This lecture was designed to inform students about the core element of journalism. Focus was given to the fact that different parts of the world have a different understanding of what journalism is. A key element introduced was the impact of the internet to journalism.

1. DEFINITION AND FORMS OF
JOURNALISM
SCC 120 WEEK 1

2. WORKING IN THE MEDIA

3. WHAT IS JOURNALISM?
 Journalism is the activity, or product, of
journalists or others engaged in the
preparation of written, visual, or audio
material intended for dissemination
through public media with reference to
factual, ongoing events of public
concern.
 Journalism intends to inform society
about itself and to make events public
that would otherwise remain private.
Harcup, Tony (2009), Journalism: Principles
and Practice p.3

4. REUTERS INSTITUTE GLOBAL JOURNALISM
 “In HK, journalism just means mass media.
 The challenges it is facing is the increasing
trend of self-censorship as HK is relying more
and more on China.
 A lot of media owners have business
interests in China.
 At the same time, HK citizens realise the
need of HK to depend on China for future
growth and survival.
 So they also want the media to be less
critical of China. Pragmatism dominates.”

5. EGYPT
 “Concerning the definition of journalism in
Egypt and the major obstacles facing the
profession, I think it really needs a lot of
effort to achieve any kind of agreement
concerning a one solid definition for
journalism – but I can say on my way of
thinking that many of the Egyptian
journalists in Egypt consider this job as the
fourth estate or the watchdog of the
society, and considers the lack of
professional training for journalists one of
the biggest problems that faces
journalists in Egypt.”

6. UNITED STATES
 “There is no accepted brief definition of
journalism in the United States.
 The issue stems partly from the rise of
Internet communications, in which
people without experience or
qualifications present themselves as
reporters or commentators (unvetted,
unedited), and in which the audience
self-limits the information it receives and
grants credibility to the information that
supports its point of view.”

7. ARGENTINA
 “No, there's not an ‘accepted brief
definition of 'journalism’ in Argentina, at
least not in terms of what you can get
from an academic point of view.
 In general, I think the major challenge
journalism faces these days is the Internet,
the Age of Information, the Digital
Revolution: how traditional media can
make the adjustments and survive; what
sort of impact is getting from non-traditional
expressions such as the so-called
‘citizen journalism.’”

8. GERMANY
 “Journalism in Germany is often called the
fourth pillar of the state; its rights are
stated in the German constitution that
guarantees the freedom of speech.
 The founder of one of the most famous
journalism schools in the country, Wolf
Schneider, defined journalism as follows:
To cut a path of information through the
jungle of worldly affairs and to keep an
eye on the people in power.

9.  At the moment, the greatest challenge to
the freedom of the press in Germany is
the uncertain economic situation and,
because of this, the pressure on the
media from declining advertising revenue
as well as growing demands of
proprietors to cut costs often to the
detriment of journalistic quality.”

10. NEW ZEALAND
 “As for a definition of journalism in NZ, I
believe we follow the principle of fair and
balanced reporting of news and issues
that affect our community.
 The Otago Daily Times has a mission
statement to: publish news, information
and opinion in a fair, balanced and
truthful manner that best serves our
community.
 That underpins our role as journalists.”

11. BRAZIL
 “As journalism in Brazil has become less
analytical and investigative in the past
ten years, it means essentially description
of reality.
 In the newsrooms these days in Brazil
normally there are no discussions,
planning nor evaluation of the articles.
 Any search of new approaches is very
rare.
 The old idea of journalism as mere writing
still reigns.

12.  Major challenges are motivating
journalists to research, to analyse, to
evaluate their own work, to grow
intellectually and culturally, and do have
more of a global view.”

13. THE NETHERLANDS
 “My definition about journalism: gathering
news for newspaper or website.
 This is in Holland a job that can be done
freely.”

14. CROATIA
 In Croatia “The accepted and prevalent
definition refers to journalism as a process
of conveying information in an objective
and impartial way.
 Briefly, the major challenges relate to
‘infotainment’ – sensationalism and
triviality which are seizing an increasingly
larger proportion of the media content
(in mainstream dailies and weeklies and
on the national public television); lack of
quality investigative and follow-up
reporting.

15.  Also, studies of journalism have
questionable standards and too
traditional curriculum (they lag behind
the times, and don't keep pace with
numerous changes in the profession, such
as online journalism, new communication
technologies, etc...).”

16. TRINIDAD & TOBAGO
 “As a former President of the Media
Association of Trinidad and Tobago, I
can say that here the agreed definition
of a journalist is someone involved in the
gathering and disseminating of news as
their premier occupation.

