Dan Berkowitz is prominent among American writers on the sociology of news work, and the process of newsmaking. In the text reader, Social Meanings of News, editor Berkowitz chooses media readings by communications and media experts representative of both classic media studies and lesser-known pieces, thus bringing together a wide array of theories of the news media. The fundamental concept of all the essays, however, is that news is shaped by its social world. The first eight chapters under consideration here focus on a framework for thinking about news, and how news is selected. Obviously all the news that occurs cannot be reported. Nevertheless, in an increasingly complex world, the choice of news selection is too often on the trivial. By identifying different paradigms as a way of studying the news, the book helps clarify various ways of seeing the news, and perhaps gives a hint as to why the news media go for the show rather than the substance in the Presidential race, and news stories in general.
In Part I Berkowitz rejects the "notion that news simply represents journalists' best efforts to seek truth and serve as society's watchdogs" (p.3). The three selections in this part present "alternative perspectives about news," and offer a synthesis of the literature about news and newswork (p.3). These selections are Michael Schudson's "The Sociology of News Production," Barbie Zelizer's "Has Communication Explained Journalism?" and James S. Ettema, D. Charles Whitney and Daniel B. Wackman's integration of studies in "Professional Mass Communicators."
Schudson's major concept is that news is the result of work done in a social setting, and that news is a "form of literature" (p.20). He approaches media studies from a sociological perspective, or the sociology of the news media. A key finding of his is that there are multiple voices in the news media of the United States and these voices adhere to market demands.
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