Media & Politics Flashcards
Peter Desbarats
Believed that Canadian journalism traditions are closely related with American ones, but developed at different times.
Wilfred Kesteron
Canadian News historian who divided up Canadian Journalism into 4 periods: The Transplant Period, Growth Period, Westward Growth, and 20th century onwards.
The Transplant Period
1750-1800. Canada’s first journalism period. Newspapers or publishers from Britain and the US were transplanted to Canada. The government provided the information and funding for newspapers = censorship.
First Canadian Newspaper
The Halifax Gazette
The Growth Period
1800-1850. After the war of 1812, immigration increased, leading to a population increase. The Industrial Revolution encouraged people to move to cities to work in the factories, and newspapers thus became more popular. This led to a dramatic increase in the number of newspapers, hence “Growth Period.”
As a result of this growth, newspapers depended less on the government for economic success, so Canada entered into a kind of “partisan” press period where newspapers took sides based on political lines.
Joseph Howe
Advocate of an unshackled press.
Westward Growth
1850-1900. Population increases led to Canadians moving west. The Press moved with them.
20th century onwards
Improvements in technology and continued immigration continued to increase newspaper demand. Emergence of large newspaper enterprises. News Agencies began to form in Canada. Act of Parliament in 1923 established the Canadian Press (CP)
The Canadian Press
CP - provided news for print and broadcast outlets. Like AP
Variables affecting the news
News hole, news flow and staffing, perceptions about the audience, competition, and gatekeeping
News Hole
Space/time left for news after ads are inserted into newspapers and broadcasts.
Is the news hole consistent?
Usually consistent for broadcasts, not so much for print. Longer newspaper, greater news hole.
News Flow
variations from day to day in the significance of the events worth covering.
Staffing
availability of staff resources to cover news.
Perceptions about audience
how a news network perceives its audience affects its news coverage.
Competition
Journalism is a competitive business. Journalists want the scoop to beat competitors - leads to fresh content.
Downsides of competition
News organizations always think they need to play catch up when someone else breaks news. This leads to similarities in coverage, which drives the phenomenon known as the consensible nature of news (pack/herd journalism)
Gatekeeping
News reporting is a team effort. Messages are edited at various points along the communication chain, called gates.
Journalism Trends
Newsrooms in transition, non-stop coverage, live news, unedited blogs, exploratory reporting, and soft news.
New realities of coverage
Less comprehensive coverage, less enterprise, fewer beats, less independent reporting
Less enterprise
Hard stories not pursued, less investigation.
Fewer Beats
Reporters of specialized topics and/or geographic areas assigned to cover broader beats.
Less comprehensive coverage
Less competition, newsrooms understand that they can’t cover all the breaking news.
Less independent reporting
Rereporting stories from other news agencies like the CP (canadian press)
Non stop coverage brief history
Originally done only by news agencies, but spread in popularity.
Problems with non stop coverage
Emphasizes event based reporting over context/understanding the news. Can be trivial at times.
Live news
Technology allowed for live news to be possible. Live news bypasses traditional editorial process.
Blog short for what?
Web log
Blog
Amateur website, generally personal, often focused on a narrow subject such as politics.
Criticism of blogs
People with no journalism experience act as journalists. They focus on getting hits instead of producing good journalism. In order to get hits, they sensationalize stories, act like a dick, and report on gossip. Blogs, however, can not be ignored, as they influence the media and play an important role.
Blogs exploded during what event?
the 2004 presidential election
What initiated exploratory (investigative) reporting?
Watergate scandal with Bob Woodward - investigative reporting
Exploratory reporting
Going beyond mere chronicling events.
Soft News
News geared towards satisfying the audience’s information wants not needs.
Examples of soft news
celebrity reporting, lifestyle reporting
In world war II, journalists…
wore soldiers’ uniforms and essentially reported propaganda.
What kept reporters out of Grenada during a surprise war?
Naval blockade by the US.
Reporting during the Vietnam War
reporters were given a lot of freedom to report the Vietnam War. Led to Rice roots reporting, which was mainly negative. increased public opposition to the Vietnam War.
Rice roots reporting
Uncensored field reports from the Vietnam War.
Pool System, and problems with it.
Reporters chosen on a rolling basis to cover an event to which access is limited. Pentagon still tried to control information, and the reporters knew only what the Pentagon told them.
Embeds
An Iraq War term for journalists who accompany, or who are embedded with, U.S. Military Combat Units.
Ground rules for embeds
Don’t report combat positions, occasional blackout of coverage to ensure operational success.
Feedback from Pentagon about embedded reporters
Quite pleased.
Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman wrote:
Manufacturing Consent: The political economy of mass media