Two interesting elements I selected from Carey’s article “A Short History of Journalism for Journalists: A Proposal and Essay” begin with the idea he proposed that while historians and scholars argue over the origins of news/reporting/journalism, the answer is really found in identifying an immense web of innate human necessities to monitor, signal and share critical information but also the developments industrialized, commercialized societies of the 18th/19th century. In the scope of his initial claim that journalists don’t know the history and craft of their profession, I find this development of cultures, politics, and power shifts alongside news and reporting that comes to be known as journalism to be a powerful image. To open up the discussion in a framework such as this, it feels necessary to progress past this current tradition of journalists idealizing or romanticizing the generations before in a short-sited, politically induced manner and instead realize the scope of history that spans so much further. Another aspect of this article that I connected with on a personal level regarding my major in English was the discussion of the novel and journalism. The idea that fiction was given such authoritative detail but dealt with only imagined realities was confusing to novel readers. Thinking of the continuity of journalism alongside the novel is an angle I never thought of before, and opening up these preconditions of journalism that build upon each other not in separate, rigid binaries but in a mashed-up mix that is true to life. I feel that is an excellent concept to keep in mind when we think about the roles of journalists.
The press has a somewhat well woeking relatinship with the world elites. Soetimes thee journalists are going to be pushy and do things outside of a certian code of conduct to obtain something that they think that they or theor viewer wants to here. I think that the journalists have a role in providing a way of spreading information in a neutral and unbiased manner. Some journalists have other things in mind. The two elemets that I want to discuss about journalism are the element of democracy said in the text ” I place this emohasis on the reflexive creation of journalism, thepublic sphere, and the nation state to sustain a basic and simple point: The origina of journalism are the same as the origina of republicn and democratic forms of governance- No journalism, just democracy.” (Page 13) This also ties into my point of journalism and the public opinion.
The first element of the reading that I found interesting was the description of the birth of journalism in Paris. Journalism started as a group of people spreading stories by word of mouth, and eventually, moving to writing down stories each week and selling them to people around them. I found the origin of journalism interesting because it occurred at a key point in history where the popularity of monarchy was dying, leading to a rise in democratic governments. This reveals the link between journalism and democracy, that one cannot function without the other. The second element of this reading that I found interesting was that rationality does not exclude emotion. I think that this is an important element in many genres of writing, but especially journalism. A good report should be rational, as well as emotional. It is a misconception that rationality and emotion cannot exist together, and this reading does a good job of debunking that idea. The first question that I might ask about this reading would be about the need for publication. Besides the invention of the printing press, what kinds of social factors led to the need for humans to publish news? In addition to that question, I was curious about the newsmongers under the tree in Paris. Was their original method of spreading news, which was to tell it by mouth, considered journalism? Why or why not?
Two interesting elements I selected from Carey’s article “A Short History of Journalism for Journalists: A Proposal and Essay” begin with the idea he proposed that while historians and scholars argue over the origins of news/reporting/journalism, the answer is really found in identifying an immense web of innate human necessities to monitor, signal and share critical information but also the developments industrialized, commercialized societies of the 18th/19th century. In the scope of his initial claim that journalists don’t know the history and craft of their profession, I find this development of cultures, politics, and power shifts alongside news and reporting that comes to be known as journalism to be a powerful image. To open up the discussion in a framework such as this, it feels necessary to progress past this current tradition of journalists idealizing or romanticizing the generations before in a short-sited, politically induced manner and instead realize the scope of history that spans so much further. Another aspect of this article that I connected with on a personal level regarding my major in English was the discussion of the novel and journalism. The idea that fiction was given such authoritative detail but dealt with only imagined realities was confusing to novel readers. Thinking of the continuity of journalism alongside the novel is an angle I never thought of before, and opening up these preconditions of journalism that build upon each other not in separate, rigid binaries but in a mashed-up mix that is true to life. I feel that is an excellent concept to keep in mind when we think about the roles of journalists.
