History

of
America
n
Journalis
Unit 1
 Gray and Yellow
The Era of Print Journalism in the Early 20th
Century
In the 1890s, if you were in New York City, you’d be in
the middle of what history now calls the “newspaper
wars,” a competition between big newspaper bosses
William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer to win
the highest circulation numbers and advertising
amounts. Hearst and Pulitzer were rivals and were
both committed to the trend of a new journalism,
called yellow journalism. Hearst’s New York Journal
and Pulitzer’s New York World fought for readers by
offering increasingly emotional or scandalous
content. Yellow journalism focused more on providing
entertaining stories rather than factual information.
 The Age of the Muckraker
The sensational content of yellow journalism extended to the illustrated weekly, or
magazine, which began at this time as well. Journalists working for magazines and
newspapers that worked with the yellow journalism of the time considered themselves
fighting for the general public, and they focused on causes that would help their
readers. This meant they often focused on big business, beginning with the
trusts.

Trusts, or large businesses that had absorbed smaller businesses in the same field to
create a massive monopoly, had become a major problem; between 1898 and 1904,
5,300 companies turned into 318 trusts. Journalists were suspicious of both these
powerful businesses and the political machines that supported them.

These types of investigative journalists, who achieved almost celebrity status, earned a
new name: muckraker. The term muckraker—or investigative, reformist journalist—
was created by President Theodore Roosevelt in a speech in 1906. Though the term
was not necessarily negative, muckraker was often a term thrown around by critics who
didn’t like the unrelenting way these journalists pursued their causes.
 The Age of the Muckraker
How could the muckraker’s approach actually help the country? The case of
Upton
Sinclair is the perfect example. Sinclair was a basically unknown fiction writer
when
he decided to take on one of the most powerful industries in America: the
Chicago
meatpacking industry. After a strike in 1904 protesting unfair wages and
working
conditions, the Big Four meat companies brought in strikebreakers, who
replaced
the striking workers and left them with no jobs and no money. Sinclair was
approached by the editor of the magazine Appeal to Reason to write a novel
about
Chicago’s Packingtown—The Jungle is that novel. Sinclair exposed the
disgusting
working conditions, the unfair wages, the shady business practices, and the lack
of
sanitation in the factory.
 Traditional Journalism Lives
On
Not every newspaper or magazine adopted the sensational yellow
journalism that
Hearst and Pulitzer, and many others, did. The great example of
traditional journalism was The New York Times, nicknamed the “Old
Gray Lady.” The famous New York newspaper, led during these years by
Adolph Ochs, focused on being objective, presenting facts, and
reflecting a distinct lack of passion. The tagline for the paper—“All the
News That’s Fit to Print”—perfectly described its focus, which was
upper-middle-class business owners who needed specific kinds of
information for their businesses. The Times ran lists of real estate
transactions, court cases, and market prices, which local business
people loved. Though it seems wildly different from the spectacular
content provided by the muckrakers, this steady, focused approach
allowed the New York Times to become a massive force in the New York
publishing community and Ochs to see the newspaper’s profits rise.
Read All About It! The Power of the
New Journalism Style
Newspapers and magazines were how Americans learned
about what was happening in the world, and the
relationship between the public and their press was
changing during the early years of the 20th century. By
1920, more than 50 percent of the US population lived in
cities, so newspapers became important for not only giving
people information but also helping them understand the
community in which they lived.
Part of this understanding came in the form of foreign-
language newspapers, which helped the increasing part of
the population that was a first- or second-generation
American and who may not have spoken English well
enough to follow standard newspapers. In 1914, for
example, more than 1,300 foreign-language papers were in
publication; 40 percent were German-speaking daily
newspapers. Often, these foreign-language papers followed
the same patterns of other papers, bringing colorful,
 The Galveston Flood and the San Francisco
Earthquake: The Positive Power of the Press
The yellow journalism style was increasingly helping readers see
the connection between faraway events and their communities.
The press coverage of the Galveston flood in 1900 and the San
Francisco earthquake of 1906 are perfect examples of the
increasing power of the press.

Galveston, Texas, was devastated by the aftermath of a

hurricane in 1900.

