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121-621: News is new information, typically relating to current events. News or The News may also refer to: News News is information about current events . This may be provided through many different media : word of mouth , printing , postal systems , broadcasting , electronic communication , or through the testimony of observers and witnesses to events. News is sometimes called " hard news " to differentiate it from soft media . Subject matters for news reports include war , government , politics , education , health , economy , business , fashion , sport , entertainment , and

242-455: A CNN war correspondent from the US, Christiane Amanpour , stated that in some circumstances "neutrality can mean you are an accomplice to all sorts of evil". Each of these opinions stems from scholar's and journalist's critique of objectivity as too "heartless" or "forensic" to report the human natured and emotionally charged issues found in war and conflict reporting. As discussed above, with

363-400: A fourth estate , a body that exists apart from government and large interest groups. Journalistic objectivity requires that a journalist not be on either side of an argument. The journalist must report only the facts and not a personal attitude toward the facts. While objectivity is a complex and dynamic notion that may refer to a multitude of techniques and practices, it generally refers to

484-577: A 2003 article that objectivity excuses lazy reporting. He suggests that objectivity makes us passive recipients of news, rather than aggressive analyzers and critics of it. According to Cunningham, the nut of the tortured relationship with objectivity lies within a number of conflicting diktats that the press was subjected to operate under: be neutral yet investigative; be disengaged yet have an impact; and be fair-minded yet have an edge. Cunningham, however, argues that reporters by and large are not ideological warriors; rather, they are imperfect people performing

605-455: A basic philosophy of providing a single objective news feed to all subscribers. That is, they do not provide separate feeds for conservative or liberal newspapers. Journalist Jonathan Fenby has explained the notion: To achieve such wide acceptability, the agencies avoid overt partiality. The demonstrably correct information is their stock-in-trade. Traditionally, they report at a reduced level of responsibility, attributing their information to

726-528: A book advocating the opposite of the view from nowhere: the view from somewhere . Some argue that a more appropriate standard should be fairness and accuracy (as enshrined in the names of groups like Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting ). Under this standard, taking sides on an issue would be permitted as long as the side taken was accurate and the other side was given a fair chance to respond. Many professionals believe that true objectivity in journalism

847-405: A common means of conveying information to citydwellers. In thirteenth-century Florence, criers known as banditori arrived in the market regularly, to announce political news, to convoke public meetings, and to call the populace to arms. In 1307 and 1322–1325, laws were established governing their appointment, conduct, and salary. These laws stipulated how many times a banditoro was to repeat

968-783: A day. This system became the Imperial Reichspost , administered by Tasso descendants (subsequently known as Thurn-und-Taxis ), who in 1587 received exclusive operating rights from the Emperor. The French postal service and English postal service also began at this time, but did not become comprehensive until the early 1600s. In 1620, the English system linked with Thurn-und-Taxis. These connections underpinned an extensive system of news circulation, with handwritten items bearing dates and places of origin. Centred in Germany,

1089-459: A difficult job that is crucial to society and, "[d]espite all our important and necessary attempts to minimize [individual's] humanity, it can't be any other way", Cunningham concludes. The debate about objectivity has also occurred within the photojournalism field. In 2011, Italian photographer Ruben Salvadori challenged the expectation of objective truth that the general public associates to photojournalism with his project "Photojournalism Behind

1210-404: A larger network. A common type of business communication was a simple listing of current prices, the circulation of which quickened the flow of international trade. Businesspeople also wanted to know about events related to shipping, the affairs of other businesses, and political developments. Even after the advent of international newspapers, business owners still valued correspondence highly as

1331-673: A licensing system for the press and banned "seditious opinions". Under the Licensing Act , publication was restricted to approved presses—as exemplified by The London Gazette, which prominently bore the words: "Published By Authority". Parliament allowed the Licensing Act to lapse in 1695, beginning a new era marked by Whig and Tory newspapers. (During this era, the Stamp Act limited newspaper distribution simply by making them expensive to sell and buy.) In France, censorship

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1452-680: A matter of priority. Sufficiently important news would be repeated quickly and often, and could spread by word of mouth over a large geographic area. Even as printing presses came into use in Europe , news for the general public often travelled orally via monks, travelers, town criers , etc. The news is also transmitted in public gathering places, such as the Greek forum and the Roman baths. Starting in England , coffeehouses served as important sites for

1573-477: A medium requiring a fairly sophisticated team of many different kinds of laborers. Journalists are expected to possess technical skills in computer-based and new media technologies to some extent, placing new demands on journalists now. Some scholars and journalists criticize the understanding of objectivity as neutrality or nonpartisanship, arguing that it does a disservice to the public because it fails to attempt to find truth. They also argue that such objectivity

1694-509: A more emotive and freewheeling format. (Private newsletters containing important intelligence therefore remained in use by people who needed to know.) The first newspapers emerged in Germany in the early 1600s. Relation aller Fürnemmen und gedenckwürdigen Historien , from 1605, is recognized as the world's first formalized 'newspaper'; while not a 'newspaper' in the modern sense, the Ancient Roman Acta Diurna served

1815-597: A native African language was the Muigwithania , published in Kikuyu by the Kenyan Central Association. Muigwithania and other newspapers published by indigenous Africans took strong opposition stances, agitating strongly for African independence. Newspapers were censored heavily during the colonial period—as well as after formal independence. Some liberalization and diversification took place in