Journal #2: Two interesting elements in the reading and explain why those elements are Important
The first interesting element in the reading that I want to discuss is a quote in the Local Knowledge section on page four that states “Journalists are rarely interested in what is general and universal, concentrating instead on what happens in this time and place” I chose to focus on this quote because I think localism is good to an extent but it can also be hurtful. Localism can be good because it brings niche audiences together and allows further analysis of specific topics. But I also think that it’s dangerous to only focus on things that directly affect you. Which is what a lot of news organizations around the globe do today. When I look for news I generally look for organizations that I feel have a more global outlook because I think the more we know about the environmental, economic and social state of different countries across the globe the better chance we have to come together and as a global community and help another out when we are in need in the future. The second thing that I wanted to talk about from the reading is a quote from the Prehistory section that goes “We also have significant examples of extinct communities that failed to adapt to changing environments or became enamored of practices that cut down on their ability to monitor and respond to critical shifts in the world around them.” This goes to show the significance and the reliance that democracy has placed on journalism to predict and prepare for the future. “Without journalism there is no democracy.” This quote also just makes me think about the animal kingdom and all the things that animals are subjected to because they have no ways to monitor the critical shifts in the environment. For example when there is a severe storm we generally know before it happens and are able to prepare for it. Whereas animals or civilizations that don’t have access to journalism will have much greater consequences from the storm or the other unknown threats. Like if Pompeii happened now and we had the technologies that we have today we would have been able to tell that the volcano was going to erupt a lot sooner and be able to act on that and get people out of the area quicker. So In many cases journalism can also be lifesaving.
One cool thing I believe that James Carey brings up in his short story is the importance of journalism in society and how it evolved from where it is today. “However, we can agree with both Stephens and Schudson: News and reporting are eternal, for no scientist creature, let alone a society, can survive without some kind of a monitoring and signaling system, however primitive, whereby threatening changes in the ambient world are recorded and disseminated” (PG 5 CH 2). Without journalism most people in today’s society wouldn’t know what’s going on in the world.
One interesting element that stood out to me was that people in this field of work don’t realize how much history is behind the job and how much the job has evolved over the years. Another thing that stood out to me was the minor skirmish that broke out between historians Mitchell Stephens and Michael Schudson over the question of whether news was eternal or temporal. One question I do have is what is the difference between eternal and temporal? Another question I have is does the press always have to be related to people in power? And how come they never talk to middle class people about more important things?
Report on 2 interesting elements in the reading and explain why they are important.
The first element that I found interesting in the reading was about the words News, Reporting and Journalism having the same meaning when they are different from each other. How and where the word journalism comes from and how having a journal is not the same as a newspaper. I think this is important to talk about the different genres if you will, in gathering information. “Journalism transfers a private habit into the community; the keeping of a collective record of the facts and events…” I think that this quote from the reading by James W. Carey, actually shows why this element of defining journalism as important is that this is written. Whereas another element they talk about in the article is about oral news being passed around a tree in Paris, where current events were shared by word of mouth from different sources and/or “planted” by diplomats. It reminds me of modern news like channels where reporters will talk about what is going on and interview witnesses and the sort. These I think are both important elements because how else will information be spread without being spoken or written or communicated in some way.
Questions
So do you think that journalism is only in “the public” forms because democracy gives journalists and the public power, how does this contrast to that of a dictatorship or a monarchy?
What do you think journalism would be like in a dictatorship or the elements of journalism in a dictatorship? Any real world examples?
Is there a place where the public gathers like the tree in Paris but in 2024?
I found a few key points made in this article that demonstrate the importance and power of journalism. First, what stood out to me early on was a quote on page five, “Readers, viewers, listeners bring expectations to journalism about what a story is or should be, what they need to have in such a narrative, and these expectations form a conceptual or a or presentational contact surrounding the story.” The role of journalism is to record the ‘happenings’ in particular lives and communities and must appeal to these groups for success. This allows the people to choose their news outlets and sources based on what they want to hear and see such as Fox News reports compared to CNN sites. This also reflects the relationship the press has with higher political powers. For example, the previously stated news sites may report on the same situation but share different details or opinions because that’s what their supportive parties expect them to do. The news is supposed to be independent of politics and report on them without bias but in recent years there has been overlap or rather influence. I also found page 11 interesting when the article discusses the public sphere. Since we have the right to free speech, a location for public gatherings and public space was needed for discussion. “The belief that public space wasn’t arena in which there were expectations, however imperfectly realized, of rational, critical discourse in the ordinary sense that nothing in public was to be taken for granted, the efforts were undertaken to separate out rumors and gossip.. the argument and evidence, and that speakers will responsible for giving reasons for believing… there was no appeal to authority.” This quote brought town hall meetings to my mind, like stated its a gathering where the public can discuss their concerns and receive updates without the major presence of a higher authority. I liked this article because it not only shared the history and origins of journalism but connected it to the modern day.
