Showing papers by "Jane B. Singer published in 2017"
TL;DR: This paper found that four times as many males as females appeared as experts on flagship television and radio news programmes in the United Kingdom as of the early 2010s, and a high proportion of woman experts surveyed lack confidence, saying they fear they will be perceived as self-promoting and "pushy" for wanting to appear on air.
Abstract: Four times as many males as females appeared as experts on flagship television and radio news programmes in the United Kingdom as of the early 2010s. This study draws on four complementary sets of data to explore the reasons behind this disparity. The findings point to a combination of journalists’ news production processes and women’s perceptions of appropriate social norms and roles. A high proportion of woman experts surveyed lack confidence, saying they fear they will be perceived as self-promoting and “pushy” for wanting to appear on air. Broadcast journalists report women need to be persuaded and wooed, acting like “princesses” and therefore making male experts less trouble to recruit.
23 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a case study examines attempts to transform a traditional newsroom to one oriented around civic journalism principles, offering a unique look at the resistance toward those principles even in a digital environment that facilitates new audience relationships.
Abstract: This in-depth case study examines attempts to transform a traditional newsroom to one oriented around civic journalism principles, offering a unique look at the resistance toward those principles even in a digital environment that facilitates new audience relationships. Civic journalism emphasizes understanding and addressing community concerns from a citizen perspective. This study finds that journalists still struggle to integrate citizens’ contributions into newsroom practice in meaningful ways.
9 citations
TL;DR: This paper argued that uncritical adherence to "professional" journalism ethics, particularly as enacted in misguided service of objectivity, does journalists and the public much more harm than good, and pointed out that objectivity has become something of a straw man in academic circles, posited mainly for the purpose of being discredited.
Abstract: In her excellent and provocative essay, Stephanie Craft effectively argues that uncritical adherence to “professional” journalism ethics, particularly as enacted in misguided service of objectivity, does journalists and the public much more harm than good. Indeed, objectivity has become something of a straw man in academic circles, posited mainly for the purpose of being discredited. It is widely seen as a foundational norm of U.S. journalism but is an inherently flawed concept: Typically misconstrued by both practitioners and audiences, more likely to lead to false equivalence than to meaningful explanation, almost laughably ill-suited to a digital information environment, and in any case unattainable by actual human beings. As Craft points out, objectivity as a dominant professional norm also is historically and culturally specific. In this commentary, I would like to extend her ideas in both place and time. She focuses on American journalism, yet in many other Western democracies, journalistic work is not explicitly linked to objectivity. And she takes us through the election of Donald Trump as president of the United States. But the story continues beyond that seminal moment, in ways that seem to me striking and significant.
2 citations