1936-674: A new era of 24-hour satellite news broadcasting. In 1991, the BBC introduced a competitor, BBC World Service Television . Rupert Murdoch's Australian News Corporation entered the picture with Fox News Channel in the US, Sky News in Britain, and STAR TV in Asia. Combining this new apparatus with the use of embedded reporters , the United States waged the 1991–1992 Gulf War with the assistance of nonstop media coverage . CNN's specialty

2057-462: A number of reasons. Crowdfunding supports journalists by funding necessary components like reporting equipment, computers, travel expenses if necessary, and overhead costs like office space or paying other staff on their team. A key component of crowdfunding and a significant motivator for journalists to use it is the lack of corporate backing. This means that the journalist has the autonomy to make editorial decisions at their sole discrection but there

2178-493: A political explanation for the rise of objectivity; scholars like Richard Kaplan have argued that political parties needed to lose their hold over the loyalties of voters and the institutions of government before the press could feel free to offer a nonpartisan, "impartial" account of news events. This change occurred following the critical 1896 election and the subsequent reform of the Progressive Era . Later, during

2299-572: A proclamation (forty) and where in the city they were to read them. Different declarations sometimes came with additional protocols; announcements regarding the plague were also to be read at the city gates. These proclamations all used a standard format, beginning with an exordium —"The worshipful and most esteemed gentlemen of the Eight of Ward and Security of the city of Florence make it known, notify, and expressly command, to whosoever, of whatever status, rank, quality and condition"—and continuing with

2420-584: A restructuring of the national postal systems, and closely followed by the advent of telephone lines. With the value of international news at a premium, governments, businesses, and news agencies moved aggressively to reduce transmission times. In 1865, Reuters had the scoop on the Lincoln assassination , reporting the news in England twelve days after the event took place. In 1866, an undersea telegraph cable successfully connected Ireland to Newfoundland (and thus

2541-451: A similar purpose circa 131 BC. The new format, which mashed together numerous unrelated and perhaps dubious reports from far-flung locations, created a radically new and jarring experience for its readers. A variety of styles emerged, from single-story tales, to compilations, overviews, and personal and impersonal types of news analysis. News for public consumption was at first tightly controlled by governments. By 1530, England had created

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2662-454: A source of reliable news that would affect their enterprise. Handwritten newsletters, which could be produced quickly for a limited clientele, also continued into the 1600s. The spread of paper and the printing press from China to Europe preceded a major advance in the transmission of news. With the spread of printing presses and the creation of new markets in the 1500s, news underwent a shift from factual and precise economic reporting, to

2783-508: A spokesman, the press, or other sources. They avoid making judgments and steer clear of doubt and ambiguity. Though their founders did not use the word, objectivity is the philosophical basis for their enterprises – or failing that, widely acceptable neutrality . Objectivity in journalism aims to help the audience make up their own mind about a story, providing the facts alone and then letting audiences interpret those on their own. To maintain objectivity in journalism, journalists should present

2904-548: A statement ( narratio ), a request made upon the listeners ( petitio ), and the penalty to be exacted from those who would not comply ( peroratio ). In addition to major declarations, bandi (announcements) might concern petty crimes, requests for information, and notices about missing slaves. Niccolò Machiavelli was captured by the Medicis in 1513, following a bando calling for his immediate surrender. Some town criers could be paid to include advertising along with news. Under

3025-428: Is also sometimes said to portray the truth , but this relationship is elusive and qualified. Paradoxically, another property commonly attributed to news is sensationalism , the disproportionate focus on, and exaggeration of, emotive stories for public consumption. This news is also not unrelated to gossip , the human practice of sharing information about other humans of mutual interest. A common sensational topic

3146-528: Is credited with coining the phrase "current events" while teaching at Barnard College in the 1890s. As its name implies, "news" typically connotes the presentation of new information. The newness of news gives it an uncertain quality which distinguishes it from the more careful investigations of history or other scholarly disciplines. Whereas historians tend to view events as causally related manifestations of underlying processes, news stories tend to describe events in isolation, and to exclude discussion of

3267-574: Is credited with developing one of the most effective imperial surveillance and communications networks in the ancient world. Government-produced news sheets, called tipao , circulated among court officials during the late Han dynasty (second and third centuries AD). Between 713 and 734, the Kaiyuan Za Bao ("Bulletin of the Court") of the Chinese Tang dynasty published government news; it

3388-463: Is equally no financial support. According to a study conducted by Hunter (2014), journalists engaged in a crowdfunding campaign all held a similar opinion that their funders did not have control over the content and that it was the journalist who maintained ultimate jurisdiction. However, this pronouncement was complicated by the sense of accountability or responsibility incited in journalists towards their funders. Hunter (2014) notes that this may have

3509-437: Is more interesting than stories without conflict; we are biased toward sticking with the pack because it is safe; we are biased toward event-driven coverage because it is easier; we are biased toward existing narratives because they are safe and easy. Mostly, though, we are biased in favor of getting the story, regardless of whose ox is being gored. Brent Cunningham, the managing editor of Columbia Journalism Review , argues in

3630-553: Is more objective than another if it relies less on the specifics of the individual's makeup and position in the world." Many other news media commentators have also criticized the view from nowhere in journalism. Writer Elias Isquith argues in a 2014 article for Salon that "the view from nowhere not only leads to sloppy thinking but actually leaves the reader less informed than she would be had she simply read an unapologetically ideological source or even, in some cases, nothing at all". In 2019, journalist Lewis Raven Wallace published