Both of these stories showed not only the power of a breaking

news story, something that we see regularly in the world of a
24-hour news cycle, but also the ability of the press to turn a
local story into a national event.
 First Person Reporting
Finding a way to make the news more personal became
the rule of thumb whether a newspaper was covering
murder trials or war. Tired of muckraking and
investigative journalism, but not of yellow journalism,
the public loved the emotionally charged accounts that
reporters provided. One group of female reporters, who
covered everything from trials to natural disasters to
politics, were dubbed “the Sob Sisters” because they
could put emotion into almost anything they covered.
These reporters—Dorothy Dix, Ada Patterson, Annie
Laurie, and Nixola Greeley-Smith, among others—
became celebrities because of their willingness to get
into the middle of a story and report it from every angle.
The term sob sisters was sort of insulting in tone, but
even their critics recognized that the powerful emotion
these writers used reflected skill. The public’s reaction
to their writing also showed the true power of the press
to shape public opinion.
 First Person Reporting
Newspapers reflected the power of the first-person account by sending many reporters to Europe to
cover World War I. Newspapers were forced to pay thousands of dollars to the government for
expenses and to promise that their reporters would follow US military rules as “gentlemen of the
press.” Newspaper publishers all over the country were willing because having a reporter on the
scene was key to emotional reporting they needed.

The curiosity about the lifestyles of the rich filled magazines like Vanity Fair and Vogue, but sad
stories of the poor filled tabloid magazines. The line between news and entertainment continued to
blur in the hands of these new journalists, whose style influenced many who followed.
 Floyd Gibbons and the Modern
War Reporter
A correspondent for the Chicago Tribune, Floyd Gibbons, was
assigned to the
European theater of World War I before the United States entered
the war. Instead of avoiding the action, Gibbons booked passage
on the Laconia, a likely target for German torpedoes. He wasn’t
wrong. The boat was bombed and, even though most of the
passengers were rescued, the account made for riveting
newspaper content.

Gibbons filed his first-person account just after President Woodrow

Wilson claimed that the Germans had not yet committed a clear
act of war on the open seas. His story, and his willingness to put
himself in harm’s way, made him one of the most famous war
correspondents of World War I. His first-person story put pressure
on the government to act.
 3. First Broadcasts
Radio as the Second Generation of American
Journalism
The technology that would eventually bring us the second and third
generations of American journalism, through radio and television
news, was just beginning in the early 1920s.
Both radio and film were used during the early part of the century.
The
first radio station opened in 1920, and by 1929, 40 percent of the
population owned a radio.
During World War I, the Army Signal Corps created many newsreels,
or films featuring news items, which were played before feature-
length motion pictures, to help support the war effort. The first
“talkie” newsreel, or a newsreel that featured sound, showed the
world Charles Lindbergh’s plane taking off for the first recorded
transatlantic flight in May 1927. However, broadcast radio and
television were not ready to become the main source of news for
most Americans.
 Radio as the Second Generation of American
Journalism
The transition from newspapers to broadcast news as that
main source of news for most Americans began as such
people as William S. Paley began to set up news organizations
on the radio. Paley, who headed up the Columbia
Broadcasting System (CBS), changed what entertainment and
news meant, setting up a news organization that gave
America some of its most trusted and beloved newsmen.
President Franklin Roosevelt famously broadcast his “fireside
chats” on the radio during his presidency, beginning in 1933.
These speeches reached Americans in their home, continuing
to bridge the distance between faraway figures and places
and everyday Americans in their living rooms.

Nevertheless, Americans continued to get their news from

their daily newspaper, which often provided both a morning
and an evening edition. It wasn’t until the beginning of World
War II (1939) that the power of radio’s ability to bring
immediate news, without waiting for an evening newspaper
 The CBS Style and Broadcast
News
In 1938, Edward R. Murrow and his
newscaster colleagues from CBS were on
the scene reporting from Vienna as the
German army moved in, and Murrow
himself reported live in 1940 during the
London Blitz. Murrow created what came
to be known as the CBS style, a fair,
balanced, and objective approach to
reporting that led most Americans to trust
the network and the reporters who brought
them the story.