17.  The Media Association was challenged
for this somewhat vague definition which
explicitly sought to exclude talk show
hosts, newspaper columnists who were
academics or otherwise employed; and
other media personalities who sought to
be included sometimes for no other
reason than gaining access to a press
pass.
 The debate over this issue has still not
been settled and there is also some
ambivalence over the status of persons
who work State-owned information
dissemination organisations.
 We now have bloggers to add to the

18. JAPAN
 “As for the question about the definition
of Journalism in Japan, it is
difficult...actually we do not have its
specific definition as there is no
completely equivalent words for
‘journalism’ in Japanese language.

19.  It is a complicated linguistic matter: we
imported the word ‘journalism’ in our
language with Japanese pronunciation
‘ja-narizumu’, which is misunderstood as
to be something quite sophisticated and
somehow different from news media.
 How can I explain this distorted
perception?”

20. EXPECTATIONS OF JOURNALISTS  Journalists are among the pre-eminent
story-tellers of modern society.
 Their news accounts shape in decisive
ways our perceptions of the 'world out
there‘ beyond our immediate
experience.
 For many of us, our sense of what is
happening in the society around us, what
we should know and care about from
one day to the next, is largely derived
from the news stories they tell.

21.  Given that we have to take so much on
trust, we rely on news accounts to be
faithful representations of reality.
 We are asked to believe, after all, that
truly professional journalists are able to set
aside their individual preconceptions,
values and opinions in order to depict
reality 'as it actually is' to us, their
audience.
 This assumption, deeply inscribed in the
methods of 'objective' reporting,
encourages us to accept these
'reflections' of reality as the most truthful
ones available. Allan, S. (2010) ‘The
cultural politics of news discourse’ p.5.

22. WHAT DO JOURNALISTS DO?
 Within different forms of media, there are
specialist tasks for journalists.
 In large organisations, the journalists may
specialise in only one task.
 In small organisations, each journalist
may have to do many different tasks.

23. REPORTERS
 Gather information and present it in a
written or spoken form in news stories,
feature articles or documentaries.
 Who? What? Where? When? Why? How?
 Reporters may work on the staff of news
organisations, but may also work
freelance, writing stories for whoever pays
them.
 General reporters cover all sorts of news
stories, but some journalists specialise in
certain areas such as reporting sport,
politics or agriculture.

24. SUB EDITORS
 Take the stories written by reporters and put
them into a form which suits the special
needs of their particular newspaper,
magazine, bulletin or web page.
 Sub-editors do not usually gather information
themselves.
 Their job is to concentrate on how the story
can best be presented to their audience.
 They are often called subs.
 The person in charge of them is called the
chief sub-editor, usually shortened to chief
sub.

25. PHOTOJOURNALISTS
 Use photographs to tell the news.
 They either cover events with a reporter,
taking photographs to illustrate the
written story, or attend news events on
their own, presenting both the pictures
and a story or caption.

26. EDITOR
 Usually the person who makes the final
decision about what is included in the
newspaper, magazine or news bulletins.
 He or she is responsible for all the content
and all the journalists.
 Editors may have deputies and assistants
to help them.

27. NEWS EDITOR
 The person in charge of the news
journalists.
 In small organisations, the news editor
may make all the decisions about what
stories to cover and who will do the work.
 In larger organisations, the news editor
may have a deputy, often called the
chief of staff, whose special job is to
assign reporters to the stories selected.

28. FEATURE WRITERS
 Work for newspapers and magazines,
writing longer stories which usually give
background to the news.
 In small organisations the reporters
themselves will write feature articles.
 The person in charge of features is usually
called the features editor.

29.  Larger radio or television stations may
have specialist staff producing current
affairs programs - the broadcasting
equivalent of the feature article.
 The person in charge of producing a
particular current affairs program is
usually called the producer and the
person in charge of all the programs in
that series is called the executive
producer or EP.

30. SPECIALIST WRITERS
 May be employed to produce personal
commentary columns or reviews of things
such as books, films, art or performances.
 They are usually selected for their
knowledge about certain subjects or their
ability to write well.
 Again, small organisations may use
general reporters for some or all of these
tasks.

31.  There are many other jobs which can be
done by journalists.
 It is a career with many opportunities.

33. REFLECTION PAPER
 The Ethiopian famine gained global
recognition in October 1983 when a report
filmed by Mohamed Amin (then Visnews’
Africa Bureau Chief) and filed by Michael
Buerk of the BBC was screened on the Nine
O’Clock News.
 Watch this YouTube video about the 1984
famine in Ethiopia.
 Give your thoughts on the video news
report. Try and link the news report to the
section about ‘Expectations of Journalists’.
(minimum 250 words)