3751-494: Is nearly impossible to apply in practice—newspapers inevitably take a point of view in deciding what stories to cover, which to feature on the front page, and what sources they quote. The media critics Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky have advanced a propaganda model hypothesis proposing that such a notion of objectivity results in heavily favoring government viewpoints and large corporations. Mainstream commentators accept that news value drives selection of stories, but there

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3872-537: Is not possible and reporters must seek balance in their stories (giving all sides their respective points of view), which fosters fairness. A good reporter who is well-steeped in his subject matter and who isn't out to prove his cleverness, but rather is sweating out a detailed understanding of a topic worth exploring, will probably develop intelligent opinions that will inform and perhaps be expressed in his journalism. Brent Cunningham suggests that reporters should understand their inevitable biases, so they can explore what

3993-481: Is some debate as to whether catering to an audience's level of interest in a story makes the selection process non-objective. Another example of an objection to objectivity, according to communication scholar David Mindich , was the coverage that the major papers (most notably the New York Times ) gave to the lynching of thousands of African Americans during the 1890s. News stories of the period described

4114-600: Is the crisis , to which the network is prepared to shift its total attention if so chosen. CNN news was transmitted via Intelsat communications satellites. CNN, said an executive, would bring a "town crier to the global village". In 1996, the Qatar-owned broadcaster Al Jazeera emerged as a powerful alternative to the Western media, capitalizing in part on anger in the Arab & Muslim world regarding biased coverage of

4235-497: Is the notion of observations untouched by interpretation". Rosen has used the term to criticize journalists who hide behind the appearance of journalistic objectivity so as to gain an unearned position of authority or trust with their audience; he advocates for transparency as a better way of legitimately earning trust. Scholars such as Rosen and Jake Lynch borrowed the term from philosopher Thomas Nagel 's 1986 book The View from Nowhere , which stated, "A view or form of thought

4356-422: Is violence; hence another news dictum, "if it bleeds, it leads". Newsworthiness is defined as a subject having sufficient relevance to the public or a special audience to warrant press attention or coverage. News values seem to be common across cultures. People seem to be interested in news to the extent which it has a big impact, describes conflicts, happens nearby, involves well-known people, and deviates from

4477-514: The Edo period was even more effective, with average speeds of 125–150 km/day and express speed of 200 km/day. This system was initially used only by the government, taking private communications only at exorbitant prices. Private services emerged and in 1668 established their own nakama (guild). They became even faster, and created an effective optical telegraphy system using flags by day and lanterns and mirrors by night. In Europe, during

4598-540: The Holy Roman Empire , Emperor Maximillian I in 1490 authorized two brothers from the Italian Tasso family, Francesco and Janetto, to create a network of courier stations linked by riders. They began with a communications line between Innsbruck and Mechelen and grew from there. In 1505 this network expanded to Spain, new governed by Maximilian's son Philip . These riders could travel 180 kilometers in

4719-675: The Ottoman Empire , official messages were regularly distributed at mosques, by traveling holy men, and by secular criers. These criers were sent to read official announcements in marketplaces, highways, and other well-traveled places, sometimes issuing commands and penalties for disobedience. The spread of news has always been linked to the communications networks in place to disseminate it. Thus, political, religious, and commercial interests have historically controlled, expanded, and monitored communications channels by which news could spread. Postal services have long been closely entwined with

4840-674: The Reuters news agency—specializing in news from the continent. In 1863, William Saunders and Edward Spender formed the Central Press agency, later called the Press Association , to handle domestic news. Just before insulated telegraph line crossed the English Channel in 1851, Reuter won the right to transmit stock exchange prices between Paris and London. He maneuvered Reuters into a dominant global position with

4961-721: The Slavic languages – namely cognates from Serbo-Croatian novost (from nov , "new"), Czech and Slovak noviny (from nový , "new"), the Polish nowiny (pronounced noviney ), the Bulgarian novini and Russian novosti – and likewise in the Celtic languages : the Welsh newyddion (from newydd ) and the Cornish nowodhow (from nowydh ). Jessica Garretson Finch

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5082-630: The Taika Reform and again during the Kamakura period from 1183 to 1333. The system depended on hikyaku , runners, and regularly spaced relay stations. By this method, news could travel between Kyoto and Kamakura in 5–7 days. Special horse-mounted messengers could move information at the speed of 170 kilometers per day. The Japanese shogunates were less tolerant than the Chinese government of news circulation. The postal system established during

5203-470: The early modern period . In the 20th century, radio and television became an important means of transmitting news. Whilst in the 21st, the internet has also begun to play a similar role. The English word "news" developed in the 14th century as a special use of the plural form of "new". In Middle English , the equivalent word was newes , like the French nouvelles . Similar developments are found in

5324-682: The environment , as well as quirky or unusual events. Government proclamations, concerning royal ceremonies , laws , taxes , public health , and criminals , have been dubbed news since ancient times. Technological and social developments , often driven by government communication and espionage networks, have increased the speed with which news can spread, as well as influenced its content. Throughout history, people have transported new information through oral means. Having developed in China over centuries, newspapers became established in Europe during

5445-400: The stock markets . Yet, as in the case other newspapers, the incorporation of advertising into the newspaper led to justified reservations about accepting newspaper information at face value. Economic newspapers also became promoters of economic ideologies, such as Keynesianism in the mid-1900s. Newspapers came to sub-Saharan Africa via colonization. The first English-language newspaper in

