Week 2: Dark Continent of American Journalism by Carey &What Society Requires of Journalism by Ford

Sports Journalism Blog

 Casey Yoos

            The Dark Continent of American Journalism by James Carey examines the elements of journalism. Journalists are described as storytellers. Journalists must gather information such as who, what, when, where and why. They organize this information into a plot with characters that have a purpose. The most important part of their story is the lead. The lead draws in the reader and gives the reader just enough information to understand who, what, when and where however makes the reader want to read more. A good lead is an essential element of journalism.

            Citizens criticize journalists for leaving out two important elements of the story, why and how. Why and how are the elements of journalism referred to the Dark Continent in American journalism. These are the elements of the story that the reader want to receive however are least likely to receive in a story. The reader must understand that journalist write stories as an ongoing event. Therefore the reader must follow the news story each day or week in order to understand why and how the news story happened. Journalism is not written in chronological order; it is written in logical order.

            It is important that journalists realize that names make news. No one is required to speak to journalists, therefore journalists but go beyond the interview, such as to libraries or government documents, in order to gather facts and information. In journalism, motives and causes important parts of a news story. It is important to remember that the causes of an event are directly related to the consequences of the event. Motives can create bias in a story and journalists must be aware to leave out bias and opinion in their stories.

            Significance is also an extremely important element of journalism. Journalists must locate the significance of a news story to make the reader feel that the story is significant to them although they may have not of been interested in the story in the first place. Journalists must connect the story to its intended audience. Significance is a great form of explanation in a story.

            Journalism is like a daybook that tracks the significant events of the day. This aspect of journalism is influenced by newspaper. Newspapers do exactly that; newspapers keep track of significant events each day. What Society Requires is Reputable Journalism, by Catherine Ford, argues why newspapers are not dead. Newspapers are one of the most reputable forms of journalisms. Unlike journalism on the Internet, newspapers are “storable and retrievable”. Newspapers can be reopened and reread many years later at any time. Catherine Ford explains that newspapers are not dead because in “new” journalism there is no standard to replace the experienced newspaper. Internet journalism has yet to create a standard with information as reputable as the newspaper. It took many years for newspapers to gain the trust of its readers and it will take many years for the Internet to gain the same trust. Therefore the Internet is not dead.