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Week 9: Journalism as a Profession

• Bennett, Ch. 6, "Inside the Profession: Objectivity and Political Authority," pp. 186-216
• Schudson, Ch. 7, "News Sources," pp. 134-153
• Schudson, Ch. 8, "The Political Culture of News," pp. 154-166

Why does Bennett think "the news is biased not in spite of, but precisely because of, the professional journalism standards intended to prevent bias"? How is "accuracy, balance, and fairness" different from objectivity, and why do some journalists strive for those goals? What are some problems with the ideal of fairness? What are the routine standards and practices of journalism that embody the ideal of objectivity? How does Bennett describe the history of contemporary journalism? How did journalism evolve "from a business into a profession"? What is adversarialism? Why and how can it be a "ritual"? What is "tag team journalism"? Why is the partnership between reporters and officials "uneasy"? How does Bennett understand the meaning of the Watergate scandal for journalism? How do "standards of decency and good taste" play a role in journalism? What are documentary reporting practices, and why are staged news events a problem for them? How are stories used as standardized news formats? Why are reporters usually generalists instead of experts in the material they cover? Why does Bennett argue that "the editorial review standards pointed to as the fail-safe mechanism for preventing news distortion are, paradoxically, the very things that guarantee it?"

Why do journalists rely so heavily on official, particularly government, sources? What do public relations offices of large institutions do? How do reporters on news beats rely on sources? What makes a source "authoritative"? How are foreign affairs journalists in the Netherlands different from their American counterparts? How are journalists influenced by other reporters? What is "seduction by proximity to power"? In what ways has "spinning" (and other parajournalistic practices) grown more elaborate over the years? How does Schudson criticize Bennett's proposal for media reform?

Why does Schudson argue "political institutions and media institutions are so deeply intertwined …. that it is not easy to distinguish where one begins and the other leaves off"? How has government become "reoriented" into a form of campaigning, and Presidential strategy focused on "going public"? How are the relations between journalism and government different in Germany, Britain, and the US? What trends in government/journalism relations are common internationally?