What´s Watchdog Journalism?

News organizations that report on stories in a fair, balanced and ethical manner are essential to the functionality of this nation. A citizen’s ability to make well-informed decisions hinges on a news organization’s ability to relay the most accurate information regarding the state of the nation, the changing condition of communities, and adjustments in the government. Journalism is no longer a one-sided conversation. Journalism is an interactive process that allows for readers and viewers to create a dialogue with journalists by utilizing mediums such as social networking sites and comment sections. Audiences have a say in what stories get reported and how news stories are presented to the masses. When news organizations fail to cover all

Clay Shirky who wrote Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable (1993) argues that society doesn’t need newspapers society needs journalism to save society. Shirky supports this argument by giving a historical background to the problems newspapers face and how the problems have developed over time and the solutions society has came up with. The blogger concludes that in order for journalism to go farther new models must be created in place of past molds. Shirky directs this blog toward the current and future generations in attempt to motivate new models and methods of journalism.

The purpose of this report is to analyse journalism practices employed in newspaper reporting across different outlets and to analyse if the practice was in line with the media

Due to the results of the Leveson inquiry, much has changed for the ways in which the British Press must work within the parameters of Media law. The inquiry has left much of the public untrusting and suspicious of journalism as a practice, and after the publishing of Leveson’s report, it is as though they are just waiting for another slip-up by media institutions.

He believes that the capitalist colonization of the digital world has led to this collapse of professional-quality journalism as a result of the further commercialization of journalism. In recent years, investigative journalism has been declining and media companies have shifted away from it and settled for repeating prepackaged messages. It is difficult for real journalism to exist when its revenue is based on advertisement. McChesney argues that journalism should be considers as public goods and that we should create non-commercial forms of journalism and non-profit media. One of the “darkest episodes of American journalism history” was the invasion of Iraq based on the U.S. administration’s claims that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. These claims went unchallenged by the media because of the lack of investigative journalism, McChesney believes. Furthermore, he ends with bold proposals to reform journalism and the entire media. He proposes a strict regulation of advertising and limitations on ownership of broadcast media and expansion of nonprofit and publicly supported journalism. I agree with McChesney about the decline of quality journalism and I believe reforms to media must happen. However, I am uncertain how this would be possible with all the control these wealthy corporations, and their partners, have over the media. It will need a huge

The essence of this contention is that presently, privacy is not considered a legal tort and journalists and journalism practice are currently exempt from the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). This is the case provided “the practice is engaged in by the organisation...(and) deal with privacy in the context of the activities of a media organisation” (The Privacy Act (Cth) s7B(4)). The basis of the concept of privacy leads to speculation over whether current laws must be tightened to secure the privacy of Australian individuals. However, this in turn may be seen to compromise the basic principles of journalism. It has the potential to restrict the journalists’ freedom and prevent them from gaining information by means that they have previously. If the

In his article “A Farewell to Journalism?: Time for a rethinking,” media critic Robert McChesney focuses on the idea that professional journalism in America has been in a major decline—and if a solution is not agreed upon to save it, our democracy itself will be in peril. More specifically, McChesney attempts to convey the idea that government intervention is imperative in order to salvage professional journalism as a whole and save democracy in America. He argues that government intervention in the form of subsidization and nationalization of the media is required; he writes, “The future of journalism left to the market will likely approach what education would be like if all public subsidies were removed…. It would be a nightmare for any credible democratic or humane society…” (McChesney 619-620). It is apparent that McChesney believes that in order to have a functional democracy, a robust Fourth Estate must also be present. Throughout the article, McChesney defends his claim and warrant through credible research and analysis—yet he falls short at critical points, especially when he assumes transferability between European and American policies, attempts to quantify freedom, and fails to realize the true relationship between the free-press and the government. These discrepancies within the flawed research that he presents render his argument for a national media system unsuccessful.

In the first article called “Nonprofit news: The future of American Journalism?” is written by Michael McGrath, a Journalist and the author of 15 articles, who is also an editor of The Kilkenny Journal, the problem of the future of journalism has been discussed.

