Questions Worth Asking – Journalism Edition
- How does local television news change when Sinclair Broadcast Group buys a station?
As shared by Prof. Jay Rosen, a paper being published Gregory J. Martin and Joshua McCrain in American Political Science Review shows that “news coverage tilts more towards national politics, and away from local, its language becomes more right-wing, and the ratings actually decline a bit.”
- Why is it that when East Coast journalists/columnists visit the Midwest, they have to romanticize rural life?
Partly because they don’t know any better, but also, as Herbert Gans wrote back in 1979, one of the core journalistic values of American journalism is the nostalgia for the old-fashioned, rural community of “small-town pastoralism.” (Important Note: I live in rural Nebraska because I love it here.)
- How should journalists cover suicides?
Very carefully, according Mary Astor of the NY Times. She shared a great set of guidelines from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