Upon my reading of A Short History of Journalism for Journalists: A Proposal and Essay by James Carey there were a number of important details shared about the history of the art of journalism and how this profession has grown over time. One of the first pieces of the writing that stuck out to me was the ideas Carey shared about “Local Knowledge” and how he explained that “journalism is a craft of place” which I found to be a very interesting and unique way of describing journalism and I’m not sure if I would have ever made that connection. In this same section Carey also explains how this relates to what journalists know and how they know it and what they write in correlation to how they write it which are very important correlations to keep in mind through reading different articles. Continuing my reading the next part that striked me as important was the discussing the “meaningful conceptual or historical sense” of news and reporting represents a “modern hunger for experience” which I found to be a very key competent when if comes to news and in more modern times the ideas of social media, and I don’t necessarily like to tie the craft of journalism and the tangled web of social media but they both do have this component of bridging the gap of experience.
With the growth of social media does this impose any threats to the traditions of journalism and news reporting?
Do you think there are pressures on journalists to create a certain way? and if so do you think this can impact the integrity of their work?
One aspect of this article that I found especially interesting was the mention of fables, legends and myths in the context of journalism. As I began to think of these forms of storytelling in this anthropological context, it became clear that these stories were most definitely forms of journalism, as they were written primarily to share and pass down pertinent information about geographically-specific danger to the most vulnerable among them. I personally view these ancient media as representations of journalism’s core, or what it was originally innovated to do: share information that was directly related to survival.
Another concept from the reading that I found impactful was the origins of journalism juxtaposed with how we view and utilize it in today’s media landscape. While journalism was born out of necessity and relative secrecy, and held as one of the most valuable pieces of currency of its time, I do not think it has continued to be treated as something of value, at least in many different areas of life in 2024. Specifically on social media and highly commercialized news networks, journalism, however we can define it, has been used in ways that have brought about certain stigmas in the industry as a whole. As misinformation becomes more and more prevalent (many times being motivated by financial or political success), the reputation and credibility of journalism as a practice has, in my opinion, entered some murky water, societally speaking.
Upon my reading of A Short History of Journalism for Journalists: A Proposal and Essay by James Carey there were a number of important details shared about the history of the art of journalism and how this profession has grown over time. One of the first pieces of the writing that stuck out to me was the ideas Carey shared about “Local Knowledge” and how he explained that “journalism is a craft of place” which I found to be a very interesting and unique way of describing journalism and I’m not sure if I would have ever made that connection. In this same section Carey also explains how this relates to what journalists know and how they know it and what they write in correlation to how they write it which are very important correlations to keep in mind through reading different articles. Continuing my reading the next part that striked me as important was the discussing the “meaningful conceptual or historical sense” of news and reporting represents a “modern hunger for experience” which I found to be a very key competent when if comes to news and in more modern times the ideas of social media, and I don’t necessarily like to tie the craft of journalism and the tangled web of social media but they both do have this component of bridging the gap of experience.
With the growth of social media does this impose any threats to the traditions of journalism and news reporting?
Do you think there are pressures on journalists to create a certain way? and if so do you think this can impact the integrity of their work?
One of the most interesting and compelling things about the article in my opinion is how journalism actually started. The tree of Cracow sounds weirdly like a place in a fantasy book, which I suppose makes sense considering it’s from old France, but the fact that people would just meet up to talk about the local news and discuss gossip versus rumor is just so cool to me. Another thing I found interesting is the actual history of journalism that no one really pays attention to. The fact that the vast majority of this article stems from one source really says a lot about how little people discuss it. It does make sense, though, as the entire purpose of journalism is writing about the present rather than the past. Plus, people who are interested in journalism and therefore might look into the history of it all are already doing journalism themselves, so there wouldn’t be anyone to write about it anyway.
Questions:
What could possibly compel people to continue going to the tree of Cracow after the kings/royalty issued arrest warrants for those spreading news? The allure of new information about the world is, I agree, strong, especially at a time in which the world is largely uninformed about the places around them, but it can’t be worth getting arrested. At least, I don’t think so.
I am curious about the linking of journalism to democracy, and the idea that if democracy falters, so, too, does journalism. Does this mean that journalism in areas with a more dictatorial government doesn’t entirely qualify as journalism? I know that it’s going to be mostly censored, but could it still be considered journalism under the correct conditions?