This group created the model of a network

news correspondent, paving a trail for
others to follow.
 The CBS Style and Broadcast
News
The real-time nature of the reporting allowed for more detail, more focus on details, and instant
reporting of events like the Battle of Britain and Pearl Harbor. Breaking news and extended
coverage became the model for broadcast journalism, more than the summaries and quick
writing that newspaper stories offered.

One way that radio helped to bring Americans together occurred during one of the national
tragedies. On April 12, 1945, President Franklin D. Roosevelt died while in office. Having won a
third term in 1944, FDR was wildly popular and had led the nation through both the Great
Depression and World War II. Radio coverage of his
death and funeral helped bring communities together in their grief in a way that newspapers or
magazines could not.
 FCC Says No to Broadcast
Monopolies
During the 1930s, the US government began to regulate the airwaves more than it had by
passing the Federal Communications Act in 1934 and creating the Federal Communications
Commission, a new government agency that had the task of regulating the airwaves. One of
these new rules made sure that no one company could
dominate the airwaves. As a result, the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) dumped one of its
radio holdings to follow these new rules.

Print Journalism in a World of Broadcasting: Magazine Innovation

Even though radio and even television began to become more important to news gathering and
reporting in the 1930s and 1940s, print journalism was far from dead. In fact, the magazine
became more and more important during this time as more specialized magazines were created,
including Time, Life, Fortune, Sports Illustrated, and National Review.
 New
Media
Vs. Old
Media
Unit 2
 How is the media changing?
How do you get your news? If you’re like most
Americans, it probably happens like one of these
people.
The world is a digital one, where most Americans get
their news and information via smartphone, tablet,
laptop, or streaming video service.
If this sounds like you, even just a little bit, you are
absolutely a product of the digital generation. Most of
us do something similar because the technology that
surrounds us has completely changed the way we get
our news. Most of us can’t imagine a world where we
get our information from only from a printed source
or only at certain times of the day—and the news
media is no different. The Internet has forced the four
major news media—newspapers, magazines, radio,
and television—to adapt as well.
 Print Journalism
Newspapers: The Grandfather of News

Media
Even though many reports say that print journalism is dying because of the
popularity of the Internet, more than half of America homes still receive a
daily newspaper. This number makes sense if you think about how long
newspapers have been a part of American life. The very first newspaper on
the American continent started in 1690, way before the Revolutionary War
and before the creation of the United States of America as we know it. The
newspaper is one of the oldest written ways to gather and share the news of
the community, the most traditional of all the news media.

Pioneer Printers
Newspapers, magazines, books, and anything else that is printed is
a result of the efforts of two men: Johannes Gutenberg and Friedrich
Koenig. Gutenberg invented the movable-type press around 1440.
Koenig industrialized the process by attaching a steam engine to the
printing press around 1810.
 Print Journalism
The role of a newspaper is to bring information together,
summarize it, and share it with the audience in a very specific
way. Newspaper journalists work to make the news, complicated
as it may be, easy for the audience to understand. They are also
responsible for covering a number of different subjects, from
international news to local arts events and everything in between.
To help them manage that very large job, newspapers rely
on news services, or wire services that provide brief news items
for newspapers to use as the foundation of articles. You may
recognize the name of some of these news services: Associated
Press, Reuters, United Press International.
These syndicated stories, or stories bought and distributed to
many newspapers for publication, are used by most papers as the
basis for stories they may not have reporters covering in person,
like those that are happening across the world.
 What are the benefits of a
newspaper?
People looking for the most amount of news possible can get it the cheapest by buying a newspaper. Paying
just a couple of dollars for a daily edition of a major paper is much less expensive than a monthly
subscription to cable or satellite to get television news, or even for a monthly newsmagazine, which certainly
wouldn’t have enough space to cover everything that a newspaper can.
A newspaper is also considered one of the most impartial, or balanced and fair, sources of news—reporters
are expected to present many sides of an argument without making their own opinions clear so that readers
can come to their own conclusion. Most especially, newspapers are the still the best place to find local
information. Because of this, a newspaper plays an important role in helping people feel as if they were a part
of the community they live in.
The newspaper also still practices watchdog journalism, or journalism that works to advocate for the people
it serves. As we discussed in Unit 1, newspapers have tried to expose corruption to protect the general public.
Newspapers are still working for this goal.
 Magazines: The Complete
Package
You might be surprised to hear that the average person holds 1.9
magazine subscriptions, but it’s true. Magazines are a collection of
stories put together into one complete package by an editor who oversees
the process. Magazines are not meant to be read the way newspapers are.
Magazines contain pieces—articles, essays, interviews—that work
together to be a thorough discussion or exploration of a particular topic.
Magazines also involve quite a bit of visual content, both in the form of
advertising spreads and glossy photographs.
Magazines are meant to be seen as a complete package and are
more visual than newspapers.

