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When the first snow flutters down onto the roofs and streets of London, Moscow or Zürich, it is “news”—although the same thing happens about the same time every year. The fact that this (usually very transitory) white splendour is news is demonstrated by the fact that the editors of the local papers in these three cities inform their respective readers of it. The readers—or those of them who live in the area—will have usually already noticed the meteorological event for themselves. Those who live elsewhere, and who read the report and look at the pictures of it, will of course not have noticed the fact for themselves. The two groups of readers will pay a very different degree of attention to the news-item, depending on the importance it has for them. But if this first snow affects international air traffic, due to the closing down of one or other airport in the three cities, then it becomes, through its effects, a piece of “news” for the travel experts, and perhaps even the economic experts, of the mass media, and it is accorded national or even international publicity.
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- Copyright © 1969 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)
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1 In the science of journalism, news is regarded as a constituent element of journalism; but the field of relations between news, journalism and society has hardly ever been comprehensively treated. This is connected with the fact that in recent times the concept of "news" has usually been reduced to its social-psychological dimension. This is not sufficient for a definition of the social importance of journalistic news, particularly as the findings of research on the public have so far produced results that are insufficiently clear-cut.
The following works, among others, reflect a number of different positions with regard to the theory of journalistic news: Roger Clausse, Les nouvelles. Synthèse critique, Brussels 1963, p. 181 f.; Otto Groth, Die unerkannte Kultur macht. Grundlegung der Zeitungswissenschaft, Berlin 1960, vol. 1, p. 170f.; Walter Hagemann and Henk Prakke, Grundzüge der Publizistik, Münster (Westf.) 1966, p. 30f.; Henk Prakke, Kommunikation der Gesellschaft, Münster (Westf.) 1968, p. 121 f.; Michael Schmolke, "Thesen zum Aktualitätsbegriff," in Publizistik im Dialog. Festgabe für Henk Prakke, ed. Winfried B. Lerg, Michael Schmolke & Gerhard E. Stoll, Assen 1965, p. 119f.; Urbain de Volder, Soziologie der Zeitung, Stuttgart 1959, p. 56f. The Anglo-Saxon literature con tributes little to the theory.
In the study that follows, it is intended to produce a synthesis of these approaches, in order to draw conclusions of a macro-sociological nature. For this purpose, the theme will be approached on two levels: (1) a phenomeno logical and systematic one, and (2) a historical and typological one.
2 Jürgen Habermas, Strukturwandel der Öffentlichkeit, Neuwied 1962.
3 Bernard Berelson and Gary A. Steiner, Human Behavior. An Inventory of Scientific Findings, New York 1964, p. 527f.; Joseph T. Klapper, The Effects of Mass Communication, Glencoe 1960, passim.
4 Charles R. Wright, "Functional Analysis and Mass Communications," in People, Society and Mass Communications, ed. Lewis A. Dexter & David M. White, London 1964, p. 92 f.
5 The following types are not average but ideal types, in Max Weber's sense. By this are meant constructions in which real relationships are overemphasized for purposes of recognition. For the theory of ideal types, cf. Judith Janoska-Bendl, Methodologische Aspekte des Idealtypus, Berlin 1965.
6 Jürgen Habermas, op. cit., pp. 28-29, n. 5.
7 Marshall McLuhan gives a very vivid picture of such changes in The Guten berg Galaxy, London 19672; the conclusions that he draws from them are of course extravagant and exaggerated.
8 Mass-communication theory therefore speaks of journalists as "gate-keepers"; cf. David M. White, "The ‘Gatekeeper': A Case Study in the Selection of News," in Lewis A. Dexter & David M. White, op. cit., p. 162 f; Gerhard Maletzke, Psychologie der Massenkommunikation, Hamburg 1963, p. 93 f.
9 The descriptions of the relationships obtaining in transitional societies are based principally on the following works: Der Beitrag der Massenmedien zur Erziehungsarbeit in den Entwicklungsländern, ed. Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Hannover 1960; Daniel Lerner, The Passing of Traditional Society, Glencoe 19622; Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media. The Extensions of Man, London 1964, and op. cit.; Communications and Political Development, ed. Lucian W. Pye, Princeton 1963; Everett M. Rogers, Diffusion of Innovations, Glencoe 1962; Wilbur Schramm, Mass Media and National Development, UNESCO, Paris 1964.
10 Although these four types are frequently distinguished in the literature, it is usually only the liberal and the totalitarian type that are given some sort of unitary identity and description. This is because the authors—mostly Anglo—Saxon—are unfamiliar with the methodology of ideal types in general. The authoritarian type is therefore classified by Wilbur Schramm (Responsibi lity in Mass Communication, New York 1957, p. 62 f) as an historical type belonging to the early period in the history of the mass media, and its typical presence in underdeveloped societies is only mentioned in passing. The demo cratically regulated type, on the other hand, he postulates in the framework of a "social responsibility theory," instead of seeing it as a reality on the basis of already existing attempts at its realization and, at the same time, as a theoretical model. Cf. also Frederick S. Siebert, Theodore Peterson and Wilbur Schramm, Four Theories of the Press, Urbana 1956.
11 Dog Bites Man isn't news—Man Bites Dog is. So says an old definition. The relationship between information and advertisement has been reduced by McLuhan to the motto: "Hell in the headliness, heaven in the ads."
12 The picture of journalistic news in totalitarian-controlled systems of mass media is based principally on: Walter Hagemann, Publizistik im Dritten Reich. Ein Beitrag zur Methodik der Massenführung, Hamburg 1948; James W. Markham, Voices of the Red Giants, Ames 1967; Heinz Pohle, Der Rundfunk als Instrument der Politik, Hamburg 1955; Frederick T. C. Yu, Mass Persuasion in Communist China, New York-London 1964; see also: Alex Inkeles, Public Opinion in Soviet Russia, Cambridge 1950.
13 Of course, mass media under liberal or democratically regulated control also try to manipulate the time factor. Owing to the constant state of intensive competition between the media, such efforts are however largely without effect.
14 Paul F. Lazarsfeld & Robert K. Merton, "Mass Communication, Popular Taste and Organized Social Action," in The Communication of Ideas, ed. Lyman Bryson, New York 19642, pp. 105-106.
15 The postulates of a democratically regulated control system were cir cumscribed by the Commission on the Freedom of the Press, A Free and Respon sible Press, Chicago 1947, and Wilbur Schramm, Responsibility in Mass Com munication, above all. The practice of a democratically regulated mass medium is treated in e.g. Fernsehen in Deutschland, ed. Christian Longolius, Mainz 1967.
16 The scarcity of frequencies and channels gives rise to fundamentally demo cratic claims being made on all the productions of the mass media, not merely on their political ones in the narrow sense of the word.
17 After all, less differentiated demands find themselves offered, for democratic reasons, a far wider choice of goods from the mass media.
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