The sentences in the price are really detailed and later are given examples. I feel they show and display smarts and credibility with also adding more thoughts the reader should pay more attention to. In this piece it is used very effectively and was able to help more understand as well as make the essay more credible. However, if this wasn’t used correctly, it could really take away from the readers enjoyment and understanding of the piece. This is because the reader might feel as if the information is not needed or can be condensed. I also like how captivating the first sentence of the essay is. The first sentence is one of the most important pieces because it’s used to draw the reading into wanted to read the essay. I feel this essay does it very effectively whereas a reader I was also thinking of my answer and wanted to continue to read more to see the author’s input. The sentence also is answered in the essay and when I was finished reading the essay, it truly answered my thoughts to the opening. This essay uses the writing effective where it was able to capture the reader even in the first few words of the piece.
Carey’s “A Short History of Journalism for Journalists” was not only informative but also deeply interesting. The first point that stood out to me was the concept of journalism as central to the humanities—”the record we share in common,” as Carey puts it. He also says that other forms of writing are “parasitic” off of journalism. This is an interesting viewpoint, especially in the context of the practice’s history. Similarly, I found the origins of journalism deeply fascinating. The “public’s” determination to freely access unbiased information should be more widely respected as well as more widely practiced.
I think something that is very interesting from the article actually comes very early and doesn’t have all that much to do with journalism at a first glance, it’s the part of the passage where he talks about the person who stated that “a field that didn’t forget its founders was immature”. This axiom is so interesting to me as it implies so much about the nature of growth and acceleration put into the concept of a field or subject, and I think it’s fascinating how this can apply to journalism. Carey spends a good chunk of the beginning of his article talking about the glorification of the past of journalism and how it is a pitfall that many people fall into with professions, and I would even go so far as to argue the past as well with nostalgia serving as a very strong mist obscuring all of the problems that were around in those times, but that is a topic for a completely different assignment. My point being that Carey spends a lot of time talking about the romanticization of the past when it comes to many things, journalism included, and he wishes to give a brief anecdote on the history of journalism for people to look back on. A second interesting thing about this article is what Carey decides to cover in his brief history, there’s a section of his article that is dedicated to pre-history as I’m sure many can imagine with journalism being a form of communication, and in Carey’s eyes drama, it has been around for awhile, and in some definitions of the concept the idea of journalism has been around just as long as we have been as a species and even before that with other hominids, even if the idea wasn’t always called journalism. Knowing that seeing what Carey decides to add to his attempt to abbreviate that sort of history is fascinating and shows you a lot about him as a person and what he was trying to do with this article.
The formation of journalism arose from the creation and adaptation of what would be known as ‘the public’; a group somewhat unintentionally formed out of the human disposition to communicate. Whether to plainly keep a record of significant events or the daily life of townspeople, journalism kept a steady stream of information readily available to the public. In the eighteenth century, citizens could gather in public areas to trade and garner news from one another in various forms of media for the time. A remarkable configuration of diverse people from assorted classes comprising servants, merchants, lower-court politicians, and so on was collocated into what still stands as a political force. While most were strangers, together, they represent more than a mere gossip circle. In truth, they played a critical factor in overthrowing the Old Regime through the mingling of the public to form either republics or democracies. Toppling monarchies by composing common interests between social classes is undoubtedly not an easy affair, but imposing. Journalism played a vital role in earlier societies, providing the public a voice and proving citizens have power over political figures.
An intriguing link between journalism and democracy exists; one cannot prevail without the other. While the formation of journalism in the hands of the public proved influential in reforming the government, what occurs without the combined vitality of the two? Journalism became the voice of the people, gossip, or archives alike, but when journalism wavers, so too does the united vocalization of democracy. When journalism lacks the strength of the public, journalists diminish to humorists and propagandists sent to represent something the public can no longer bond over. The sense of community is weakened without its advocates, resulting in a more divided, feeble democracy.
In our reading, I found the codependence of journalism and democracy an interesting and vital component to understanding the concept of journalism. The concept that journalism must be based upon facts and truths means that to truly practice journalism, there must be freedom to both associate and publish materials that might not be popular among the rulers of the country, but nonetheless are the true sequence of events. In addition to this, democracy depends on journalism. To be a participant in democracy, the average citizen must be informed on the events of the country and in the government, to have the ability to make informed decisions in regards to voting and participation in democracy. Furthermore, I found the circumstances leading to the development of journalism interesting. The fact that the practice of journalism started out as basically rumor trading among French salons was an interesting beginning to something that seems so official now. Also, the fact that it became such a prominent institution within society was interesting to me, in the sense that it required widespread literacy along with access to make/produce and write the news. This lead to the role of journalism as a arbiter of information and facts among the public, which were also established at this time. The concept of the public could arise due to the increased role in which each citizen played as well as increased literacy and focus on national identity rather than personal.