For at least the last 50 years, as we discussed in Unit 1, magazines have

focused on niche markets, or very specific target groups. Because of
that, magazines are particularly attractive to advertisers because they can
easily gear ads to the demographic, or age group and gender, served by
the magazine. Because of this approach, nearly half of the income for
magazines comes from advertisers.
 Newspapers Become
Multimedia News
Organizations
You might remember that in Unit 1 we talked about the New
York Times. During the 1890s, when the newspaper wars
between the papers of Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph
Hearst focused on sensationalized coverage, the New York
Times earned the nickname “The Old Gray Lady” for its
steady, focused, upper-middle-class coverage of business and
news. The New York Times is now, though slow to change,
one of the first major newspapers to show how newspapers
have had to modernize and adapt their methods. The paper is
far from danger of losing its print following—70 percent of its
income comes from its print edition—but the publishers and
editorial board understand the importance of online content.
The New York Times, along with other
newspapers, is adapting to the digital
world.
 Newspapers Become
Multimedia News
Organizations
In 2015, the New York Times has more than 760,000 digital subscribers. It offers a mobile app for tablets and
smartphones to those subscribers for a relatively small weekly fee, along with an incredible archive of back
issues that dates back to 1851 and is available to all digital subscribers. For 99 cents, users can try out an
online subscription for a week to see if it’s what they want. Everyone else who has not subscribed is limited
to a certain number of articles for free each month.
When 60 percent of those reading the Times online do so on smartphones and tablets, and when its
competition is not just other papers like the Wall Street Journal but also online successes like the Huffington
Post and BuzzFeed, this is a perfect first step toward making the New York Times a huge online presence.
The reality is that readers love newspapers, but they love their mobile devices more. When newspapers adapt
to this fact, by partnering with Facebook to deliver content to readers or by paying attention to the needs of
mobile users, newspapers will continue to serve their readers and use the Internet to their advantage.
 Magazines in the Digital Age
We’re no longer a magazine company.
The head of the Time, Inc., group of magazines—which includes Time, People, and other successful titles—recently said this in an
interview as he took over the company and was asked how he would lead it into the 21st century. He went on to say that considering
yourself a magazine company “limits your ability to think of yourself more broadly as a content owner.”
Welcome to the digital jungle, everyone.
Magazines are doing exactly the same things that newspapers are doing, but perhaps even more quickly and successfully than
newspapers. The magazine industry is still alive and well. More than 7,000 magazines existed in 2008. Many of the most popular
magazines combine both their print and online editions to create an exclusive online option for subscribers. People, for example, has
unique online content available only to subscribers and does not publish all of its magazine content online for free. What it offers
online fits into its editorial focus—celebrity news, lifestyle posts, and celebrity bloggers who discuss motherhood or life in a way that
makes them more accessible to readers. It’s just like a glossy People—it’s just tailored to the online market.
The Internet has forced magazines to embrace a new business model. Print advertising for many magazines has gone way down, but
digital advertising is growing. Because of this, many magazines have adopted a hybrid model similar to the newspapers’ model that
allows them to continue to print while tackling the unique needs of an increasingly mobile readership.
 No More Dials for This Radio
Depending on how old you are, you may have never experienced radios with turn dials and static. Most likely, you know an
entirely different world: the world of Internet radio. This radio streams online, usually direct to your computer or mobile
device, either from an on-air radio station’s website or from an Internet radio service. You’ve probably used Pandora or
Spotify, both of which are online streaming radio stations that allow users to customize a channel. Another option is
satellite radio, which is a subscription radio service that offers content that is unavailable on over-the-air stations. These
stations include everything from talk radio to rebroadcasts of older golden age of radio broadcasts. The satellite radio
provider you are likely most familiar with is SiriusXM, which comes standard in many new cars. Both of these 21st century
radio options offer mobile app options and cater to a digital generation.
One way that talk and news radio programs have adapted to the Internet and mobile trends is through podcasting.
A podcast, named for the iPod that could originally download and listen to the programs, is a downloadable audio
recording of varying length that tells a story or conveys information. These podcasts can be recordings of recently aired
radio shows (like the very popular financial advice show The Dave Ramsey Show) or original programming that appeals to
fans of public radio. Podcasts are a unique way to engage with talk radio or public radio fans who may not be near a
traditional radio during show hours but who would like to participate nonetheless. Podcasts are specially constructed to
play well on mobile devices, with iPhones preloaded with podcast players and access to an iTunes store full of (often) free
options.
 Breaking News - Online
Both radio and television news, and especially the beginnings of cable
news, focused on the power of breaking news. This model is still in place.
But with the beginning of viral and streaming video, or video that is
played through digital networks, and viral videos, this 24-hour news cycle
seems to be happening even faster. Major networks have transformed their
news divisions to be a multimedia experience, as their newspaper and
magazine colleagues have. They definitely should—78 percent of US
Internet bandwidth is comprised of streaming video.
Do a quick Google search of online news and you’ll see major networks,
the same that have built impressive news divisions over the past 70 years in
television, with well-developed websites. For example, the ABC News