5566-475: The 1790s through the 1850s. The world's first written news may have originated in eighth century BCE China , where reports gathered by officials were eventually compiled as the Spring and Autumn Annals . The annals, whose compilation is attributed to Confucius , were available to a sizeable reading public and dealt with common news themes—though they straddle the line between news and history. The Han dynasty

5687-495: The 1800s and after retained the commercial orientation characteristic of the private newsletters of the Renaissance. Economically oriented newspapers published new types of data enabled the advent of statistics , especially economic statistics which could inform sophisticated investment decisions. These newspapers, too, became available for larger sections of society, not just elites, keen on investing some of their savings in

5808-801: The 1800s. American newspapers got many of their stories by copying reports from each other. Thus by offering free postage to newspapers wishing to exchange copies, the Postal Service Act subsidized a rapidly growing news network through which different stories could percolate. Newspapers thrived during the colonization of the West , fueled by high literacy and a newspaper-loving culture. By 1880, San Francisco rivaled New York in number of different newspapers and in printed newspaper copies per capita. Boosters of new towns felt that newspapers covering local events brought legitimacy, recognition, and community. The 1830s American, wrote Alexis de Tocqueville ,

5929-415: The 1880s, Americans started to become interested in some scientific theories and facts which narrowed the ways that writers could express their feelings. The use of technology led to more productivity and control. New tech in the news process has worked to establish a discourse of speed. The discourse of speed has also become stronger and more encompassing over time. The transformation of the newspaper produced

6050-682: The 1990s. Newspapers were slow to spread to the Arab world , which had a stronger tradition of oral communication , and mistrust of the European approach to news reporting. By the end of the eighteenth century, the Ottoman Empire's leaders in Istanbul monitored the European press, but its contents were not disseminated for mass consumption. Some of the first written news in modern North Africa arose in Egypt under Muhammad Ali , who developed

6171-524: The British news agencies. BBC radio marketed itself as a news by and for social elites, and hired only broadcasters who spoke with upper-class accents. The BBC gained importance in the May 1926 general strike, during which newspapers were closed and the radio served as the only source of news for an uncertain public. (To the displeasure of many listeners, the BBC took an unambiguously pro-government stance against

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6292-460: The European nations prepared for war. The war provided an opportunity to expand radio and take advantage of its new potential. The BBC reported on Allied invasion of Normandy on 8:00 a.m. of the morning it took place, and including a clip from German radio coverage of the same event. Listeners followed along with developments throughout the day. The U.S. set up its Office of War Information which by 1942 sent programming across South America,

6413-508: The French government's optical telegraph network. In 1840 he began using pigeons for communications to Paris, London, and Brussels. Havas began to use the electric telegraph when it became available. One of Havas's proteges, Bernhard Wolff , founded Wolffs Telegraphisches Bureau in Berlin in 1849. Another Havas disciple, Paul Reuter , began collecting news from Germany and France in 1849, and in 1851 immigrated to London, where he established

6534-630: The Gulf War. Al Jazeera hired many news workers conveniently laid off by BBC Arabic Television , which closed in April 1996. It used Arabsat to broadcast. The early internet, known as ARPANET , was controlled by the U.S. Department of Defense and used mostly by academics. It became available to a wider public with the release of the Netscape browser in 1994. At first, news websites were mostly archives of print publications. An early online newspaper

6655-528: The Middle Ages, elites relied on runners to transmit news over long distances. At 33 kilometres per day, a runner would take two months to bring a message across the Hanseatic League from Bruges to Riga. In the early modern period , increased cross-border interaction created a rising need for information which was met by concise handwritten newssheets. The driving force of this new development

6776-599: The Middle East, and East Asia. Radio Luxembourg , a centrally located high-power station on the continent, was seized by Germany , and then by the United States —which created fake news programs appearing as though they were created by Germany. Targeting American troops in the Pacific, the Japanese government broadcast the " Zero Hour " program, which included news from the U.S. to make the soldiers homesick. But by

6897-597: The Press–Radio Bureau and eschew advertising; this agreement soon collapsed and radio stations began reporting their own news (with advertising). As in Britain, American news radio avoided "controversial" topics as per norms established by the National Association of Broadcasters . By 1939, 58% of Americans surveyed by Fortune considered radio news more accurate than newspapers, and 70% chose radio as their main news source. Radio expanded rapidly across

7018-633: The Red China News Agency, in 1931; its primary responsibilities were the Red China newspaper and the internal Reference News . In 1937, the Party renamed the agency Xinhua , New China. Xinhua became the official news agency of the People's Republic of China in 1949. These agencies touted their ability to distill events into "minute globules of news", 20–30 word summaries which conveyed

7139-478: The Scenes". By including the traditionally invisible photographer into the frame, Salvadori sought to ignite a discussion about the ethics of the profession, and indicate a need for audiences to be active viewers who understand and recognize the potential subjectivity of the photographic medium. Another notion circulating around the critique of objectivity is proposed by scholar Judith Lichtenberg . She points to

7260-630: The Western Union network) cutting trans-Atlantic transmission time from days to hours. The transatlantic cable allowed fast exchange of information about the London and New York stock exchanges, as well as the New York, Chicago, and Liverpool commodity exchanges—for the price of $ 5–10, in gold, per word. Transmitting On 11 May 1857, a young British telegraph operator in Delhi signaled home to alert

7381-433: The accepted narratives may be, and then work against these as much as possible. He points out that "[w]e need deep reporting and real understanding, but we also need reporters to acknowledge all that they don't know, and not try to mask that shortcoming behind a gloss of attitude, or drown it in a roar of oversimplified assertions". Cunningham suggests the following to solve the apparent controversies of objectivity: In

