Journalists' knowledge of news is finally reducible to their commonsensical understanding of it, which is to say that common sense is not still another way of dealing with how journalists know news but instead the very foundation on which that knowledge rests. Common sense does not simply entail some shared cognitive facility that enables people…

Argues that the criteria used in deciding news value has little to do with how editors and reporters operate in the everyday world of journalism. Contends that journalists' knowledge of news is reducible to their common-sensical understanding of it. (MS)

In focusing on the epistemology of journalism, this paper seeks to determine how reporters, particularly investigative reporters, know what they know. It begins by distinguishing between the validity of knowledge claims and their everyday justification, assuming the latter to be the proper focus for a phenomenological study of what passes as…

A 1977 Court of Appeals decision, "Edwards v. National Audubon Society," outlined the principle of "neutral reportage": the press is not required to suppress newsworthy statements by public officials merely because the truth of those statements is doubtful. The author outlines this court case because it illustrates so well the consequences of the…

The news stories about the governor of Connecticut that appeared in 12 Connecticut daily newspapers during three-month periods in 1967 and 1976 were examined for the news sources used--whether the stories were written by local newspaper staff, local news service, or national wire service. The results demonstrate a significantly higher percentage…

Investigative journalists long have had an adversarial relationship with powerful institutions and those in public office, stemming from the "righteously indignant" reporters of the early nineteenth century penny presses who guarded the interests of the public. Currently, investigative journalists are in a difficult position if they have…