> > "HOW THE MEDIA FRAMES POLITICAL ISSUES." > http://www.west.net/~insight/london/frames.htm > > Here are some excerpts: > ... > First . . . objectivity in journalism is biased in favor of the > status quo; it is inherently conservative to the extent that it > encourages reporters to rely on what sociologist Alvin Gouldner so > appropriately describes as the `managers of the status quo' - > the prominent and the elite. [...] Since that is actually London quoting Ted Glasser, you might get some more positive insights from http://eagle.ca/caj/mediamag99/media99_10.html Glasser, ed. _The Idea of Public Journalism_ (Guilford Publications) excerpt: "There are ways to grant the public greater authority in journalism -- there are ways, in a sense, to democratize the practice of journalism itself. For instance, the movement of minorities and women to promote diversity in the newsroom is a form of democratization and a serious way to empower disempowered elements of the public by representing them in person among journalists. This does not offer any direct accountability, however, of the news institution to the public. Other forms do: The ombudsperson owes loyalty as much to the public as to the news institution. Media critics and media reporters take on their own institutions -- at least, they are supposed to -- with professional dispassion. Local or national news councils, never very popular among journalists, afford legitimacy to community press critics. Publicly owned news institutions such as the Public Broadcasting Service and its affiliated stations are responsible to boards representing the public and are sensitive to public criticism in ways that corporately owned news institutions can never be. "...Communication scholar Daniel Hallin put it this way: 'Journalists need to move from conceiving their role in terms of mediating between political authorities and the mass public, to thinking of it also as a task of opening up political discussion in civil society...it might be time for journalists themselves to rejoin civil society, and to start talking to their readers and viewers as one citizen to another, rather than as experts claiming to be above politics....' " kerry