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7502-403: The actual news, and not a "romanticized version of it". The term objectivity was not applied to journalistic work until the 20th century, but it had fully emerged as a guiding principle by the 1890s. Michael Schudson, among a number of other communication scholars and historians, agree that the idea of objectivity has prevailed in dominant discourse among journalists in the United States since

7623-565: The appearance of modern newspapers in the Jacksonian Era of the 1830s. These papers transformed the press amidst the democratization of politics, the expansion of a market economy, and the growing authority of an entrepreneurial, urban middle class. Before then, American newspapers were expected to present a partisan viewpoint, not a neutral one. The need for objectivity first occurred to Associated Press editors who realized that partisanship would narrow their potential market. Their goal

7744-525: The area was The Royal Gazette and Sierra Leone Advertiser , established in 1801, and followed by The Royal Gold Coast Gazette and Commercial Intelligencer in 1822 and the Liberia Herald in 1826. A number of nineteenth-century African newspapers were established by missionaries. These newspapers by and large promoted the colonial governments and served the interests of European settlers by relaying news from Europe. The first newspaper published in

7865-581: The auspices of military, religious, and banking authorities. Sponsorship flavored the contents of each series, which were circulated under many different names. Subscribers included clerics, diplomatic staff, and noble families. By the last quarter of the seventeenth century, long passages from avvisi were finding their way into published monthlies such as the Mercure de France and, in northern Italy, Pallade veneta . Postal services enabled merchants and monarchs to stay abreast of important information. For

7986-631: The authorities of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 . The rebels proceeded to disrupt the British telegraph network, which was rebuilt with more redundancies. In 1902–1903, Britain and the U.S. completed the circumtelegraphy of the planet with transpacific cables from Canada to Fiji and New Zealand (British Empire), and from the US to Hawaii and the occupied Philippines. U.S. reassertions of the Monroe Doctrine notwithstanding, Latin America

8107-876: The big three wire services opened relations with Vestnik , the news agency of Czarist Russia, to their group, though they maintained their own reporters in Moscow. During and after the Russian Revolution , the outside agencies maintained a working relationship with the Petrograd Telegraph Agency, renamed the Russian Telegraph Agency (ROSTA) and eventually the Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union (TASS) . The Chinese Communist Party created its news agency,

8228-793: The colonial sphere of its mother country. Reuters and the Australian national news service had an agreement to exchange news only with each other. Due to the high cost of maintaining infrastructure, political goodwill, and global reach, newcomers found it virtually impossible to challenge the big three European agencies or the American Associated Press. In 1890 Reuters (in partnership with the Press Association, England's major news agency for domestic stories) expanded into "soft" news stories for public consumption, about topics such as sports and "human interest". In 1904,

8349-753: The continent, from 30 stations in 1920 to a thousand in the 1930s. This operation was financed mostly with advertising and public relations money. The Soviet Union began a major international broadcasting operation in 1929, with stations in German, English and French. The Nazi Party made use of the radio in its rise to power in Germany, with much of its propaganda focused on attacking the Soviet Bolsheviks. The British and Italian foreign radio services competed for influence in North Africa. All four of these broadcast services grew increasingly vitriolic as

8470-495: The diffusion of written documents is in Egypt, where Pharaohs used couriers for the diffusion of their decrees in the territory of the State (2400 BC). Julius Caesar regularly publicized his heroic deeds in Gaul, and upon becoming dictator of Rome began publishing government announcements called Acta Diurna . These were carved in metal or stone and posted in public places. In medieval England, parliamentary declarations were delivered to sheriffs for public display and reading at

8591-508: The early 20th century, journalism started to define itself as a professional occupation that required special training, unique skills and self-regulation according to ethical principles. Professionalization normalized the regime of objectivity as the foundation of good journalism, providing benefits to journalists and editors/publishers. For most of the 19th century, most of the publications and news were written by one person. Writers could express their own perspectives and opinions. However, since

8712-532: The editors say they are able to make their own comments upon the facts which are sent to them. I, therefore confine myself to what I consider legitimate news. I do not act as a politician belonging to any school, but try to be truthful and impartial. My dispatches are a merely dry matter of fact and detail. In the first decade of the twentieth century, it was uncommon to see a sharp divide between facts and values. However, Stuart Allan (1997) suggests that, during World War I , scholar propaganda campaigns, as well as

8833-412: The effect of creating a power imbalance between funders and the journalist, as journalists want to maintain editorial control, but it is in fact the funders that decide whether the project will be a success or not. To combat this, Hunter (2014) proposes the following strategies that journalists may employ to maintain a more objective approach if desired: The type of relationship and potential pressures

8954-477: The effect of normalizing the practice of lynching. In a more recent example, scholars Andrew Calcutt and Phillip Hammond (2011) note that since the 1990s, war reporting (especially) has increasingly come to criticize and reject the practice of objectivity. In 1998, a BBC reporter, Martin Bell , noted that he favoured a "journalism of attachment", over the previously sought after dispassionate approach. Similarly,

9075-415: The emergence of 24-hour news cycles, speed is of the essence in responding to breaking stories. It is therefore not possible for reporters to decide "from first principles" how they will report each and every story that presents itself—thus, some scholars argue that mere convention (versus a true devotion to truth-seeking) has come to govern much of journalism. Reporters are biased toward conflict because it