18 thoughts on “JOURNAL # 2”
Two interesting elements I selected from Carey’s article “A Short History of Journalism for Journalists: A Proposal and Essay” begin with the idea he proposed that while historians and scholars argue over the origins of news/reporting/journalism, the answer is really found in identifying an immense web of innate human necessities to monitor, signal and share critical information but also the developments industrialized, commercialized societies of the 18th/19th century. In the scope of his initial claim that journalists don’t know the history and craft of their profession, I find this development of cultures, politics, and power shifts alongside news and reporting that comes to be known as journalism to be a powerful image. To open up the discussion in a framework such as this, it feels necessary to progress past this current tradition of journalists idealizing or romanticizing the generations before in a short-sited, politically induced manner and instead realize the scope of history that spans so much further. Another aspect of this article that I connected with on a personal level regarding my major in English was the discussion of the novel and journalism. The idea that fiction was given such authoritative detail but dealt with only imagined realities was confusing to novel readers. Thinking of the continuity of journalism alongside the novel is an angle I never thought of before, and opening up these preconditions of journalism that build upon each other not in separate, rigid binaries but in a mashed-up mix that is true to life. I feel that is an excellent concept to keep in mind when we think about the roles of journalists.
The press has a somewhat well woeking relatinship with the world elites. Soetimes thee journalists are going to be pushy and do things outside of a certian code of conduct to obtain something that they think that they or theor viewer wants to here. I think that the journalists have a role in providing a way of spreading information in a neutral and unbiased manner. Some journalists have other things in mind. The two elemets that I want to discuss about journalism are the element of democracy said in the text ” I place this emohasis on the reflexive creation of journalism, thepublic sphere, and the nation state to sustain a basic and simple point: The origina of journalism are the same as the origina of republicn and democratic forms of governance- No journalism, just democracy.” (Page 13) This also ties into my point of journalism and the public opinion.
The first element of the reading that I found interesting was the description of the birth of journalism in Paris. Journalism started as a group of people spreading stories by word of mouth, and eventually, moving to writing down stories each week and selling them to people around them. I found the origin of journalism interesting because it occurred at a key point in history where the popularity of monarchy was dying, leading to a rise in democratic governments. This reveals the link between journalism and democracy, that one cannot function without the other. The second element of this reading that I found interesting was that rationality does not exclude emotion. I think that this is an important element in many genres of writing, but especially journalism. A good report should be rational, as well as emotional. It is a misconception that rationality and emotion cannot exist together, and this reading does a good job of debunking that idea. The first question that I might ask about this reading would be about the need for publication. Besides the invention of the printing press, what kinds of social factors led to the need for humans to publish news? In addition to that question, I was curious about the newsmongers under the tree in Paris. Was their original method of spreading news, which was to tell it by mouth, considered journalism? Why or why not?
Two interesting elements I selected from Carey’s article “A Short History of Journalism for Journalists: A Proposal and Essay” begin with the idea he proposed that while historians and scholars argue over the origins of news/reporting/journalism, the answer is really found in identifying an immense web of innate human necessities to monitor, signal and share critical information but also the developments industrialized, commercialized societies of the 18th/19th century. In the scope of his initial claim that journalists don’t know the history and craft of their profession, I find this development of cultures, politics, and power shifts alongside news and reporting that comes to be known as journalism to be a powerful image. To open up the discussion in a framework such as this, it feels necessary to progress past this current tradition of journalists idealizing or romanticizing the generations before in a short-sited, politically induced manner and instead realize the scope of history that spans so much further. Another aspect of this article that I connected with on a personal level regarding my major in English was the discussion of the novel and journalism. The idea that fiction was given such authoritative detail but dealt with only imagined realities was confusing to novel readers. Thinking of the continuity of journalism alongside the novel is an angle I never thought of before, and opening up these preconditions of journalism that build upon each other not in separate, rigid binaries but in a mashed-up mix that is true to life. I feel that is an excellent concept to keep in mind when we think about the roles of journalists.
