The Book That Every Citizen and Journalist Should Read
What this book does better than any single book on media history, ethics, or practice is weave . . . [together] why media audiences have fled and why new technology and megacorporate ownership are putting good journalism at risk. Rasmi Simhan, Boston Globe
Kovach and Rosenstiels essays on each [element] are concise gems, filled with insights worthy of becoming axiomatic. . . . The book should become essential reading for journalism professionals and students and for the citizens they aim to serve. Carl Sessions Stepp, American Journalism Review
If you think journalists have no idea what you want . . . here is a book that agrees with you. Betterit has solutions. The Elements of Journalism is written for journalists, but any citizen who wonders why the news seems trivial or uninspiring should read it. Marta Salij, Detroit Free Press
The elements of journalism are: * Journalisms first obligation is to the truth. * Its first loyalty is to citizens. * Its essence is a discipline of verification. * Its practitioners must maintain an independence from those they cover. * It must serve as an independent monitor of power. * It must provide a forum for public criticism and compromise. * It must strive to make the significant interesting and relevant. * It must keep the news comprehensive and proportional. * Its practitioners must be allowed to exercise their personal conscience.
"A surprising push for the acceptance of bias in professional journalism"
Written By: Daniel DeRosia
Despite the admirable intentions of the book as a whole, I found it to contain several rather unprofessional ideas. In chapter 8, for instance, the two men claim that a journalist must render "interesting and relevant" those matters he or she personally finds significant. It was hopefully less an assertion than an observation inserted to thicken the book, although chapter 10 would imply that the former is the case.
Chapter 10 regrettably contains the two Liberal authors' assertion that journalists such as they ought to be permitted by society to freely report through their own personal ideologies. Indeed, one would hope that these two otherwise proficient communicators merely miswrote their thoughts when they said that "journalists have an obligation to exercise their personal conscience" (sic).
If all journalists really were to produce reports inspired even in part by their own biases, the public would have every reason to mistrust the press. For, what is propaganda - a benchmark of what Americans claim to hate - but spun news at its core? In the minds of Americans, the purest form of journalism contains no human undertones in its execution, but collections of facts arranged into a readable or otherwise receivable format by an intelligence deaf to the voices of whatever moral philosophies or political leanings it might harbor. Pure journalism would report its own demise without a hint of grief.
"An interesting and very important book"
Written By: William B. Fokes
I stumbled across this book and I am glad that I did. True journalism is an important part of America's heritage that is being challenged (and often simply ignored) by today's "media". The pace of changing technology today makes old fashioned journalism look obsolete to many, but it is actually more important than ever. How well journalism adapts to these changes will determine our country's future. The authors provide expert counsel on this complex subject in a surprisingly readable and interesting style.