website has headlines like you might find on a typical newspaper website, Some 78 percent of the bandwidth
but it also has sections with live feeds of breaking stories as well as used in America is used to stream
archived streaming videos that cover both serious news and viral YouTube video.
or social media content. Just as bloggers can become citizen journalists
using their blogs, YouTube allows anyone to create streaming video content
as well. The Internet is, in some ways, the great equalizer.
Broadcast Journalism: Video Killed
the Radio Star
Radio: All Things Considered
Radio, if you’ll remember, was the first media form to adapt to changing
technology. Once radio wireless technology was invented and available to
most people, it wasn’t long before radio got into the news business. People
first thought that radio news was simply an audio newspaper, but that simply
was not true. Radio news was much different than the news one could find in
the pages of the still-powerful newspaper giants. Instead, radio began to adapt
to both a more personal approach, as we discussed in Unit 1, and a deeper
treatment of each story.
Radio became a way of communicating the news beginning in 1922, when the The Hindenburg explosion was one of
first station began broadcasting. By 1930, the golden age of radio had begun. the first events that radio reporters
Families gathered not only to listen to the news but also to enjoy covered from the field. They recorded
entertainment and music in a new way. The first networks, as we know them the sounds as they were there and
now, formed during this time, as did the first network news teams. brought them back to share with
listeners.
Broadcast Journalism: Video Killed
the Radio Star
One of the discoveries with radio was the ability for
journalists to take news coverage to an entirely different level.
Radio could cover breaking news, or news stories that were
happening and reported by journalists in real time. In 1937,
when the Hindenburg airship explosion took journalists by
surprise, those on the scene could bring the story back. Their
stories, complete with sound that allowed the listeners to truly
experience this event on an emotional level, created a whole
new connection with the audience.
As we discussed in Unit 1, the CBS style began during
Edward R. Murrow’s coverage of the Battle of Britain and the
London bombing. This on-location reporting was created by
radio newscasters and developed over the golden years of
radio. Those years extended into the mid-1950s, when it was
replaced by the golden age of television.
 Reviving Radio News
Although most radio stations adapted to a music-only format as television became
more and more popular, some radio news and information stations continued to be a
strong presence in the news field. In 1967, Congress passed the Public
Broadcasting Act, which ultimately funded both National Public Radio and the
Corporation for Public Broadcasting. These two organizations essentially created
what we now know as public programming in the United States. NPR boasts 2.6
million weekly listeners, primarily through their news programs. More than 800
public radio stations also provide other types of programming.
In addition to these public radio stations, talk radio has also gathered quite a
following. In 2010, more than 59 million listeners tuned in to different types of talk
radio, which focuses on anything from sports to news to politics to advice. Talk
radio is, as its name implies, all discussion rather than music. The popularity of
these shows has turned their hosts into celebrities. One such example is Rush
Limbaugh, whose conservative talk show has been popular for more than 20
years. The Rush Limbaugh Show is in syndication, which means that the rights to air
it have been sold to member stations. It reaches beyond a single radio station or National Public Radio has become a
audience to create a nationwide reach. Talk radio appeals widely to an older popular way for radio listeners to
demographic and is usually focused on a niche market. But it can still offer a more hear the news.
complete and thorough discussion of a topic than print journalism or most television
news does.
 Television Shapes Culture
The golden age of television began right as the golden age of radio ended, in the
1950s. During this time, the number of Americans who owned television sets
increased dramatically, and the same types of entertainment and news programs
that had been popular on the radio were adapted by television. National news
began with the creation of the three major networks (ABC, CBS, NBC) that
focused on developing television into a moneymaking, news-communicating
machine.
Television, at its heart, reflects and nurtures cultural values. Television news
adds to the deep emotional connection readers make with the aural (anything an
audience hears) nature of radio and adds the powerful visual impact. For feeling
as if you were there, in the thick of whatever the situation is, it’s hard to beat
television. But, as we learned in Unit 1, cable news tried by adding the 24-hour
news cycle to the mix. Yes, the major networks could provide you with stunning
and powerful news coverage—summarized for you at the end of the day—but Protester holds up a sign against Fox
cable news could provide that to you all day long and could go into greater News in 2004.
depth than ever before.
 Television Shapes Culture
The narrowcasting of TV news, which resulted in three major cable news networks and a handful of less
popular ones, continued with the rise of cable television in the 1980s and 1990s. FOX, MSNBC, and CNN
are now the top leaders of cable news. Each began with the goal of providing wildly different content, but
they have actually become quite similar. What remains different is their editorial focus. MSNBC caters to a
more liberal audience, spending nearly 85 percent of its airtime on opinion programming rather than on news.
FOX News Channel appeals to a more conservative viewership. It also provides a great deal of opinion
programming. CNN is the only one to produce straight reporting over commentary, as a whole.
MSNBC and FOX News, with their focus on opinion over fact, reflect the same attitudes of some of the early
newspapers that were interested in discussing political views rather than simply telling readers what
happened. Each type of medium, as it has adapted and changed based on the pressures of new technology and
a changing world, offers something different to audiences looking to understand the world around them
better.
 Unit 3 - Press Law & Journalistic Ethics