Journal #2: Two interesting elements in the reading and explain why those elements are Important
The first interesting element in the reading that I want to discuss is a quote in the Local Knowledge section on page four that states “Journalists are rarely interested in what is general and universal, concentrating instead on what happens in this time and place” I chose to focus on this quote because I think localism is good to an extent but it can also be hurtful. Localism can be good because it brings niche audiences together and allows further analysis of specific topics. But I also think that it’s dangerous to only focus on things that directly affect you. Which is what a lot of news organizations around the globe do today. When I look for news I generally look for organizations that I feel have a more global outlook because I think the more we know about the environmental, economic and social state of different countries across the globe the better chance we have to come together and as a global community and help another out when we are in need in the future. The second thing that I wanted to talk about from the reading is a quote from the Prehistory section that goes “We also have significant examples of extinct communities that failed to adapt to changing environments or became enamored of practices that cut down on their ability to monitor and respond to critical shifts in the world around them.” This goes to show the significance and the reliance that democracy has placed on journalism to predict and prepare for the future. “Without journalism there is no democracy.” This quote also just makes me think about the animal kingdom and all the things that animals are subjected to because they have no ways to monitor the critical shifts in the environment. For example when there is a severe storm we generally know before it happens and are able to prepare for it. Whereas animals or civilizations that don’t have access to journalism will have much greater consequences from the storm or the other unknown threats. Like if Pompeii happened now and we had the technologies that we have today we would have been able to tell that the volcano was going to erupt a lot sooner and be able to act on that and get people out of the area quicker. So In many cases journalism can also be lifesaving.
One cool thing I believe that James Carey brings up in his short story is the importance of journalism in society and how it evolved from where it is today. “However, we can agree with both Stephens and Schudson: News and reporting are eternal, for no scientist creature, let alone a society, can survive without some kind of a monitoring and signaling system, however primitive, whereby threatening changes in the ambient world are recorded and disseminated” (PG 5 CH 2). Without journalism most people in today’s society wouldn’t know what’s going on in the world.
One interesting element that stood out to me was that people in this field of work don’t realize how much history is behind the job and how much the job has evolved over the years. Another thing that stood out to me was the minor skirmish that broke out between historians Mitchell Stephens and Michael Schudson over the question of whether news was eternal or temporal. One question I do have is what is the difference between eternal and temporal? Another question I have is does the press always have to be related to people in power? And how come they never talk to middle class people about more important things?
Journal #2
Report on 2 interesting elements in the reading and explain why they are important.
The first element that I found interesting in the reading was about the words News, Reporting and Journalism having the same meaning when they are different from each other. How and where the word journalism comes from and how having a journal is not the same as a newspaper. I think this is important to talk about the different genres if you will, in gathering information. “Journalism transfers a private habit into the community; the keeping of a collective record of the facts and events…” I think that this quote from the reading by James W. Carey, actually shows why this element of defining journalism as important is that this is written. Whereas another element they talk about in the article is about oral news being passed around a tree in Paris, where current events were shared by word of mouth from different sources and/or “planted” by diplomats. It reminds me of modern news like channels where reporters will talk about what is going on and interview witnesses and the sort. These I think are both important elements because how else will information be spread without being spoken or written or communicated in some way.
Questions
So do you think that journalism is only in “the public” forms because democracy gives journalists and the public power, how does this contrast to that of a dictatorship or a monarchy?
What do you think journalism would be like in a dictatorship or the elements of journalism in a dictatorship? Any real world examples?
Is there a place where the public gathers like the tree in Paris but in 2024?
I found a few key points made in this article that demonstrate the importance and power of journalism. First, what stood out to me early on was a quote on page five, “Readers, viewers, listeners bring expectations to journalism about what a story is or should be, what they need to have in such a narrative, and these expectations form a conceptual or a or presentational contact surrounding the story.” The role of journalism is to record the ‘happenings’ in particular lives and communities and must appeal to these groups for success. This allows the people to choose their news outlets and sources based on what they want to hear and see such as Fox News reports compared to CNN sites. This also reflects the relationship the press has with higher political powers. For example, the previously stated news sites may report on the same situation but share different details or opinions because that’s what their supportive parties expect them to do. The news is supposed to be independent of politics and report on them without bias but in recent years there has been overlap or rather influence. I also found page 11 interesting when the article discusses the public sphere. Since we have the right to free speech, a location for public gatherings and public space was needed for discussion. “The belief that public space wasn’t arena in which there were expectations, however imperfectly realized, of rational, critical discourse in the ordinary sense that nothing in public was to be taken for granted, the efforts were undertaken to separate out rumors and gossip.. the argument and evidence, and that speakers will responsible for giving reasons for believing… there was no appeal to authority.” This quote brought town hall meetings to my mind, like stated its a gathering where the public can discuss their concerns and receive updates without the major presence of a higher authority. I liked this article because it not only shared the history and origins of journalism but connected it to the modern day.
