Chapter Review

COMMON THREADS

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One of the Common Threads discussed in Chapter 1 is about the role that media play in a democracy. The newspaper industry has always played a strong role in our democracy by reporting news and investigating stories. Even in the Internet age, newspapers remain our primary source for content. How will the industry’s current financial struggles affect our ability to demand and access reliable news?

With the coming of radio and television, newspapers in the twentieth century surrendered their title as the mass medium shared by the largest audience. However, to this day newspapers remain the single most important source of news for the nation, even in the age of the Internet. Although many readers today cite Yahoo! and Google as the primary places they search for news, Yahoo! and Google are directories and aggregators that guide readers to other news stories—most often to online newspaper sites. This means that newspaper organizations are still the primary institutions doing the work of gathering and reporting the news. Even with all the newsroom cutbacks across the United States, newspapers remain the only journalistic organization in most towns and cities that still employs a significant staff to report news and tell the community’s stories.

Newspapers link people to what matters in their communities, their nation, and their world. Few other journalistic institutions serve society as well. But with smaller news resources and the industry no longer able to sustain high profit margins, what will become of newspapers? Are digital news sites serving readers in their communities as well as newspapers once did? Who will gather the information needed to sustain a democracy, to serve as the watchdog over our key institutions, to document the comings and goings of everyday life? And perhaps more important, who will act on behalf of the people who don’t have the news media’s access to authorities or the ability to influence them?

KEY TERMS

The definitions for the terms listed below can be found in the glossary at the end of the book. The page numbers listed with the terms indicate where the term is highlighted in the chapter.

partisan press, 280

penny papers, 280

human-interest stories, 280

wire services, 281

yellow journalism, 282

investigative journalism, 283

objective journalism, 285

inverted-pyramid style, 285

interpretive journalism, 286

literary journalism, 288

consensus-oriented journalism, 291

conflict-oriented journalism, 291

underground press, 296

newshole, 298

feature syndicates, 299

newspaper chain, 299

joint operating agreement (JOA), 300

paywall, 305

citizen journalism, 307

For review quizzes, chapter summaries, links to media-related Web sites, and more, go to bedfordstmartins.com/mediaculture.

REVIEW QUESTIONS

The Evolution of American Newspapers

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  1. What are the limitations of a press that serves only partisan interests? Why did the earliest papers appeal mainly to more privileged readers?
  2. How did newspapers emerge as a mass medium during the penny press era? How did content changes make this happen?
  3. What are the two main features of yellow journalism? How have Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst contributed to newspaper history?

Competing Models of Modern Print Journalism

  1. Why did objective journalism develop? What are its characteristics? What are its strengths and limitations?
  2. Why did interpretive forms of journalism develop in the modern era? What are the limits of objectivity?
  3. How would you define literary journalism? Why did it emerge in such an intense way in the 1960s? How did literary journalism provide a critique of so-called objective news?

The Business and Ownership of Newspapers

  1. What is the difference between consensus-and conflict-oriented newspapers?
  2. What role have ethnic, minority, and oppositional newspapers played in the United States?
  3. Define wire service and syndication.
  4. Why did newspaper chains become an economic trend in the twentieth century?
  5. What is the impact of a joint operating agreement (JOA) on the business and editorial divisions of competing newspapers?

Challenges Facing Newspapers Today

  1. What are the major reasons for the decline in U.S. newspaper circulation figures? How do these figures compare with circulations in other nations?
  2. What major challenges does new technology pose to the newspaper industry?
  3. With traditional ownership in jeopardy today, what are some other possible business models for running a newspaper?
  4. What is the current state of citizen journalism?
  5. What are the challenges that new online news sites face?

Newspapers and Democracy

  1. What is a newspaper’s role in a democracy?
  2. What makes newspaper journalism different from the journalism of other mass media?

QUESTIONING THE MEDIA

  1. What kinds of stories, topics, or issues are not being covered well by mainstream papers?
  2. Why do you think people aren’t reading U.S. daily newspapers as frequently as they once did? Why is newspaper readership going up in other countries?
  3. Discuss whether newspaper chains are ultimately good or bad for the future of journalism.
  4. Do newspapers today play a vigorous role as watchdogs of our powerful institutions? Why or why not? What impact will the “downsizing” and closing of newspapers have on this watchdog role?
  5. Will tablets, or some other format, eventually replace the printed newspaper? Explain your response.

ADDITIONAL VIDEOS

Visit the image VideoCentral: Mass Communication section at bedfordstmartins.com/mediaculture for additional exclusive videos related to Chapter 8, including: