The Elements of Journalism What Newspeople Should Know and The Public Should Expect
- Authors: Bill Kovach, Paul Rosenstiel
- Publisher: Three Rivers Press
- Released: 26 December 2001
- Pages: 208 on page
- Genre: Journalism, Nonfiction
- ISBN: 0609806912 (Amazon)
Highlights
"Is it possible for a new Stalin to appear today who could murder people?" Lech Walesa asked rhetorically. No, he answered himself. In the age of computers, satellites, faxes, VCRs, "it's impossible." Technology now made information available to too many people, too quickly. And information created democracy.
— p. 16
People crave news out of basic instinct, what we call the Awareness Instinct. They need to know what is going on over the next hill, to be aware of events beyond their direct experience. Knowledge of the unknown gives them security, allows them to plan and negotiate their lives. Exchanging this information becomes the basis for creating community, making human connections.
— p. 21
We have developed "a journalism that justifies itself in the public's name but in which the public plays no role, except as an audience," writes James Carey. Citizens have become an abstraction, something the press talks about but not to.
— p. 27
...a new relationship between the journalist and the citizen must evolve. Journalists must invite their audience into the process by which they produce the news.
— p. 191