Discusses current themes in communication research. Claims that this research offers an increasingly sophisticated view of journalism as a reflection not of an objective reality, but of political-economic power and sociocultural conflict. Includes an example of an imaginary symposium and a strategy for reframing the journalistic quest for truth.…

Argues that (1) journalism education is too narrowly drawn as to what journalists should be doing; (2) the literature is restricted and lightly assessed; (3) both problems can be addressed by a deeper commitment to a perspective and practice of criticism. (PD)

Contributes to scholarship on journalism, ideology, and race by examining how objective news reporting worked as an ideological force in news coverage of mayoral election campaigns in Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles. Shows how coverage framed the campaigns in terms of racial strategy, naturalized racial difference and division, and positioned…

Contributes to scholarship on journalistic narrative method, socially responsible journalism, and journalism education by examining a three-part series in the "New York Times" portraying life on a single block in Harlem. Finds that the systematic use of personalization reproduced stereotypes and suppressed evidence that would counter…

Examines coverage in two leading United States newspapers of earthquakes in Armenia and Iran. Finds that the newspapers' reportage was more sympathetic (both in the amount and language of coverage) toward Armenia/Soviet Union with whom the United States had friendly relations, than to the earthquake in Iran, a country on unfriendly terms with the…

Discusses how the Janet Cooke scandal stimulated journalists to reflect on changes that had occurred in the field since the 1960s and to consider the increasingly visible contradictions of their own authority. Describes how Cooke symbolized both the increased presence of minorities in journalism and changes in reporting conventions. (JD)

Finds that men in the Salvadoran Press Corps Association used Hemingwayesque myths and ritual performances which dominated corps culture to escape the discipline of corporate press institutions, while women correspondents experienced the rituals as an obstacle to individual and collective attempts to negotiate or reform the field. Analyses gender…

Presents a case study of the interpenetration of the paradigm discourses of science, religion, politics, and law and public motive structures as demonstrated by the controversy over scientific creationism. Argues that the discursive populist commitments of journalism indirectly legitimate the populist discourse of creationism. (RAE)

Contends that American journalists operate by behaviorist standards of "objectivity." Compares the transcript of a murder trial with newspaper coverage of that trial and finds that the latter reveals a prosecution bias in focus, choice of ideographs, journalistic qualifiers, and audience participation. (PD)