More About Newspapers

1
More About Newspapers

• Chapter 3 continued!

2
More About Newspapers!

• DAILIES (5x/WK) v. WEEKLIES v. NICHE
• NATIONAL
• -WSJ (2.2 million), USA TODAY (2.6 million), NYT
  (1.6 million)
• METROPOLITAN SUBURBAN
• -CHICAGO TRIBUNE
• -HOUSTON CHRONICLE
• DECLINING READERSHIP
• JOA

3
DAILIES, WEEKLIES, NICHE

• WEEKLIES 1X/WK
• -Was SMALL TOWN
• -Costs ??
• -SHOPPERS
• NICHE- 4 COVERAGE Topics
• -GEOGRAPHIC CITIES, SUBURBS, RURAL AREAS
• -ETHNIC/RACIAL/OCCUPATIONAL/
• INTEREST

4
TABLOIDS!

• SIZE/FORMAT, INCLUDES PAPERES THAT MIX
  SENSATIONALISM WITH PROFESSIONALISM
• New York Post/ Boston Herald
• V.
• Natl Enquirer, Star, World Weekly News

5
UNDERGROUND PRESS

• Questions MAINSTREAM POLICIES/CONVENTIONAL VALUES
• Began in the mid/late 1960s
• - VILLAGE VOICE (NYC)
• - CITY PAGES
• Difficult to GENERATE SPONSORS/ADVERTISERS

6
ETHNIC PRESS

• Includes FOREIGN LANGUAGE NEWSPAPERS
  NEWSPAPERS WRITTEN IN ENGLISH AIMED AT SPECIFIC
  ETHNIC GROUP
• Began as a result of SEGREGATION of the WHITE
  PRESS

7
The Surveillance Function

• Distortions are an inevitable and unintended
  product of the forces, factors, and conditions
  that all news media must operate within to
  survive. (DeFluer Dennis, 2002)
• Categories for Surveillance
• Geographic territories
• Specialized Topics
• Organizations
• Spot News / Developing News / Continuing News
• Hard/Soft News

8
The Problem of Flawed Surveillance

• Direct Observation (!)
• Reports of witnesses
• Experts?
• Unintended Flaws Perception / Memory / Recall
• News Release
• Existing Documents
• Public Records

9
Packaging the News

• News values
• Impact of Story
• Timeliness
• Prominence
• Proximity
• Bizarre ?
• Conflict
• Currency
• ? Those in which the public will be most
  interested.

10
Story Formats

• 5 Ws
• Inverted Pyramid
• (KISS!)
• Word Story (TV)
• VOT Voice Over Tape
• Stand Up (TV)
• Stand-Up Package (TV)
• ? All have possibility of introducing meanings
  into a story that modify it.

11
Alternative Journalistic Styles

• Sensational/Tabloid Journalism Style
• Objective/Impartial Journalism Style
• Fact vs. Fiction
• Emotionally Detached View
• Balance
• Fairness
• Advocacy Journalism
• Precision Journalism
• Surveys/Scientific
• Civic/Public Journalism
• Journalism for the people vs. for the elite.

12
Consequences of the Profit Motive

• Maximizing Profits
• Paring down news teams
• Less investigative reporting
• Infotainment
• Important Criteria for Gatekeeping augh!!

13
What is the nature and function of news?

• Marketing Approach
• News as product
• Market Research
• USA Today?!
• Adversarial Approach
• Investigative Approach
• Investigation by someone else
• Subject is of reasonable importance
• Someones attempting to hide the matters