1. Being a member of the press comes with serious responsibilities. It’s not
enough to tell a great story—journalists are also responsible for following
the law, both international and American. But more than that, everything a
journalist does should follow a set of ethics that goes beyond the law. In this
unit, you’ll learn the important basics of press law and its history, the code
of ethics journalists should follow, and a few cases of journalists who have
gone very wrong. By the end of this unit, you’ll understand not only what a
journalist can’t do but also what every journalist should strive to do every
day.
 The Responsibility of Journalists

You might remember this line from one of many superhero movies: “With great
power comes great responsibility.” The power of the press is amazing. It has
changed political campaigns, helped improve unsafe working conditions,
exposed cheating businesses, and even led to presidents leaving offices. So
being a member of the press comes with a lot of responsibility.
When you open a newspaper, or more likely click to open a newspaper story
online, you’re seeing the work of many people, from online layout artists and
graphic designers to copyeditors. But most of that work comes from the person
whose name is in the byline, or the line in the newspaper that names the writer
of the stories. The journalist has researched, interviewed, written, and edited
the story and done it all under a tight deadline.
1. All of these questions, and many more, are answered by media law, the
laws that control the actions of the press, and a journalist’s code of ethics,
beliefs that govern behavior.
2. When you open a newspaper, or more likely click to open a newspaper story
online, you’re seeing the work of many people, from online layout artists
and graphic designers to copyeditors. But most of that work comes from the
person whose name is in the byline, or the line in the newspaper that names
the writer of the stories. The journalist has researched, interviewed, written,
and edited the story and done it all under a tight deadline.
3. All of these questions, and many more, are answered by media law, the
laws that control the actions of the press, and a journalist’s code of ethics,
beliefs that govern behavior.
We the People: The Freedom of the Press

