Tansits Week 2 Post

As many courses examining the effects of an institution on society, the texts we read for this week works from the beginning. Our first reading, The Dark Continent of American Journalism, examines not only the formation and institution of journalism, but it also comments on its transformation. More specifically, author James Carey focuses on the transparency of the actual information that is deeper than that which is generally understood in stories. Carey argues that only “astute and constant” readers can find the meaning and significance in the flood of news that surrounds us every day. Carey’s premise is through the transformation of news from its origin as mainly a trade and commerce outlet to the telegraph and wire system, it has essentially been simplified and shortened in order to be consumed by the masses. He uses this simplification idea to build the base for his argument that answers to the “why” and the “how” in news stories has become few and far between. Carey explains that to answer the “why” or “how” journalists rely on the motives of individuals, the causes and consequences of their actions, and the significance of the event or news.

Journalists are presently taught to be independent observers of the world and to report without bias. This is exactly the connection where Carey has found journalists and their work to essentially not follow this ideal. Because journalists rely on experts or others not necessarily of their choosing, Carey says that journalists become a “victim of the forces around them” rather than being an independent observer.

The second text, What society requires is reputable journalism, argues a different point towards the dark future of journalism. The author says that the newspaper model, though fading quickly, offered readers a variety of stories that didn’t necessarily cater to the interest or beliefs of each individual reader. Therefore readers would see things and read things that didn’t necessarily follow what their beliefs hold. The author argues that in the Internet-driven news world of today, each reader picks and chooses the news they want to see, creating a rift in public knowledge. It’s obvious through this text that it is imperative that the new, self-selected style of news doesn’t take hold.

A key take away from all of the text seems to be that good, well-researched journalism is the key to conveying the news as independent observer. Unfortunately though, my take away was that both articles stress that the current model of journalism isn’t perfect, and neither offer a way to fix this model.