9196-493: The end of the war, Britain had the largest radio network in the world, broadcasting internationally in 43 different languages. Its scope would eventually be surpassed (by 1955) by the worldwide Voice of America programs, produced by the United States Information Agency . In Britain and the United States, television news watching rose dramatically in the 1950s and by the 1960s supplanted radio as

9317-461: The essence of new developments. Unlike newspapers, and contrary to the sentiments of some of their reporters, the agencies sought to keep their reports simple and factual. The wire services brought forth the "inverted pyramid" model of news copy, in which key facts appear at the start of the text, and more and more details are included as it goes along. The sparse telegraphic writing style spilled over into newspapers, which often reprinted stories from

9438-441: The facts whether or not they like or agree with those facts. Objective reporting is meant to portray issues and events in a neutral and unbiased manner, regardless of the writer's opinion or personal beliefs. Sociologist Michael Schudson suggests that "the belief in objectivity is a faith in 'facts,' a distrust in 'values,' and a commitment to their segregation". Objectivity also outlines an institutional role for journalists as

9559-544: The famous question, "What hath God wrought?", it transmitted the news that Henry Clay and Theodore Frelinghuysen had been chosen by the Whig nominating party.) Telegraph networks enabled a new centralization of the news, in the hands of wire services concentrated in major cities. The modern form of these originated with Charles-Louis Havas , who founded Bureau Havas (later Agence France-Presse ) in Paris. Havas began in 1832, using

9680-422: The growth of mass media, especially from the 19th century, news advertising became the most important source of media revenue. Whole audiences needed to be engaged across communities and regions to maximize advertising revenue. This led to "[j]ournalistic [o]bjectivity as an industry standard […] a set of conventions allowing the news to be presented as all things to all people". In modern journalism, especially with

9801-416: The hanging, immolation and mutilation of people by mobs with detachment and, through the regimen of objectivity, news writers often attempted to construct a " false balance " of these accounts by recounting the alleged transgressions of the victims that provoked the lynch mobs to fury. Mindich suggests that by enabling practices of objectivity and allowing them to "[go] basically unquestioned", it may have had

9922-447: The idea of "three distinct, yet interrelated, concepts": truthfulness, neutrality , and detachment. Truthfulness is a commitment to reporting only accurate and truthful information, without skewing any facts or details to improve the story or better align an issue with any certain agenda. Neutrality suggests that stories be reported in an unbiased, even-handed, and impartial manner. Under this notion, journalists are to side with none of

10043-402: The inherent difficulty of reporting without political bias. Perception of these values has changed greatly over time as sensationalized ' tabloid journalism ' has risen in popularity. Michael Schudson has argued that before the era of World War I and the concomitant rise of propaganda , journalists were not aware of the concept of bias in reporting , let alone actively correcting for it. News

10164-507: The investor providing feedback or ideas as well as receiving early copies of the work prior to its public release. Some journalists from the study firmly held the opinion that impartial accounts and a detached, namely "objective", reporting style should continue to govern, even within a crowdfunding context. Others, however, advocated that point-of-view journalism and accurate reporting are not mutually exclusive ideals, and thus journalists still may ascribe to quality factual reporting, sans

10285-434: The journalism field, specifically through disciplines such as conflict analysis , conflict resolution , peace research and social psychology . The application of this empirical research to the reporting of conflict may thus replace the unacknowledged conventions (see above) which govern the non-scientific practices of 'objectivity' of journalism. Recently, many scholars and journalists have increasingly become attuned to

10406-426: The journalist may feel depends on the type of investor with whom they are working, as there are passive and active investors. Passive investors will not be involved beyond making a donation on the crowdfunding platform, leaving everything up to the discretion of the journalist. In contrast, active investors have a more active role in the production of the journalistic piece, which can take various forms that may include

10527-422: The local paper industry and initiated the limited circulation of news bulletins called jurnals . Beginning in the 1850s and 1860s, the private press began to develop in the multi-religious country of Lebanon. The development of the electrical telegraph , which often travelled along railroad lines, enabled news to travel faster, over longer distances. (Days before Morse's Baltimore–Washington line transmitted

10648-415: The logical inconsistency that arises when scholars or journalists criticize journalism for failing to be objective, while simultaneously proposing that there is no such thing as objectivity. Underpinning critiques of objectivity that arose in the 1970s and 1980s, this dual theory—which Lichtenberg refers to as a "compound assault on objectivity" —invalidates itself, as each element of the argument repudiates

10769-781: The maintenance of political power in a large area. One of the imperial communication channels, called the " Royal Road " traversed the Assyrian Empire and served as a key source of its power. The Roman Empire maintained a vast network of roads, known as cursus publicus , for similar purposes. Visible chains of long-distance signaling, known as optical telegraphy , have also been used throughout history to convey limited types of information. These can have ranged from smoke and fire signals to advanced systems using semaphore codes and telescopes. The latter form of optical telegraph came into use in Japan, Britain, France, and Germany from

10890-695: The market. Specially sanctioned messengers have been recognized in Vietnamese culture , among the Khasi people in India, and in the Fox and Winnebago cultures of the American midwest. The Zulu Kingdom used runners to quickly disseminate news. In West Africa, news can be spread by griots . In most cases, the official spreaders of news have been closely aligned with holders of political power. Town criers were

11011-413: The media. The modern notion of objectivity in journalism is largely due to the work of Walter Lippmann . Lippmann was the first to widely call for journalists to use the scientific method for gathering information. Lippmann called for journalistic objectivity after the excesses of yellow journalism . He noted that the yellows at the time had served their purpose, but that the people needed to receive

