American MediaWhat’s Wrong…and What’s Right

The First Amendment

What motivated the founding fathers to give us this freedom?

No freedom of expression had been tried—and they didn’t like it.

The government isn’t always right—part of the ideals of democracy

Freedom of speech (and the press) is the basis for other freedoms—seen as a foundational right

Marketplace of ideas—when ideas compete (like any free market) the best ideas will win

Safety valve—if you let people speak, they don’t riot

Individuals need expression to achieve self-fulfillment

Government needs a watchdog—the idea of a Fourth Estate

Tolerant society

Benjamin Franklin

Abuses of the freedom of speech ought to be repressed, but to whom dare we commit the

power of doing it?

But what happens when the abuse comes from the pres itself?—Fara Warner

Ideals versus RealityReality

Not all speech is protected—you can’t yell fire in a crowded theater; fighting words; obscenity; libel

Neutral government regulations—time and place restrictions (decency, violence) do not violate the First Amendment

Literal readings of the First Amendment have not prevailed

What if anything is meant by the First Amendment is actually a mystery.

Ideals

Right to speak includes the right to disseminate—the lone pamphleteer—or the lone blogger today

The right to speak includes the right not to speak: You can’t be forced to say the Pledge of Allegiance

Prior restraint is worse than subsequent punishment

If the First Amendment is in conflict with another law, generally the First Amendment wins

1776-present: was this what the founding fathers envisioned? 1700 and 1800s—partisan press was the

norm: Federalist Papers are published, but written by politicians Hamilton, Madison and Jay

Late 1800s—”objective” press comes into being as papers use it as a selling tool; 1882 Dow and Jones begin publishing handwritten news bulletins

Marketplace of ideas giving way to the market—a clash between Jeffersonian ideals with the Monroe Doctrine

Wealthy publishers control the news—not the people; beholden to stock price and shareholders not the news

What bleeds leads—war, crime, sex scandals—it’s nothing new

Technology: printing press, telegraph, typewriter, photography, radio, television, Internet

While founders may have seen citizens, what the “press” saw were consumers.

Today—some of the most pressing issues for US journalism are internal…not external

Sourcing: going to the same people for the same quotes, not telling readers where sources receive their funding; showing articles to sources

Self-censorship: stopping ourselves before we even write

Getting paid to write articles that appear to be objective

 Spin from the gov’t and business—where was the press in the global financial mess

 Personal bias: Judith Miller

Race for the story: Jayson Blair, Stephen Glass;

Glory days? Corporate media is nothing new Hearst: 1863-1951; already wealthy (his

father owned stakes in big mines) he took over the SF Examiner when he was 24; bought the NY Morning Journal and begins competing with J. Pulitzer’s World

Pulitzer: investigative journalist Nellie Bly; cartoons “The Yellow Kid”; battled with Hearst for circulation through sensationalistic journalism

Bancrofts—owned the WSJ (benevolent and hands-off) until Murdoch buys the paper in 2007

Grahams—Washington Post and Newsweek; more involved and attached to the ideals of journalism—Watergate

Sulzbergers—The New York Times, involved, Pentagon Papers

Today’s Press Barons Murdoch: News Corp. owns

newspapers around the world, television and satellite stations; MySpace, National Geographic Television; American Idol, Fox NewsWSJ for $5 billion from the Bancrofts

Tierney: former p.r. person who bought both of Philly’s largest newspapers

Zell: real estate tycoon who now owns the Tribune companies

Singleton: privately held MediaNews Group; owns the Detroit News

Wendy McCaw: owns the Santa Barbara News Press and runs it as if it is her own publishing platform

Concerns for the U.S. media today…and what can we do Return to the partisan

press

Decline in foreign news

Increase in celebrity news

Large corporations and the fractured Internet—no one in between

Too much focus and fear on the Internet…

Remember our ethics

Focus on why global is local

Reduce dependence on this kind of news to sell

Support and read news that isn’t from either one of these—if you can still find it

Learn how to use the Internet as the perfect medium for journalism

Internal factors that inhibit press freedomThe veil of objectivity

Lack of transparency

The race for the story—not necessarily the race for the truth

Self-censorship

Corporatization

There can be no liberty for a community that lacks the information to detect lies—Walter Lippman

Spreading our view of a “free press” Western media=U.S. press

with a dash of the British involved

A Westerner’s right to know is the world’s right to know

Privatization of the world’s media—is that such a good thing?

Private media—too dependent on advertising and the whims of consumers?

Increasing disdain for the “Western” media and its parachute journalism

Counter to state-controlled media and development media

Privatization may not be all it’s cracked up to be

Or should this be what we promote? Obligation to truth—or at

least transparency of where we received our facts

Loyalty to citizens

Verification

Independence from faction

Independent monitor of power

Forum for public criticism

News that is comprehensive and proportionate

Exercise personal conscience

The final questions: government censorship Information a basic human

right Embedding expand

freedom of press and speech because it gives us insight

The Internet is a boon to press freedom

self-censorship

corporate ownership

Shouldn’t a country be able to control its messages to its people

Don’t “Embeds” lose their objectivity?

The Internet is a negative for press freedom

State censorship

For ThursdayWatch Paris Hilton Inc.

Ideas to ponder:

Do you see yourself as a consumer of media or as a citizen?

Why do you think we care more about Paris Hilton (and her cohorts) than war, famine, global financial crisis?

Any signs this is changing?

Media Journal Exercise(Due Sept. 30 at noon) Find a story about China that is covered by your media—you can go

back in time. If you can’t find one, use a U.S. media story on China

Compare it to the way the Chinese media covered the same issue—use www.chinadaily.com.cn

Who is quoted? And why? Are the quotes from different people?

What differences do you see?

Are there eyewitness accounts in one story versus another that depends on what the “official” word is?

Overall tone of the stories. Do you believe on over the other?

Does the China story try to put the government or the country in the best possible light?