JMC:1300 Intro to Journalism and Strategic Communication Section A Exam Vocabulary and Key Concepts

Theory of 'Informed citizen'

1. Good Information

2. Receive and Process

3. Good Decision

Traditional journalism

1. Hold power to account

2. Provide information to citizens

Advocacy journalism

the reporter actively promotes a particular cause or viewpoint.

Tabloid journalism

sensational crime stories, gossip columns about celebrities and sports starts, and astrology.

Entertainment journalism

focuses on personalities in the motion picture, television and music industries

Strategic communication

help organizations effectively communicate and engage with key audiences by distributing compelling, consistent messages.

Journalistic Standards

- Accuracy

- Balance/fairness

- Democratic accountably

- Editorial Separation

Checks on profits

Core Orgnaizational Values

- Democratic watchdog

- Providing information

- Setting agendas/ impacting policies

- Amusement/ diversion

- Profit

Core Fuctions of News

Disseminating information about policy, power, ideology, and self-interest

Journalism v. media

Main goal: disseminate true information

Main goal: clicks/profit/influence

Ethical Decision Making

- Define the conflict

- identify influential factors

- identify key values

- Define your obligations to the affected parties

- Select ethical principles to guide the decision-making process.

- Make a decision and justify it.

Journalism Ethics

- Accuracy

- Fairness

- Confidentiality

- Conflicts of Interest

Stragetic communication ethics

- Tell the TRUTH

- Prove it with ACTION.

- LISTEN to your publics.

- Be PROACTIVE.

- Be STRATEGIC.

- EMBRACE your haters and remain CALM.

- Develop BRAND AMBASSADORS and CONSISTENT MESSAGES.

First Amendment

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Free speech rights

- First amendment

- state constitutions

- Section 230/Communications Decency Act.

Free speech culture

- "Marketplace of ideas"

- based in history

- philosophy

- values

- ideologies,

- Right v. should.

Importance of an independent media

- represeting diverse voices

- challenging dominant public discourse

Free speech limits

- Obscenity/child pornography

- Defamation

- Fraud

- Incitement/true threats

Speech integral to criminal conduct

FOIA (Freedom of Information Act)

requires federal agencies to release files to the public, unless the material falls into certain exceptions for national security or other confidential information

Sunshine laws

requiring agency meetings and decision-making process to be open to the public. One way of making agencies more accountable to Congress and the public.

Journalism

the activity of gathering, assessing, creating, and presenting news and information.

Elements of journalism

1. Journalism's first obligation is to the truth.

2. Its first loyalty is to the citizens.

3. Its essence is discipline of verification.

4. Journalists must maintain an independence from those they cover.

5. It must serve as an independent monitor of power.

6. It must provide a forum for public criticism and compromise.

7. It must strive to make the significant interesting, and relevant.

8. It must keep the news comprehensive and proportional.

9. Journalists must be allowed to exercise their personal conscience.

10. Citizen's, too, have rights and responsibilities when it comes to the news.

Journalistic values

- truth

- independence

- accountability

- ethics

PR/Strategic Communication

- Strategically Build Relationships

- Mutually Beneficial between Org and its Publics.

Relational Maintenance Strategies

- openness

- assurances

- social networking

- sharing tasks

Rules of Public Relations

1. Honesty is the best policy.

2. KPIs and evaluation help you measure success.

3. PR aims to reinforce or maintain a brand's image over time.

4. You need to collaborate with your clients.

5. Use data and analytics, but don't rely solely on them,

6. The best kind of PR is proactive, not reactive,

7. Be considerate and respectful.

8. Building and maintaining relationships are keep,

9. Do not spread mis/disinformation.

PT Barnum

Known for extravagant claims and hoaxes in publicity beginning in 1840s

Early Partisanship

Devoted to or biased in support of a party, group, or cause; Federalist and Anti-Federalist papers

Early Publicity

associated with democratic ideals of transparency, accountability, and the free exchange of ideas. It was seen as essential for holding government institutions and public figures accountable to the citizenry.

Past publicity stunts

PT Barnum

Current publicity stunts

many people believed that Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift were doing this to gain popularity.

pseudoevent

a planned happening that occurs primarily for the purpose of being reported

Information-based media

- NYT founded 1851

- Pennsylvania Railroad Crash/first press release 1905.

PR foundation

propaganda and persuasion to influence the people.

Propaganda

Ideas spread to influence public opinion for or against a cause.

Propaganda example

rosie the riveter "We can do it"

technological evolution has brought...

- cultural convergence

- economic convergence

- professional convergence

cultural convergence

contact and interaction of one culture and another

ex: people in different countries have access to different types of media to consume.

Economic convergence

when various media organizations and functions are merged under a single ownership structure

ex: transfer to online media for journalism

Professional convergence

When various functions of professional communication such as publicity, advertising, online services and marketing are combined to improve strategy

ex: needing the ability to work in many different medias

Good sides and bad sides of journalism career

- spreadability of news to other areas espeically rural.

- people want news fast; decreasing occupation.

Good sides and bad sides of strat comm

- growing occupation; communication

- harder to get in to some jobs; need communication skills

current state of journalism

- legacy newspapers

- broadcast news

- cable news

- magazines

- online news sources

- trade magazines/publications

areas of specialization

- current events/poltiics and public affairs

- business and finance

- science

- international

- sports and entertainment

- lifestyle

-specific topics

current strat comm environments

- agencies

- corporations/organizations

- non-profits/NGOs

Common news values

elements of a story that journalists use to assess quickly whether an idea or event is worth sharing

- relevance

- usefulness

- interest

News values

- impact

- timeliness

- promience

- proximity

- human interest

- solutions

- conflict/controversy

- novelty/oddity

- trending/currency/engagement

Digital Analytics

paid search v. organic search

Advertising and Marketing

- paid media

- shared media

Content marketing

developing and sharing useful information for your audience

Brand journalism

apply journalistic norms/best practices to brand publications.

Native Advertising

Paid content on a media site designed to look like content from that site.