Yes * * *
Story Assignments Yes Yes * Yes *
Slice-of-Life Photographs Yes Yes Yes * *
Extensive Inclusion Yes No No No No
Other
*Limited published data.
Taxonomy Updated July 2009