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 | | The Elements of Journalism: What Newspeople Should Know and The Public Should Expect by Bill Kovach, Tom Rosenstiel ISBN-10: 9780609806913 ISBN-10: 0-609-80691-2 ISBN-13: 9780609806913 ISBN-13: 978-0-609-80691-3 Paperback 2001-12 Three Rivers Press Find Lowest Price |
Editorials | ||
Product Description The Book That Every Citizen and Journalist Should Read “What this book does better than any single book on media history, ethics, or practice is weave . . . [together] why media audiences have fled and why new technology and megacorporate ownership are putting good journalism at risk.” —Rasmi Simhan, Boston Globe “Kovach and Rosenstiel’s essays on each [element] are concise gems, filled with insights worthy of becoming axiomatic. . . . The book should become essential reading for journalism professionals and students and for the citizens they aim to serve.” —Carl Sessions Stepp, American Journalism Review “If you think journalists have no idea what you want . . . here is a book that agrees with you. Better—it has solutions. The Elements of Journalism is written for journalists, but any citizen who wonders why the news seems trivial or uninspiring should read it.” —Marta Salij, Detroit Free Press The elements of journalism are: * Journalism’s first obligation is to the truth. * Its first loyalty is to citizens. * Its essence is a discipline of verification. * Its practitioners must maintain an independence from those they cover. * It must serve as an independent monitor of power. * It must provide a forum for public criticism and compromise. * It must strive to make the significant interesting and relevant. * It must keep the news comprehensive and proportional. * Its practitioners must be allowed to exercise their personal conscience. | ||
Amazon.com Review These are tough times for journalism. Newsroom executives' bonuses tend to be based on their company's profit margin. Journalists are constantly jockeying for the time and space necessary to tell their stories as they see fit. Only 47 percent of Americans even read a newspaper. And Time and Newsweek--news magazines, remember?--"were seven times more likely to have the same cover story as People magazine in 1997 than in 1977." It's no wonder that in 1997, the Committee of Concerned Journalists formed to "engage journalists and the public in a careful examination of what journalism was supposed to be." The Elements of Journalism reports the results of that study, which included 21 public forums (attended by 3,000 people), in-depth interviews with 100 journalists, editorial content studies, and research into the history of journalism. Part of what the committee members learned, they already knew. Journalism is complicated business: journalists are paid by management but work for the citizens; they tend to be self-taught (there is little evidence of mentoring and much disdain for journalism schools); and they need to be objective even when they're not impartial. This has always been the case. But the committee also detected a trend, one abundantly evident to anyone who has tried to find news on the evening TV news: "news was becoming entertainment and entertainment news." "Unless we can grasp and reclaim the theory of a free press," warn Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel, the book's authors, "journalists risk allowing their profession to disappear." Through their discussions with journalists, the Committee of Concerned Journalists defined nine "clear principles" of journalism, which Kovach and Rosenstiel explore in great detail. The first principle is, "Journalism's first obligation is to the truth." The last: "Its practitioners must be allowed to exercise their personal conscience." In between come issues of loyalty, verification, independence, and power monitoring, among others. Invigorating reading for newsroom interns, jaded reporters, and anyone else who needs to be reminded of the rigorousness, integrity, and meaning of journalism. --Jane Steinberg | ||
Reviews | ||
Abstract/Strategic overview; Journalist's, not public's, perspective This book is probably a good overview for someone new to these issues. However, for someone like me who has been interested in these issues for years, there is little here that you wouldn't have already seen in the newspaper coverage of this topic. I had hope of finding some pithy characterizations of the issues, but this book contained none that I hadn't already seen. However, for the newbie, this book does a good job at collecting and presenting them (and citing sources). And it is very readable. My biggest disappointment was that the authors chose to exclude the issues of fairness and balance - as a person involved in events covered by the press, this is my biggest source of frustration with journalists. The most common problem is with the structure of an article: One side's position and arguments are given, and repeated, in the beginning and middle of the article, with other points of view not appearing until near the very end. When I try to talk to the journalist about the well-known problems with this structure, my comments are routinely dismissed with "But its all in there." Note: By "fairness" and "balance" I mean what is understood by normal people and not the bizarre, discredited definitions used by journalists. Rather than try to rehabilitate these terms (a difficult task), the authors attempt, unsuccessfully, to introduce replacements (for example, "proportionality" which is presented by an unsatisfying metaphor). My second disappointment was that the portion of the title "and the Public Should Expect" is an empty promise: The book is entirely focused on the journalist's perspective. I did find it interesting the number of times that the authors commented that journalists were *not* trained in key aspects of their job but had to figure it out for themselves. This confirmed intuitions developed from my experience with journalists. | ||
Captures all important elements of journalism After reading Lippman's Public Opinion, this book provided a good review of what has happend in recent years. The journalism is heading for a new direction, while preserving the old core values. No stone is left unturned in this book with regard to journalism. | ||
very good I received the book in a good delay, and it was in perfect condition! | ||
Great finish, no start. I read this book as a first year grad student studying journalism. It's an interesting read - probably the only book I read that whole semester that I actually liked. It leaves the reader with a sense of purpose and commitment to the craft of journalism. Then I went out and start reporting in the real world. I immediately realized "Elements of Journalism" is hopelessly idealistic. The book has a great vision for where the profession should be, but no suggestions on how to get there. | ||
absolutely loved it For my journalism class, I had to choose a book of merit about the media. "The Elements of Journalism" doesn't disappoint. This book takes the form of an instructional guide in that its objective does tell what journalists should be doing in order to create an effective press and what the public should expect from it. I find "The Elements of Journalism" to be of great use since it outlines what every budding journalist should follow to maintain ethics, objectivity, and truth in their work. It even describes man's history with the need for communication and a briefing of journalism's role in history. The book is written with clarity and the topics flow together. I also noticed that Kovach and Rosentiel developed many "theories" of the media-which all seem true too. What will always stay with me is the "The Theory of the Interlocking Public"-that states that everyone has an interest and is an expert in something. We need to be knowledgeable about the realistic description of how people interact with the news in order to present information as accurately as possible so that an individual group is not drawn to an article but a WHOLE variety of people depending on their level of knowledge about the world. Good journalism targets each level. I always remember this while writing an article for the paper. As for what citizens should expect from the press, I admired the quote "The marketplace fails if we as citizens are passive, willing to put up with a diminishing product because we have no alternative. It works only if we act with a voice and a reason." It basically means that the purpose of a press (to convey the information that people need to be sovereign) will deteriorate if the people don't take action and speak up in what they believe in and hold true. And, I can go on and on....because this book is so full of insightful information. I recommend it for anybody interested in the workings of the media. | ||