The Reconstruction of American Journalism

Explores the history and changing landscape of American journalism as well as the need to preserve independent, original, and credible print news reporting. Considers the roles of the Internet, collaborations among newspapers, and foundation support

Freedom of information: Q&A with Professor Michael Schudson

Professor Michael Schudson is a Professor at the Columbia Journalism School, and has authored seven books concerning the history and sociology of the American news media, advertising, popular culture, Watergate and cultural memory. Following a recent public lecture at LSE titled ‘Expectations of openness in an age of secrecy’, Catherine Speller of the Media Policy Project interviews Professor Schudson about some of the broad cultural issues around freedom of information

Introduction: Troubling Transparency

Transparency is a value in the ascendance. Across the globe, the past several decades have witnessed a spectacular explosion of legislative reforms and judicial decisions calling for greater disclosure about the workings of public institutions. Freedom of information laws have proliferated, claims of a constitutional or supra-constitutional right to know have become commonplace, and an international transparency lobby has emerged as a civil society powerhouse. Open government is seen today in many quarters as a foundation of, if not synonymous with, good government. At the same time, a growing number of scholars, advocates, and regulators have begun to raise hard questions about the costs and limits of the transparency movement. Some of these commentators accept the movement\u27s standard premises and prescriptions but worry that open government measures are not actually delivering the openness they promise due to inadequate legislative funding, bureaucratic resistance, or cramped judicial interpretations. Others wonder whether traditional open records and open meetings laws are well suited to twenty-first-century transparency challenges, or whether these laws need to be reimagined for the digital age. A third group of commentators has thrown a harsh light on transparency\u27s political and administrative effects, emphasizing its potential to facilitate neoliberal agendas or to undermine deliberation, deal-making, and institutional capacity. These different strains of skepticism are coalescing and have largely been confined to discrete discourses so far. They have not arrested transparency\u27s ascent in the NGO community or in popular culture. But they have developed to the point where we might say that government transparency, as a democratic ideal, is contested not only in practice but also in theory

Back to the Future: How UK-based news organisations are rediscovering objectivity

The emergence of 'fake news' during the tumultuous Brexit referendum and Trump election campaign has sent news organisations scurrying to set up special teams of journalists to debunk deliberately misleading stories and verify facts. This paper examines the steps being taken to counter the spate of false news stories being spread through social media and asks whether normative values of objectivity are about to enjoy a comeback. Typical markers of objectivity such as freedom from bias, detachment and fact-based reporting date back to the late 19th Century and, despite being deeply ingrained in the Anglo-American news culture, have always been subject to criticism and challenge. Most recently, the growth of openly partisan or populist media has illustrated a deep distrust in traditional news outlets and is overtly questioning whether it is time to jettison objectivity. The increasing use of emotive (and often unfiltered) user-generated content and the rise in citizen journalism appear to have undermined the concept even further. But are we now experiencing a backlash? Through a series of interviews with editorial policy makers at major UK and US news organisations, the paper explores how fake news and other concerns around the impact of social media are leading to fresh debate about objectivity and its potential to make quality journalism stand out

O modelo americano de jornalismo: excepção ou exemplo?

The paper traces the evolution of American journalism, articulating it with the evolution of US society and cultural values. The author focusses on the historical development of American journalism from proximity to political power down to an increasing detachment due to the change of political culture in the twentieth century. The argument is that the current engaged and opposing model of American journalism cannot be simply implemented within a different cultural system. It stems from a unique history, it was shaped by a particular relationship with political institutions and their political culture, but can, nevertheless, serve as an ideal and inspiration for political journalism in other socio-cultural environments.O artigo discute os grandes ideais do jornalismo americano, articulando-os na dependência de formantes socioculturais particulares à realidade dos EUA. Traça a sua evolução desde a proximidade indiferenciada com o poder político, ao afastamento radical, chegando ao modelo actual, que se pauta por uma articulação cívica. Conclui-se que o modelo americano não pode ser implantado em nenhum outro sistema. Surgiu de uma história única e foi moldado por uma relação com instituições políticas distintas e uma cultura política única, podendo, contudo, servir como inspiração democrática ideal

저널리즘의 과거는 저널리즘의 미래를 아는 데 도움이 되는가?