In Australia, the media both reports and interprets events that occur worldwide. Reporting in the media provides a direct factual account of the events that take place. While, interpreting events demonstrates that the media can instil meaning and value, therefore, providing beliefs and opinions towards the public. As society keeps changing so do new ways of providing and delivering news. There is an ever-growing change from traditional media to new media. With these two media platforms playing a major role in our society, especially the way they influence government and political participation. However, progressively there in todays community there becomes many challenges faced with the old aspects of media. The phenomenon of 24-hour news has

Until the 1980s, the control of the media was in the hands of the national government. From then, the control shifted to private outlets and by the 1990’s, there were more than fifty multinational companies who controlled it (“Mass Media”). Today, only about six major companies control the larger fraction of media in America (Williams, Par. 1). Norman Solomon wrote in the New Political Science Journal that most reporters and editors work for just a few huge companies. These journalists and editors are on the payroll for “mega-media institutions”, of which, only about six exist (Solomon 297). How much will the public learn if these companies generally control the output of information?

The television news industry is now primarily driven by Fortune 500 companies that are focused on profits, not independent journalism. That wasn’t always the case as television news wasn’t looked upon for driving profits in its pioneer days. It was considered a loss leader for the major networks. “The interests of the government, interests of the corporations, and the interests of the news media have kind of melded together whereby, I think in many instances, the news media isn’t doing that good old government watchdog job that it used to do,” says

After researching the issue and the future of the journalism field it becomes apparent that, as privately owned businesses, most publications have the primary goal of making a profit, and subsequently produce the content that people desire to achieve this goal. With the exception of government-owned publications like the ABC, news outlets have no ethical responsibility to produce the hard news content that the audience ‘need’ to know, as they are businesses with an objective of producing a profitable source of entertainment for their specific target audience. Despite the different media diets of each individual consumer, media executives have the technology to understand and therefore satisfy the desires of their target audience. Thus concluding that while publications may not satisfy the supposed needs of their readers, they are able to recognize what they want to consume and produce this to retain their following and therefore achieve their primary goal of making a

It is without a doubt that the Globalisation of the media has increased our access to information about people and events around the world. However, during the process it has also shifted issues on what should or should not be in the public domain due to media ownership led by Western media corporations. The media shape is reconstructing itself, forming a singular global body playing an essential part in our democracy socially, politically, economically and culturally. Due to this, the effects of globalisation towards Journalism have become very debatable to whether it is benefiting the practice of journalism or hindering it. During the course of this essay, it will explore the affect globalisation has on the media (especially journalism), the affect of media ownership and how new technologies have influenced journalism.

In a contemporary society, the role of journalism is a varied one that covers many different aspects of people’s lives. As more and more outlets spring up around the world, many more stories are able to be covered by different outlets, and this means that journalism takes on a more and more important role in a contemporary society. Much of our lives centre on political and social happenings, and journalistic outlets are the public’s way of finding all the information on these event. Journalism also provides us with a way of finding out which of these stories are important and deserve our attention, and which stories can be ignored. The important role of journalism can be well observed in the recent coverage of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) in both New Zealand and around the world. This is a ground breaking economic deal, and holds a great deal of importance for the 800 million citizens of the countries involved, as well as the rest of the world. With worldwide coverage of this deal, it is inevitable that different types of reporting occurs, and that different outlets will provide different accounts. With so many different journalism outlets around the world and locally, many have to have a way of standing out from the crowd. This means that some extremely different coverage of very similar stories can occur. However it can also simply be down to different ownership, differing political views, and different socio-economic environments. Two outlets with

The belief that journalism is in decline has triggered major alarms, because society needs an informational environment that is easily available to all citizens such as newspapers. There is a large body of journalist that suggests that if television has taken over from the press as our main source of news this may limit our capacity to learn about public affairs; newspapers are believed to be far more effective than television at conveying detailed information necessary to understand complex and detailed issues. There is also widespread concern that if journalism fails as a profession it will not be able to reach large sections of the community, particularly younger or less educated readers. This may reinforce a growing gap among citizens between the information that they receive.