Upon my reading of A Short History of Journalism for Journalists: A Proposal and Essay by James Carey there were a number of important details shared about the history of the art of journalism and how this profession has grown over time. One of the first pieces of the writing that stuck out to me was the ideas Carey shared about “Local Knowledge” and how he explained that “journalism is a craft of place” which I found to be a very interesting and unique way of describing journalism and I’m not sure if I would have ever made that connection. In this same section Carey also explains how this relates to what journalists know and how they know it and what they write in correlation to how they write it which are very important correlations to keep in mind through reading different articles. Continuing my reading the next part that striked me as important was the discussing the “meaningful conceptual or historical sense” of news and reporting represents a “modern hunger for experience” which I found to be a very key competent when if comes to news and in more modern times the ideas of social media, and I don’t necessarily like to tie the craft of journalism and the tangled web of social media but they both do have this component of bridging the gap of experience.
With the growth of social media does this impose any threats to the traditions of journalism and news reporting?
Do you think there are pressures on journalists to create a certain way? and if so do you think this can impact the integrity of their work?
One aspect of this article that I found especially interesting was the mention of fables, legends and myths in the context of journalism. As I began to think of these forms of storytelling in this anthropological context, it became clear that these stories were most definitely forms of journalism, as they were written primarily to share and pass down pertinent information about geographically-specific danger to the most vulnerable among them. I personally view these ancient media as representations of journalism’s core, or what it was originally innovated to do: share information that was directly related to survival.
Another concept from the reading that I found impactful was the origins of journalism juxtaposed with how we view and utilize it in today’s media landscape. While journalism was born out of necessity and relative secrecy, and held as one of the most valuable pieces of currency of its time, I do not think it has continued to be treated as something of value, at least in many different areas of life in 2024. Specifically on social media and highly commercialized news networks, journalism, however we can define it, has been used in ways that have brought about certain stigmas in the industry as a whole. As misinformation becomes more and more prevalent (many times being motivated by financial or political success), the reputation and credibility of journalism as a practice has, in my opinion, entered some murky water, societally speaking.
Upon my reading of A Short History of Journalism for Journalists: A Proposal and Essay by James Carey there were a number of important details shared about the history of the art of journalism and how this profession has grown over time. One of the first pieces of the writing that stuck out to me was the ideas Carey shared about “Local Knowledge” and how he explained that “journalism is a craft of place” which I found to be a very interesting and unique way of describing journalism and I’m not sure if I would have ever made that connection. In this same section Carey also explains how this relates to what journalists know and how they know it and what they write in correlation to how they write it which are very important correlations to keep in mind through reading different articles. Continuing my reading the next part that striked me as important was the discussing the “meaningful conceptual or historical sense” of news and reporting represents a “modern hunger for experience” which I found to be a very key competent when if comes to news and in more modern times the ideas of social media, and I don’t necessarily like to tie the craft of journalism and the tangled web of social media but they both do have this component of bridging the gap of experience.
With the growth of social media does this impose any threats to the traditions of journalism and news reporting?
Do you think there are pressures on journalists to create a certain way? and if so do you think this can impact the integrity of their work?
One of the most interesting and compelling things about the article in my opinion is how journalism actually started. The tree of Cracow sounds weirdly like a place in a fantasy book, which I suppose makes sense considering it’s from old France, but the fact that people would just meet up to talk about the local news and discuss gossip versus rumor is just so cool to me. Another thing I found interesting is the actual history of journalism that no one really pays attention to. The fact that the vast majority of this article stems from one source really says a lot about how little people discuss it. It does make sense, though, as the entire purpose of journalism is writing about the present rather than the past. Plus, people who are interested in journalism and therefore might look into the history of it all are already doing journalism themselves, so there wouldn’t be anyone to write about it anyway.
Questions:
What could possibly compel people to continue going to the tree of Cracow after the kings/royalty issued arrest warrants for those spreading news? The allure of new information about the world is, I agree, strong, especially at a time in which the world is largely uninformed about the places around them, but it can’t be worth getting arrested. At least, I don’t think so.
I am curious about the linking of journalism to democracy, and the idea that if democracy falters, so, too, does journalism. Does this mean that journalism in areas with a more dictatorial government doesn’t entirely qualify as journalism? I know that it’s going to be mostly censored, but could it still be considered journalism under the correct conditions?