서울대학교 언론정보연구소는 2016년 6월 15일 마이클 셧슨(Michael Schudson) 미국 컬럼비아대학 저널리즘스쿨 교수를 초청해 공개 특별세미나 The Arrival of the Artificial Intelligence Era and the Future of Journalism을 개최했다. 셧슨 교수 는 이날 기조연설을 진행하였는데, 본 연구소는 국내 독자들을 위해 이 기조연설 녹취록 원문과 번역문을 함께 공개하기로 했다. 연설자의 원래 뜻을 전달하기 위해 가급적 직역하였으나, 일부 내용은 구어의 특성을 감안해 의역이 이루어졌다. 또 한 본문의 주석은 모두 역자가 붙인 것이다

Reflecting on forty years of sociology, media studies, and journalism : An Interview with Todd Gitlin and Michael Schudson

Reflecting on more than four decades in dual scholarly careers that cut across the boundaries between communication, the sociology of culture, and journalism studies, Professor Todd Gitlin and Professor Michael Schudson discuss the growth, evolution, and strengths and weaknesses of the media studies field with Professor Jiang Chang. The three reflect on the origins of the research, the gap between the field of journalism studies and the field of sociology, the role played by journalism in the growing conflict between China and the United States, the relationship between media and political protest, and whether there ought be any cause for optimism regarding the state of democracy in the twenty-first century.Peer reviewe

As notícias como um género difuso: a transformação do jornalismo na contemporaneidade

In recent times, journalism has been subject to significant transformations, resulting from a cultural context where news, newsrooms and journalists have had to learn how to deal with the new concepts, practices and uncertainties brought about by the digital era. Defining the journalistic profession, or even defining news as a journalistic genre, has become an extraordinarily complex task, at a time when new models of understanding are required to grasp the meaning of what has been, what is now, and what journalism might become in the near future. In this article, Michael Schudson analyzes some of the ongoing transformations, suggesting a set of features he conceives as determinant in the blurring of borders that has become a defining trait of contemporary journalism principles and practices. While safeguarding a number of questions and doubts, the author goes on to conclude optimistically that this new emerging journalism has revealed itself more cooperative, less hierarchical, more efficient and, especially, closer to its audience.A actividade jornalística tem sido alvo, em tempos recentes, de transformações significativas, resultantes de um contexto cultural em mudança, no qual as notícias, as redacções e os próprios jornalistas se viram confrontados com as novas realidades da era digital. Definir a própria actividade jornalística, ou mesmo as notícias enquanto género jornalístico, tornou-se uma tarefa extraordinariamente complexa num momento em que se exigem novos modelos de compreensão para aquilo que tem sido, é e poderá ser num futuro próximo o jornalismo. Neste artigo, Michael Schudson analisa algumas dessas transformações em curso, sugerindo um conjunto de características determinantes da indefinição de fronteiras que hoje marcam de forma indelével os princípios e práticas do jornalismo. Embora salvaguardando algumas reservas inevitáveis, o autor conclui, em tom assumidamente optimista, que este novo jornalismo que agora emerge se revela mais cooperante, menos hierárquico, mais eficiente e, sobretudo, mais próximo do seu público

Algorithms, Automation, and News

This special issue examines the growing importance of algorithms and automation in the gathering, composition, and distribution of news. It connects a long line of research on journalism and computation with scholarly and professional terrain yet to be explored. Taken as a whole, these articles share some of the noble ambitions of the pioneering publications on ‘reporting algorithms’, such as a desire to see computing help journalists in their watchdog role by holding power to account. However, they also go further, firstly by addressing the fuller range of technologies that computational journalism now consists of: from chatbots and recommender systems, to artificial intelligence and atomised journalism. Secondly, they advance the literature by demonstrating the increased variety of uses for these technologies, including engaging underserved audiences, selling subscriptions, and recombining and re-using content. Thirdly, they problematize computational journalism by, for example, pointing out some of the challenges inherent in applying AI to investigative journalism and in trying to preserve public service values. Fourthly, they offer suggestions for future research and practice, including by presenting a framework for developing democratic news recommenders and another that may help us think about computational journalism in a more integrated, structured manner

Media Systems and the Political Information Environment: A Cross-National Comparison

To express attitudes and act according to their self-interest, citizens need relevant, up-to-date information about current affairs. But has the increased commercialization in the media market increased or decreased the flow of political information? Hallin and Mancini stress that the existing empirical evidence is fragmented and that this question therefore has been difficult to answer. In this article the authors present new data that allow them to systematically examine how the flow of political information on TV occurs across six Western countries during a thirty-year period. The authors find that the flow of political information through TV varies according to the degree of commercialization. The flow of news and current affairs is lowest in the most commercially oriented television system and among the commercial TV channels. There is however important cross-national variation even within similar media systems. The authors’ data do not suggest a convergence toward the liberal system when it comes to the political information environment on TV. Rather, what strikes them is how strongly resistant some European countries have been to subordinating the needs of democracy to profit making