Textbook Notes / Media and Society / Chapter 4, Media Organizations and Professionals PDF

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Chapter 4Media Organizations and Professionals Introduction o Actions does not follow inevitably and directly from structural constraint  Those who create media products make choices about what content, production, and distribution o Forces of structure versus actions of human agency o Media profe...

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Chapter 4 Media Organizations and Professionals

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Introduction o Actions does not follow inevitably and directly from structural constraint  Those who create media products make choices about what content, production, and distribution o Forces of structure versus actions of human agency o Media professionals make product under circumstances directly found, given, and transmitted from the past, not own circumstances The Limits of Economic and Political Constraints o Working Within Economic Constraints  Profit demands shape programming decisions  Economic forces identify the goals that shape the terrain of the decision-making process, but human actors must assess both program and audience in their effort to deliver the “correct” product o Responding to Political Constraints  Government regulation does not determine what media organizations will do – sometimes media even ignores, reinterprets, or challenges it  Federal Trade Commission – not hard enforcer  Communications regulations can often be ignored with few consequences  Government regulation open to interpretation -> media organizations can read regulations in ways that match their broader agenda  Ex: ambiguous meaning of “educational programs” – even FCC’s clarifying of it in 2001 left room for interpretation  Regulation is, at best, only a partial constraint*  Government efforts sometimes successful in shaping media  Pentagon withheld Gulf War information  Media organizations can challenge regulations to alter or rescind them  Legal (challenge constitutionality) or political (lobby potentially supportive politicians) strategy  Media organizations can obstruct regulation by engaging in public form of self-regulation  Ex: films using ratings before government intervenes The Organization of Media Work o Introduction  Production and distribution = work of many people  Agree on conventions  Convention – practice of technique that is widely used in a field  Ex: news takes place on counter behind desk  Striking/innovative media merely break convention o News Routines  News – information about recent important events

Rely on journalists to make judgments about what’s important/newsworthy and give us facts on these events  News organizations must anticipate where news will happen next and structure reports accordingly  News organizations cast a “net” – made up of wire services, full-time reporters, and stringers- to “catch” newsworthy happenings  Ex: Washington and London – likely news there  Establish “beats” at prominent organizations were news can be expected to occur  Ex: police station, White House; city government; arts, sports, business  Reporters establish relationship with key players to guarantee news  Central to how reporters “detect” events  The round – process by which beat reporters develop a schedule for visiting locations and talking to sourcing that are likely to produce news  Structures reporter’s workday  *Before anything has happened on a given day, news reporters have decided where to look for news  Newsworthiness is constructed, though we think of it as inherent o Selecting Front-Page Stories  Front page identifies the editors’ selection of the most important events of the day, influences which stories will be most visible, and provides a key measure of success for reporters  Governed by norms that routinize potentially conflict-ridden decision  Timeliness of story, impact on community, priminence of participants in events  Also alternate between international, national, feature  Editors respond to expectation that they be judicious evaluators and to their commitment to the reporters whose stories they represent  Detached arbiters of story importance and staff advocates  No rigorous advocacy for a story – merely show it first as “best” – noting its novelty or impact of it o Objectivity  Contemporary evaluations of performance of American news depend on adherence to standard of objectivity  Those unhappy with news reports regularly charge journalists with lack of objectivity / bias  “Most fundamental professional standard” for journalists  The Origins of Objectivity  Schudson- “the belief in objectivity is a faith in facts, a distrust of values, and a commitment to their segregation  Doctrine that perceives the separation of fact and value as a messy business that requires the use of a method, or set of practices, to ensure their separation 

Before WWI, the facts spoke for themselves; the goal of journalism was to uncover these facts – doing so did not require a method of objective reporting  1920’s – faith in facts by journalists thrown into doubt as journalists see propaganda – manipulation of information  Meanwhile, the field of public relations emerged, and professional publicists became early “spin doctors” – fed information to reporters, carefully controlling access to their powerful clients, and they staged events such as the press conference or photo opportunity expressly for media o Journalist’s cynicism grows  The recognition that information could be manipulated + rise of public relations = journalist crisis about confidence to report facts in neutral way  Objectivity solution to this^  Set of practices and conventions that professional journalists trained to follow o 1. Maintaining political neutrality o 2. Observing prevailing standards of decency and good taste o 3. Using documentary reporting practices (rely on physical evidence) o 4. Using standardized formats to package the news o 5. Training the reporters as generalists instead of specialists o 6. Using editorial review to enforce these methods  Objectivity as Routine Practices  News accounts look the same because reporters follow same routines (same people, formats, rules)  Same methods = similar news  Journalists claim that news parallels prove objectivity  The Political Consequences of Objectivity  News organizations rely and build their work around the routineness and predictability of established institutions  Newsworthiness is socially constructed – attached to happenings by journalists  Images propagated by media is far from complete; at best, it reflects only a SMALL PART of society  Ideal of objectivity = separation of value and fact = unobtainable; inevitably influenced by interests of actors  Practices give those in power enormous visibility in media, while those outside are largely ignored Occupational Roles and Professional Socialization o Introduction  Sociologically, roles can be thought of as the bundles of expectations that are associated with different social positions 