The sentences in the price are really detailed and later are given examples. I feel they show and display smarts and credibility with also adding more thoughts the reader should pay more attention to. In this piece it is used very effectively and was able to help more understand as well as make the essay more credible. However, if this wasn’t used correctly, it could really take away from the readers enjoyment and understanding of the piece. This is because the reader might feel as if the information is not needed or can be condensed. I also like how captivating the first sentence of the essay is. The first sentence is one of the most important pieces because it’s used to draw the reading into wanted to read the essay. I feel this essay does it very effectively whereas a reader I was also thinking of my answer and wanted to continue to read more to see the author’s input. The sentence also is answered in the essay and when I was finished reading the essay, it truly answered my thoughts to the opening. This essay uses the writing effective where it was able to capture the reader even in the first few words of the piece.
Carey’s “A Short History of Journalism for Journalists” was not only informative but also deeply interesting. The first point that stood out to me was the concept of journalism as central to the humanities—”the record we share in common,” as Carey puts it. He also says that other forms of writing are “parasitic” off of journalism. This is an interesting viewpoint, especially in the context of the practice’s history. Similarly, I found the origins of journalism deeply fascinating. The “public’s” determination to freely access unbiased information should be more widely respected as well as more widely practiced.
I think something that is very interesting from the article actually comes very early and doesn’t have all that much to do with journalism at a first glance, it’s the part of the passage where he talks about the person who stated that “a field that didn’t forget its founders was immature”. This axiom is so interesting to me as it implies so much about the nature of growth and acceleration put into the concept of a field or subject, and I think it’s fascinating how this can apply to journalism. Carey spends a good chunk of the beginning of his article talking about the glorification of the past of journalism and how it is a pitfall that many people fall into with professions, and I would even go so far as to argue the past as well with nostalgia serving as a very strong mist obscuring all of the problems that were around in those times, but that is a topic for a completely different assignment. My point being that Carey spends a lot of time talking about the romanticization of the past when it comes to many things, journalism included, and he wishes to give a brief anecdote on the history of journalism for people to look back on. A second interesting thing about this article is what Carey decides to cover in his brief history, there’s a section of his article that is dedicated to pre-history as I’m sure many can imagine with journalism being a form of communication, and in Carey’s eyes drama, it has been around for awhile, and in some definitions of the concept the idea of journalism has been around just as long as we have been as a species and even before that with other hominids, even if the idea wasn’t always called journalism. Knowing that seeing what Carey decides to add to his attempt to abbreviate that sort of history is fascinating and shows you a lot about him as a person and what he was trying to do with this article.
The formation of journalism arose from the creation and adaptation of what would be known as ‘the public’; a group somewhat unintentionally formed out of the human disposition to communicate. Whether to plainly keep a record of significant events or the daily life of townspeople, journalism kept a steady stream of information readily available to the public. In the eighteenth century, citizens could gather in public areas to trade and garner news from one another in various forms of media for the time. A remarkable configuration of diverse people from assorted classes comprising servants, merchants, lower-court politicians, and so on was collocated into what still stands as a political force. While most were strangers, together, they represent more than a mere gossip circle. In truth, they played a critical factor in overthrowing the Old Regime through the mingling of the public to form either republics or democracies. Toppling monarchies by composing common interests between social classes is undoubtedly not an easy affair, but imposing. Journalism played a vital role in earlier societies, providing the public a voice and proving citizens have power over political figures.
An intriguing link between journalism and democracy exists; one cannot prevail without the other. While the formation of journalism in the hands of the public proved influential in reforming the government, what occurs without the combined vitality of the two? Journalism became the voice of the people, gossip, or archives alike, but when journalism wavers, so too does the united vocalization of democracy. When journalism lacks the strength of the public, journalists diminish to humorists and propagandists sent to represent something the public can no longer bond over. The sense of community is weakened without its advocates, resulting in a more divided, feeble democracy.
In our reading, I found the codependence of journalism and democracy an interesting and vital component to understanding the concept of journalism. The concept that journalism must be based upon facts and truths means that to truly practice journalism, there must be freedom to both associate and publish materials that might not be popular among the rulers of the country, but nonetheless are the true sequence of events. In addition to this, democracy depends on journalism. To be a participant in democracy, the average citizen must be informed on the events of the country and in the government, to have the ability to make informed decisions in regards to voting and participation in democracy. Furthermore, I found the circumstances leading to the development of journalism interesting. The fact that the practice of journalism started out as basically rumor trading among French salons was an interesting beginning to something that seems so official now. Also, the fact that it became such a prominent institution within society was interesting to me, in the sense that it required widespread literacy along with access to make/produce and write the news. This lead to the role of journalism as a arbiter of information and facts among the public, which were also established at this time. The concept of the public could arise due to the increased role in which each citizen played as well as increased literacy and focus on national identity rather than personal.