11132-719: The motto "Follow the Cable", setting up news outposts across the British Empire in Alexandria (1865), Bombay (1866), Melbourne (1874), Sydney (1874), and Cape Town (1876). In the United States, the Associated Press became a news powerhouse, gaining a lead position through an exclusive arrangement with the Western Union company. The telegraph ushered in a new global communications regime, accompanied by

11253-588: The network took in news from Russia, the Balkans, Italy, Britain, France, and the Netherlands. The German lawyer Christoph von Scheurl and the Fugger house of Augsburg were prominent hubs in this network. Letters describing historically significant events could gain wide circulation as news reports. Indeed, personal correspondence sometimes acted only as a convenient channel through which news could flow across

11374-406: The newspaper business by attracting advertisers. In this economic analysis, publishers did not want to offend any potential advertising clients and therefore encouraged news editors and reporters to strive to present all sides of an issue. Advertisers would remind the press that partisanship hurts circulation, and, consequently, advertising revenues—thus, objectivity was sought. Others have proposed

11495-427: The norms of everyday happenings. War is a common news topic, partly because it involves unknown events that could pose personal danger. Evidence suggests that cultures around the world have found a place for people to share stories about interesting new information. Among Zulus , Mongolians , Polynesians , and American Southerners , anthropologists have documented the practice of questioning travelers for news as

11616-553: The only news sites capable of hosting images, the San Jose Mercury News and Time magazine, posted photographs of the scene. Journalistic objectivity Most newspapers and TV stations depend upon news agencies for their material, and each of the four major global agencies ( Agence France-Presse (formerly the Havas agency), Associated Press , Reuters , and Agencia EFE ) began with and continue to operate on

11737-410: The ordinary. Hence the famous dictum that "Dog Bites Man" is not news, but "Man Bites Dog" is. Another corollary of the newness of news is that, as new technology enables new media to disseminate news more quickly, 'slower' forms of communication may move away from 'news' towards 'analysis'. According to some theories, "news" is whatever the news industry sells. Journalism, broadly understood along

11858-431: The origin of objectivity. The transition from a political model of journalism to a commercial model requires the production of content that can be marketed across the political and ideological spectrum. The telegraph imposes pressures on journalists to prioritize the most important facts at the beginning of the story and adopt a simplified, homogenized and generic style that could appeal to geographically diverse audiences. In

11979-470: The other. Lichtenberg agrees with other scholars that view objectivity as mere conventional practice: she states that "much of what goes under the name of objectivity reflects shallow understanding of it". Thus, she suggests that these practices, rather than the overall notion of objectivity (whose primary aim, according to Lichtenberg, is only to seek and pursue truth), should really be the target of critique. Journalism scholars and media critics have used

12100-445: The parties involved, and simply provide the relevant facts and information of all. The third idea, detachment, refers to the emotional approach of the journalist. Essentially, reporters should not only approach issues in an unbiased manner but also with a dispassionate and emotionless attitude. Through this strategy, stories can be presented in a rational and calm manner, letting the audience make up their minds without any influences from

12221-456: The period following World War II , the newly formalized rules and practices of objectivity led to a brief national consensus and temporary suspension of negative public opinion; however, doubts and uncertainties in "the institutions of democracy and capitalism " resurfaced in the period of civil unrest during the 1960s and 1970s, ultimately leading to the emergence of the critique of objectivity. In conclusion, there are three key factors in

12342-604: The public's primary source of news. In the U.S., television was run by the same networks which owned radio: CBS, NBC, and an NBC spin-off called ABC. Edward R. Murrow , who first entered the public ear as a war reporter in London, made the big leap to television to become an iconic newsman on CBS (and later the director of the United States Information Agency). Ted Turner 's creation of the Cable News Network (CNN) in 1980 inaugurated

12463-436: The relationships between them. News conspicuously describes the world in the present or immediate past, even when the most important aspects of a news story have occurred long in the past—or are expected to occur in the future. To make the news, an ongoing process must have some "peg", an event in time that anchors it to the present moment. Relatedly, news often addresses aspects of reality which seem unusual, deviant, or out of

12584-412: The rise of "press agents and publicity experts", fostered the growing cynicism among the public towards state institutions and "official channels of information". The elevation of objectivity thus constituted an effort to re-legitimatize the news-press, as well as the state in general. Some historians, like Gerald Baldasty, have observed that objectivity went hand in hand with the need to make profits in

12705-405: The same lines, is the act or occupation of collecting and providing news. From a commercial perspective, news is simply one input, along with paper (or an electronic server) necessary to prepare a final product for distribution. A news agency supplies this resource "wholesale" and publishers enhance it for retail. Most purveyors of news value impartiality, neutrality, and objectivity , despite

12826-552: The shifts occurring within the newspaper industry, and general upheaval of the journalistic environment, as it adjusts to the new digital era of the 21st century. In the face of this, the practice of crowdfunding is increasingly being utilized by journalists to fund independent and/or alternative projects, establishing it as another relevant alternative practice to consider in the discussion of journalistic objectivity. Crowdfunding allows journalists to pursue stories of interest to them or that otherwise may not be covered adequately for

12947-512: The spread of news, even after telecommunications became widely available. The history of the coffee houses is traced from Arab countries, which was introduced in England in the 16th century. In the Muslim world, people have gathered and exchanged news at mosques and other social places. Travelers on pilgrimages to Mecca traditionally stay at caravanserais , roadside inns, along the way, and these places have naturally served as hubs for gaining news of

