What Are Journalists For?

Mark Nathan Cohen

Published by Yale University Press 1999

What Are Journalists For?

Mark Nathan Cohen

https://doi.org/10.12987/9780300148008

Overview
Contents

About this book

American journalists in the 1990s confronted disturbing trends—an erosion of trust in the news media, weakening demand for serious news, flagging interest in politics and civic affairs, and a discouraging public climate that seemed to be getting worse. In response, some news professionals sought to breach the growing gap between press and public with an experimental approach—public journalism. This book is an account of the movement for public journalism, or civic journalism, told by Jay Rosen, one of its leading developers and defenders. Rosen recalls the events that led to the movement’s founding and gives a range of examples of how public journalism is practiced in American newsrooms. He traces the intellectual roots of the movement and shows how journalism can be made vital again by rethinking exactly what journalists are for.

Those who have supported the cause of public journalism have focused on first principles: democracy as something we do, citizens as the ones who do it, politics as public problem-solving, and deliberation as a means to that end. Rosen tells what happened as the movement gained momentum in newsrooms around the country and in the professional culture of the press. He reviews the flood of criticism and commentary aimed at public journalism and responds to those who express alarm at the experiment. Examining the mark that the movement has made on the field, Rosen upholds public journalism not only as a way for journalists to find a renewed sense of civic purpose for their craft, but also as a way to improve civic life and strengthen democracy.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	ix
Introduction: What We’re Doing Isn’t Working Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part One. Origins
1. As Democracy Goes, So Goes the Press: The Roots of Public Journalism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	19
2. In Search of a Different Story: Journalists, Scholars, and the Public Square Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	56
Part Two. Practice
3. Applying Practice to Theory: Case Studies in Public Journalism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	83
4. Does It Help the Citizen Decide? The Intellectual Journey of the Virginian-Pilot Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	128
5. Doing Less Harm: Public Journalism as Personal Tale Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	156
Part Three. Reactions
6. Journalism Is What It Is: Critics React to the Experiment Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	177
7. The New York Times and the Washington Post on Public Journalism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	207
Part Four. Lessons
8. Design Flaw or Driver Error: The Hazards of Going Public Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	251
9. What Was Public Journalism? The Idea in Built Form Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	262
10. Conclusion: What Are Journalists For? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	281
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	301
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	329

Language: English
Publisher: Yale University Press

eBook

Published: February 12, 2018
ISBN: 9780300148008