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Process by which we learn the basic ground rules of a role is called socialization  Every media profession requires socialization  Roles not rigid; still room for negotiation; always changing; taken for granted Photography  Photojournalist and the advertising photographer may be using similar equipment but each has a different role – with different sets of tasks, expectations, and norms  Rosenblum- role expectations determine styles of photography and conceptions of creativity; need to discover underlying social processes that create the conventions which shape and condition human behavior Socialization of Photographers  Socialization allows beginner to move past technical aspects of the work and learn how to conceptually “see” images in ways that are distinct to the professional photojournalist or the ad photographer  Learn norms of selection process to be able to produce the kind of pictures that the photo editor will select  Pictures should document happenings, not transform them  Anticipate action and plan shots in advance  Advertising photographers leave nothing to chance; responsible for every aspect of photograph  Collective process; managing relationships with art directors and advertiser representatives is key Photographers’ Work Roles and Organizational Goals  “Standard” pictures – recognized by readers as news photos  Photographers are expected to produce images that fit the standard scripts (disaster, war, politics, court)  Ad photographers deal with technical work – must have knowledge ad skills to carry out creative decision (usually of art director); involves creating scripted images Editorial Decision Making  Several different kinds of publishing – large commercial houses to small press  Key publishing decisions: which manuscripts to publish  Publishers have to sift through many submissions and proposals and select the few book choices The Work of the Book Editor  Acquisitions editors – solicit, evaluate, and sign manuscripts  Get high-quality books for press, to weed out titles that don’t fit, and to work with authors to produce books that will meet organizational goals  Success of manuscript is HOW it is brought to author’s attention  Authors send unsolicited manuscript to publishing house = unlikely publishing 

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Authors send unsolicited manuscript to appropriate editor = better chance  Sent through personal contact (other authors ,friends, professional meetings) – best chance  Editors consider past sales of author’s previous work, current popularity of book genre, the publisher’s promotional plans and budget, author’s potential touring/media, sales rep’s enthusiasm, ease of ordering and receiving from supplier, terms book is being made available, book’s list price, production quality and cover design, book’s topicality, buyer’s understanding of local tastes and habits, and buyer’s personal taste o Scholarly Publishing  Segment of the book industry that is not so clearly oriented to profitability  Books need to be able to sell enough copies to pay for cost of production and meet house’s criteria for scholarly quality  Editors make use of prominent academics who serve as “series editors” to help attract new authors or evaluate manuscripts  Editors have clear sense of which authors deserve service; never proposed atypical book; high turnover rate among editors yet stability in the kind of decisions that were made  Successful editors must understand house’s “list” – its currently available books, including new releases and the backlist of older titles (new books must fit this list) Norms on the Internet o Our relationships and our behavior in virtual spaces are patterned  Those who construct networks draw on and create inventions that structure interaction o Language helps impose kind of logic onto cyberspace by in essence formalizing the conventional ways of perceiving, even behaving, on the internet  Terms home page, newsgroup, etc. – predictable and patterend o Can think of cyberspace as a site where anyone with access can be the producer of media messages  Body of norms still exists  Incorrect use of technological apparatus and is generally associated with novices who have not mastered the net o Newsgroup norms are powerful shapers of virtual behavior  Ex: follow group for a while before posting message Hits, Stars, and Decision Making o One of the principal resources in the media industry is “fame” and media stars operate under a different set of rules o Reason why stars are so visible and seem to dominate mass media = production of hits – which draw existing stars and create new ones – is major economic goal of most mass media organizations 

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o Chance of hit status is arbitrary; hits and stars are rare, and the resources to produce them are limited  Media organizations discuss which products and people have chance of success  Ex: film is seen as potential hit; full-page newspaper ads, frequent TV commercials, talk show appearances, etc. o Hits make money, stars make money, hits have stars; therefore, hits need stars  Ex: broadcaster on TV show brings in money...