1. While we could go back in the history of media law as far as the first
printing press or the beginnings of copyright law in England, the real
beginning to American media law is the Bill of Rights. As you may
remember from your history class, the Constitution was amended, or
changed, to include the first 10 amendments called the Bill of Rights. The
Bill of Rights was created through a process led by James Madison and is
based on a long history of documents that stated the rights for everyon. The
main purpose of the Bill of Rights is to give every citizen the rights against
the power of the government.
2.
If you ask any journalist what the most important amendment is, they’ll most
likely say the First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of the press.
The government doesn’t have the power to control the press as it does its job.
And the government can’t stop any person from speaking his mind.
 There are three kinds of free speech:
Pure speech is the verbal expression of thought and opinions—this is the most
obvious definition of “speech” and is very carefully protected by the law.
Speech-plus includes actions, like demonstrating or protesting, as well as the
words. This type of free speech is not as well protected as pure speech.
Symbolic speech does not involve speech but instead uses symbols that the
courts have decided fall under this umbrella of free expression. This type of
speech is the most controversial of all of them and is not always protected by the
courts.
 Limits to Free Speech
Though it’s a nice idea that everyone can do and say anything they’d like in a
society that protects free speech, this is not the case. Every society needs to
place some limits to be sure that its citizens can live in safety, and American
society is no different. Some of the limits that on free speech include obscenity
laws, copyright laws, and libel. We’ll talk a bit more about each of these so you
can understand the rules under which journalists must work.
Keep It Original: Copyright Law Protects
the Press
Copyright is the exclusive legal right to publish, print, perform, or record
material and allow others to do the same. It does not cover just the products of
your ideas. For example: Copyright covers the idea behind of a television show,
not just the individual episodes once written and produced, or even the base
line of a song even if the entire song has not been copied.
As copyright law has changed, it has expanded to include intellectual
property, or “products of the mind,” which are now protected through
copyrights, patents, open licenses, trademarks, trade secrets, and even URLs
and domain names.
Copyright and intellectual property do not extend to facts, which is very
important to journalists of all kinds—members of the press can repeat facts as
much as they’d like as long as they do not copy the TV show or story itself.
This policy probably feels familiar to you because it’s a legal protection
against plagiarism, or taking someone else’s work and passing it off as your
own, for profit. You’re used to citing your sources and using only a few lines or
paragraphs of each source—you’re used to copyright restrictions. Copyright
extends to cover intellectual property, or “ideas of the mind.”
 Keep It Fair: Libel and Slander Laws

If you’ve ever watched talk shows, especially political ones, you know that
people say things that are not very nice on the air. The people who tend to be
the most mean are also usually the most careful. Every person who appears on
or represents the press has the responsibility to stay far away from
libel. Libel is defined as false statements that can harm a reputation that are
printed, broadcast, spoken, or otherwise communicated. These statements can
be written, such as in a newspaper or magazine, or in printed visual gestures.
You might have also heard of slander, which are false verbal statements or
gestures that have the potential to harm a reputation.
Libel and slander claims in court are called defamation cases, and they are very
difficult to prove. Most of these cases are tried in state courts. The injured party
has to prove that the journalist in question intended to spread false information.
Journalists can prevent libel lawsuits and claims by being responsible as a
reporter and following the code of ethics established by most news
organizations.
The Ethical Code of Journalists
Protecting Rights
Do you believe that you should be responsible only for what the law requires?
Of course not. You treat your friends and those around you with respect, not
because there’s a law against being rude but because you believe it’s the right
thing to do. You keep your hands to yourself, not because you can be arrested
or fined for touching someone else, but because that’s the right thing to do.
Those rules in your mind—probably the ones you’ve heard since you were very
small, like do unto others as you’d like them to do unto you, or if you don’t
have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all—are the rules that make up
your ethical behavior. Remember that ethics are the moral principles that
govern behavior.
Journalists are no different. In their work, they have a code of conduct that all
agree are an important part of the way they do their jobs. Every newspaper and
newspaper company has its own specialized code of ethics, which controls how
reporters in their organization must behave. In addition, The Society of
Professional Journalists provides four principles that should govern everything
that a journalist does, no matter where they work.
 Seek the Truth and Report It

