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Jim Lehrer’s Rules of Journalism

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Re: Jim Lehrer’s Rules of Journalism

#151

Post by Traster »

contingencies wrote: post #110
40acres wrote: post #92

For me, Twitter has been the worst thing to happen to journalism. There are a lot of downsides to strong institutions and gatekeeping, but when it comes to journalism I always felt like I was reading The New York Times or The Washington Post and not an individual reporter. The shroud of not getting an up close an personal look put the institution at the forefront. With social media, Twitter specifically, the journali…

In defense of social media, the first two weeks of the revolution in Tunisia (the start of the Arab Spring) were completely absent from international media. That taught me a lot about journalism. In the current crisis in China, social media is a very important element in interpreting official reports. It's also important for unpicking PR and marketing fantasies. As we say in Australia, keep the bastards honest .

I think it's actually an issue of journalists on social media. The benefits you're talking about are almost exclusively the effect of 'citizen journalism'. It's a practically new form of direct reporting. However, because of the reach of these real journalists (people actually reporting new information with new perspectives), you have traditional media trying to get in on this. So you've got hundreds of traditional journalists pushing their think pieces on twitter, and their hot takes - all of which have the cumulative effect of reducing trust in the media organisations and creating more heat than light.

Re: Jim Lehrer’s Rules of Journalism

#152

Post by throwawayjava »

baby wrote: post #134
throwawayjava wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We already have some obscure bureaucratic infrastructure in place from the 70s called the "public broadcasting service". It's funded and everything. Could just re-purpose that I suppose. Perhaps the public broadcasting service could have a nightly program that dedicates an entire hour of primetime to this type of reporting. And we could even name it in Lehrer's name! Of course in that case we should also give MacNeil…

I’m not native so I’m not sure I got your comment :D

You suggested a tax-funded news outlet that could focus on publishing well-sourced stories instead of keeping up with the hourly news cycle.

What you are asking for already exists [1]. In fact, the article we're commenting on is about the guy who co-hosted it [2]. Up until a few years ago, the program was even called the "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer" [3].

[1] https://www.pbs.org/newshour/

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Lehrer

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PBS_NewsHour#The_MacNeil/Lehre...

Re: Jim Lehrer’s Rules of Journalism

#153

Post by luckylion »

jariel wrote: post #145
luckylion wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, and I don't believe there is a definite answer. I like his description of the problem, and the fact that it works very well to describe the problem today is noteworthy as well: it's not a new problem, but each generation has to deal with it, and maybe the magnitude changes from time to time.

The answer is either private organizations have to act with integrity to promote and coordinate 'proper news' - or there has to be social intervention. The former kind of holds true for network news wherein there is institutional control over distribution. But not so much in print, and definitely not on the net. In Canada, there's the CBC and they are considering subsidies for other news outlets.

Relying on private organizations to act with integrity isn't going to be easy, I think. For public options, I'm skeptical as well, they are very mixed in my perception, some are doing good work, others are little more than very expensive mouth pieces for the government. Subsidies for private companies might be a way, but that will undoubtedly get gamed and you end up needing a large bureaucracy to counteract that.

Re: Jim Lehrer’s Rules of Journalism

#154

Post by einpoklum »

Knulp wrote: post #148
einpoklum wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's true that unionization is not a solution to every problem; but what you describe is not the situation the GP post was describing: Pressure on an individual journalist to bend his/her professional integrity. With a union - at least, an independent and non-corrupt union (which is not a trivial condition by the way) - the employer would need to "go nuclear" in order to have his way; and the individual employee woul…

That's true. Problem I think is that with the way organisations work (high turnover with short term contacts) it's hard to get a feel for this. There's also the problem that, once something is online... It's hard to have it disappear, independently of the media's will. I can only speak for France but unions have been coming up. But they are reeaally recent. (last year maybe). The unions that were already in place wer…

There's a vicious cycle here: Disorganized employees -> easy to artificially fire people and hire newer, less experienced ones, for shorter periods -> more difficult to organize. If the cycle is broken, then the other difficulties might subside somewhat as well.

But of course, it is not at all easy (speaking from the experience both of starting a union and of being fired for speaking up).

Re: Jim Lehrer’s Rules of Journalism

#155

Post by baby »

tbyehl wrote: post #136
baby wrote: post #121

In their current form, medias: 1. do not care about creating panics or damaging society 2. are incentivized to provide click-baity to-the-minute reporting. How to fix this? Maybe regulation, even though dangerous in this freedom of speech territory. One thing I was thinking (inspired by one of Andrew Yang's point) is to have a press tax to fund a delayed international news outlet. It changes the incentives: the media…

> How to fix this? Stop clicking.

how to fix at scale: don't blame the user, fix the service.

