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A Study of the national news media

Herbert Gans' 1979 study of the national news media, Deciding What's News: A Study of CBS Evening News, NBC Nightly News Newsweek and Time is a cultural sociologistÆs analysis of news practices and production. The authorÆs concern is with the social construction of news, what gets reported, what doesnÆt, and why. The book is divided into three sections. Part 1 describes how America is reported in the popular, domestic news media. Part 2 discusses why the news is reported the way it is. This is the section of the book devoted to studying the work of journalists in the four news organizations cited in the title. Part 3 discusses alternative ways to report the news and GansÆ philosophy of news.

The book contains several major themes and ideas. A central concept is that professional journalists have more power than most people because they express ôthe economic, political, and social ideas and values which are dominant in Americaö (xv). Another key notion is that the media relies very heavily on official sources of news, especially from high-status, authoritative officials. Sources are judged legitimate if they have been used previously, and if they are ôproductive,ö ôreliable,ö ôtrustworthy,ö ôauthoritativeö and ôarticulateö (128-132). Because of this reliance on high-placed people, average people are not a source of news gathering; news reporting is based on the actions and statements of those in power. The implication is that reporting statements of those in power reinforces their power. ôJournalists report the actions and statements of those claiming to represent the nation andàsociety, thus constantly reminding us of the reality and power of these constructsö (298).

Another key notion is that journalists report on what is happening to important people, to those in power and celebrities. GansÆ contends ôthe people who appear most frequently in the news are Knowns, and, for the most part, those in officia...

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A Study of the national news media. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 02:29, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1701337.html