13068-436: The strikers). In the US, RCA's Radio Group established its radio network, NBC, in 1926. The Paley family founded CBS soon after. These two networks, which supplied news broadcasts to subsidiaries and affiliates, dominated the airwaves throughout the period of radio's hegemony as a news source. Radio broadcasters in the United States negotiated a similar arrangement with the press in 1933, when they agreed to use only news from

13189-631: The term view from nowhere to criticize journalists' attempt to adopt a neutral and objective point of view in reporting, as if reporting "from nobody's point of view". Jay Rosen has argued that journalists may thereby disinform their audience by creating the impression that they have an authoritative impartiality between conflicting positions on an issue. Jeremy Iggers quoted Richard S. Salant , former president of CBS News , who stated: "Our reporters do not cover stories from their point of view. They are presenting them from nobody's point of view." Iggers called Salant's assertion "plainly incoherent, as

13310-606: The traditional practices or understanding of objectivity. The study on crowdfunding done by Hunter (2014) showed that audiences are keen to fund projects with a specific point of view or pieces of advocacy journalism . Journalists are often using crowdfunding to pursue stories with a point-of-view that large corporations do not pursue adequately. The journalist explains the goal of the work they are trying to pursue and what resources are needed for it on crowdfunding platforms. Based on this information, funders decide to contribute or not. The desire or acceptance of opinionated journalism

13431-738: The wire with little embellishment. In a 20 September 1918 Pravda editorial, Lenin instructed the Soviet press to cut back on their political rambling and produce many short anticapitalist news items in "telegraph style". As in previous eras, the news agencies provided special services to political and business clients, and these services constituted a significant portion of their operations and income. The wire services maintained close relationships with their respective national governments, which provided both press releases and payments. The acceleration and centralization of economic news facilitated regional economic integration and economic globalization . "It

13552-575: The words of another scholar, Faina (2012) suggests that modern journalists may function as "sensemakers" within the shifting contemporary journalistic environment. Notable departures from objective news work also include the muckraking of Ida Tarbell and Lincoln Steffens , the New Journalism of Tom Wolfe , the underground press of the 1960s, and public journalism . For news related to conflict, peace journalism may provide an alternative by introducing insights of social science into

13673-464: The world. In late medieval Britain, reports ("tidings") of major events were a topic of great public interest, as chronicled in Chaucer's 1380 The House of Fame and other works. Before the invention of newspapers in the early 17th century, official government bulletins and edicts were circulated at times in some centralized empires. The first documented use of an organized courier service for

13794-658: Was "a very civilized man prepared for a time to face life in the forest, plunging into the wilderness of the New World with his Bible, ax, and newspapers." In France, the Revolution brought forth an abundance of newspapers and a new climate of press freedom, followed by a return to repression under Napoleon. In 1792 the Revolutionaries set up a news ministry called the Bureau d'Esprit . Some newspapers published in

13915-459: Was a battleground of competing telegraphic interests until World War I, after which U.S. interests finally did consolidate their power in the hemisphere. By the turn of the century (i.e., c.  1900 ), Wolff, Havas, and Reuters formed a news cartel, dividing up the global market into three sections, in which each had more-or-less exclusive distribution rights and relationships with national agencies. Each agency's area corresponded roughly to

14036-575: Was even more constant. Consequently, many Europeans read newspapers originating from beyond their national borders—especially from the Dutch Republic , where publishers could evade state censorship. The new United States saw a newspaper boom beginning with the Revolutionary era, accelerated by spirited debates over the establishment of a new government, spurred on by subsidies contained in the 1792 Postal Service Act , and continuing into

14157-638: Was handwritten on silk and read by government officials. The court created a Bureau of Official Reports ( Jin Zhouyuan ) to centralize news distribution for the court. Newsletters called ch'ao pao continued to be produced and gained wider public circulation in the following centuries. In 1582 there was the first reference to privately published newssheets in Beijing, during the late Ming dynasty . Japan had effective communications and postal delivery networks at several points in its history, first in 646 with

14278-667: Was the Electronic Telegraph , published by The Daily Telegraph . A 1994 earthquake in California was one of the first big stories to be reported online in real time. The new availability of web browsing made news sites accessible to more people. On the day of the Oklahoma City bombing in April 1995, people flocked to newsgroups and chatrooms to discuss the situation and share information. The Oklahoma City Daily posted news to its site within hours. Two of

14399-459: Was the commercial advantage provided by up-to-date news. In 1556, the government of Venice first published the monthly Notizie scritte , which cost one gazetta . These avvisi were handwritten newsletters and used to convey political, military, and economic news quickly and efficiently to Italian cities (1500–1700)—sharing some characteristics of newspapers though usually not considered true newspapers. Avvisi were sold by subscription under

14520-493: Was the decrease in information costs and the increasing communication speed that stood at the roots of increased market integration, rather than falling transport costs by itself. In order to send goods to another area, merchants needed to know first whether in fact to send off the goods and to what place. Information costs and speed were essential for these decisions." The British Broadcasting Company began transmitting radio news from London in 1922, dependent entirely, by law, on

14641-532: Was to reach all newspapers and leave it to the individual papers to decide on what slanting and commentary were needed. Lawrence Gobright , the AP chief in Washington, explained the philosophy of objectivity to Congress in 1856: My business is to communicate facts. My instructions do not allow me to make any comments upon the facts which I communicate. My dispatches are sent to papers of all manner of politics, and

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