1. A journalist’s No. 1 job is to report the truth. To do this, a reporter must do

the research to verify the story of a witness or to ensure the facts are correct.
He needs to provide context, or the background of a particular situation, so
that readers or viewers can better understand the facts. Anything that is not
straight facts—any commentary or opinion pieces—should be labeled
clearly.
2. What Do You Think?
3. Did these reporters identify their sources and their process well? This
excerpt, from a groundbreaking story in 2007, “Soldiers Face Neglect,
Frustration at Army’s Top Medical Facility” about the conditions for soldiers
at Walter Reed Medical Center, led to an overhaul of the system.
According to dozens of soldiers, family members, veterans aid groups, and
current and former Walter Reed staff members interviewed by two Washington
Post reporters, who spent more than four months visiting the outpatient world
without the knowledge or permission of Walter Reed officials. Many agreed to
be quoted by name; others said they feared Army retribution if they complained
publicly.
To be sure that the truth is clearly shown, journalists must be very careful about
how they use their sources. Every source must be clearly labeled so that there
can be no question about its honesty; plagiarism is a serious mistake for
journalists. Finding sources and source material should be done honestly;
professional journalists should stay away from “undercover” methods to gather
information (recording without consent, following subjects, rifling through
garbage cans). When working with people who are sources, reporters must be
very careful to not promise to keep them anonymous, or not identified by
name, without careful investigation and consideration. When a journalist does
keep a source anonymous, the reasons for that decision should be explained
both to editors and to readers.
 Minimize Harm
1. We live in a tabloid society. The paparazzi are a part of celebrity life, and we
are used to being able to log in to the internet and find out personal
information about public people. But journalists need to recognize that the
power of the press should be carefully used. Private people have more right
to control information about their lives than public figures who are seeking
positions of power or influence or to make a living from the money of the
public have.
2. What Do You Think?
3. Should reporters investigating a rape case publish the name of the police’s
main suspect? What ethical or legal restrictions might prevent them from
doing this? What reasons might they have for wanting to publish that
information?
Take, for example, a story about a person accused of a crime. If the charges
have not been formally filed, a journalist needs to be careful about printing the
person’s name. A journalist needs to think not only about the story but also
about the effect that story might have on the opportunity for the suspect to
receive a fair trial. Personal information—such as address, phone number,
details about someone’s personal life—should not be a part of stories. And
journalists must remember that just because they have access to information
doesn’t mean that it should be published.
With any story, the primary worry of a journalist should be balancing the
potential harm—especially on victims of a crime or people surrounding the
person in question, people who do not deserve the attention—of a story with
the public’s need to know. Sometimes the harm is necessary and important so
that an essential story can be told. But every journalist should be
compassionate toward those involved.
 Act Independently

One of the best things about an independent press, and the fact that the
government cannot stop a journalist or a paper from reporting, is that stories
can be used to bring light to problems. The press serves as a watchdog for the
public. That can’t happen if individual reporters have conflicts of interests.
Journalists have to be careful to avoid situations where their writing can be
questioned because they are involved, personally or professionally, with the
subjects of their stories. To make sure that this doesn’t happen, reporters need
to refuse gifts, favors, fees, free travel, special treatment, or anything else that
might call their honesty into question.
If a journalist is assigned a story that focuses on a business or community
member with which he has a relationship, that journalist needs to come clean
and ask to be reassigned.
Editors and layout artists need to be careful to keep their relationships with
advertisers and donors very clear. No special treatment. And all advertising
content should be labeled so that it is not mistaken as news.
 Be Accountable and Transparent

At the end of the day, every journalist needs to be clear about the writing and
research process and be able to explain all the choices she has made. An honest
journalist never needs to feel defensive about those choices, so she can respond
quickly to questions about accuracy, clarity, and fairness without feeling angry
or upset. Newspapers and journalists work constantly to make sure that
information is true and, if necessary, quickly print corrections to make sure
people understand. Admitting mistakes and correcting them is one of the key
parts of journalistic ethics, as is making sure that journalists each hold
themselves responsible for following all of these ethical standards.