Re: Jim Lehrer’s Rules of Journalism

#156

Post by jariel »

throwawayjava wrote: post #128
jariel wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I've never heard manufacturing consent used like that. Do you have any examples of what you're talking about? Genuinely curious." It's called 'PR', it's used all day, every day by most companies and political organizations, social movements and even the government. Highlighting the positive aspects of whatever you're doing, avoiding the negative aspects, discrediting opponents and most insidiously - misrepresenting…

> ...we read it when we're young and naive and our eyes are opened... First, you're projecting. Second, it's not at all surprising that you're young enough to have first read Manufacturing Consent when you were "young". Third, books like Manufacturing Consent and Discipline and Punishment are primarily sociological. They do have some normative content, of course, but their primary goal is to explain how the world wor…

It wasn't 'new information' in 1988, it was just news to the plebes, and it was measured/articulated in some way.

This goes back far beyond the advent of 'cable news'.

For centuries, newspapers have been created, bought and promulgated mostly for the purposes of making money and promoting the narrative of the owners, often in the form of personal attacks.

Yes, I'm 'projecting' a little but this issue usually takes quite some time and exposure to grasp as most people don't have any direct dealings with it. It comes up way too often with young people referring to Manufacturing Consent as some kind of revelation. The fact is it's a revelation to them, but not objectively a revelation.

Re: Jim Lehrer’s Rules of Journalism

#157

Post by Knulp »

einpoklum wrote: post #154
Knulp wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's true. Problem I think is that with the way organisations work (high turnover with short term contacts) it's hard to get a feel for this. There's also the problem that, once something is online... It's hard to have it disappear, independently of the media's will. I can only speak for France but unions have been coming up. But they are reeaally recent. (last year maybe). The unions that were already in place wer…

There's a vicious cycle here: Disorganized employees -> easy to artificially fire people and hire newer, less experienced ones, for shorter periods -> more difficult to organize. If the cycle is broken, then the other difficulties might subside somewhat as well. But of course, it is not at all easy (speaking from the experience both of starting a union and of being fired for speaking up).

At least it's on the way I think ? People are trying to get medias to be more transparent about their prices, especially with freelancers. Nothing much is happening with short term turnover contracts though... The only organised unions are the ones in very little newsroom - usually specialised medias - where people stay for years and are - by opposition - organized.

Re: Jim Lehrer’s Rules of Journalism

#158

Post by mc32 »

throwawayjava wrote: post #128
jariel wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I've never heard manufacturing consent used like that. Do you have any examples of what you're talking about? Genuinely curious." It's called 'PR', it's used all day, every day by most companies and political organizations, social movements and even the government. Highlighting the positive aspects of whatever you're doing, avoiding the negative aspects, discrediting opponents and most insidiously - misrepresenting…

> ...we read it when we're young and naive and our eyes are opened... First, you're projecting. Second, it's not at all surprising that you're young enough to have first read Manufacturing Consent when you were "young". Third, books like Manufacturing Consent and Discipline and Punishment are primarily sociological. They do have some normative content, of course, but their primary goal is to explain how the world wor…

Interestingly in authoritarian regimes you don't have to manufacture consent so much since you're propagandizing 24x7 and you have complete control over the people.

Re: Jim Lehrer’s Rules of Journalism

#159

Post by nl »

jc01480 wrote: post #74
mannykannot wrote: post #13

I think the author unintentionally misspoke in calling him "one of the last". The growth of journalism in which Lehrer's standards are not observed should not distract us from the fact that there are many journalists reporting with integrity, and in some cases, great courage.

Can you reference some?

There are plenty. The Pulitzer prize winners and finalists last year seems a good place to start.

https://www.pulitzer.org/prize-winners-by-year/2019

Re: Jim Lehrer’s Rules of Journalism

#160

Post by thu2111 »

Knulp wrote: post #144
buboard wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> unfortunately the biases comes out as we are all human Can you point to an example of any recent article in any US paper that even tries to be objective? Only the BBC pretends to strive for that nowadays.

Thing is objectivity can't be reached and Lehrer's says it : the only thing yyou can do is try and be fair. It's a big misconception that medias were objective before. Newspapers have always had political leanings (clear and revendicated as the identity of the magazine) and that just never stopped. To say a media isn't objective with their political coverage is actually the norm and what should be expected. Now if a…

To say a media isn't objective with their political coverage is actually the norm and what should be expected.

I think that depends where in the world you live.

In the UK all news broadcasters are required to be neutral and objective by law. They aren't and the relevant regulator is MIA, probably because it's staffed with people who agree with the broadcaster's biases. But it's certainly not the norm there that "people" say media isn't objective. Lots of people still like to claim the BBC at least is objective, despite reams of retired or former journalists going on record to say it isn't.

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