CIAO DATE: 7/04

A Matter of Degree
The Role of Journalists as Activists in Journalism Business and Policy

Abstract

The prevailing view of journalism today draws on strands from a diverse portfolio of political, legal, and commercial theories. Some of the propositions underlying the way we regard the practice of the craft date back to the 18th–century “age of reason;” others are as current as yesterday’s Wall Street media deal. “Journalism” is a historical hybrid– more an evolving social construct than a fixed point of reference. As such, it conveys contradictory associations: on one hand a band of swashbuckling iconoclasts daring to “speak truth to power;” on the other hand considerably more temperate, disinterested professionals gathering content to distribute through the “information division” of giant corporations. Each image is exaggerated; neither is wholly wrong.

Full Text (PDF, 48 pages, 431.3 KB)