this information flow in a historical and cultural context that makes sense for us.
Definitions
What is the news? The news is defined as the timely sharing of information of some public interest, created through a journalistic process. It is presented on a variety of media platforms. The news was and is a way of sharing common concerns and questions so citizens are able to make informed and reasoned choices.
What are media? Media are the various delivery systems used to present information, cultural expression, and other communications forms. Media content is delivered on a variety of platforms – such as print, broadcasting, and online – and can be news, cultural expression (such as music and art), and opinion. News is is the informational foundation of all subsets of media.
When we talk of news literacy, we also need to discuss media literacy overall, because both are connected.
Media platforms are the mechanisms through which we experience the world, whether it is through news, culture, or ideas. The news is one of many content constructs transmitted on a variety of media platforms. If those platforms are not properly understood, or even misused, then the content that is presented on them can also be misunderstood.
Literacy is the ability to make sense of the world and be understood through the ability to read, write, spell, listen, and speak. It is also about being competent and knowledgeable in a specified area.
Media literacy involves the practices that allow the public to access and to critically evaluate various media expressions. Media literacy is understanding how media assumptions about our culture operate. It is also about determining which cultural presuppositions need to be analyzed and deconstructed in order to properly understand how specific media operate.
As a result, news literacy concerns applying similar critical thinking skills to the various content of specific newspapers, broadcast information, and online presentations.
One way to understand the need for both media and news literacy is to understand the historical origins and the economic underpinnings of how media operate. The economic consequences are critical to understanding how the news works and on whose behalf, since the news is often a first portal into the larger media landscape.
All media and their news expressions remain driven by economic and political interests. Some of those influences can be benign, such as the need to create a community of interests around local events. They can also be a part of an effort to properly inform the public about issues that have previously been unknown. This is known as “investigative reporting.” Other influences are designed to extract profits through monetizing the distribution of information that citizens might find interesting or useful. This can be problematic in certain cases.
Digital Economics
The profit motive and the inherent competitiveness of the news business have always been part of the drive to produce news and information, whether by so‐called press barons, such as newspaper chain owners Hearst and Sulzberger in the US, or by governments that wish to control information for their own political benefit and civic control. We will explore how that model of for‐profit journalism has changed and some of the reasons for those changes.
The business model of using advertising to support news media has been upset by the arrival of digital technology. And just as previous technological inventions changed the way information was created and presented, digital technology has made control of media content more available to the public through blogging and media start‐ups.
This digital democratization of media has allowed for more voices to emerge in the news landscape. This has been criticized as producing an informational cacophony, with more confusion amid the clash of voices and ideas. It has also been disruptive to how the news is produced and distributed, and not always to the benefit of the public. Recently social media platforms, operating in effect as competitive media companies, have done serious damage to traditional news organizations as audiences and advertising revenue have shifted to online platforms.
As recently as 20 years ago, newspapers in the US were seen as profit centers for their owners and investors (Hare, 2009), bringing in larger profits than even the pharmaceutical industry. The disruption of the traditional advertising model for newspapers and broadcasters has meant fewer journalists doing news as before, with the mantra of “digital first” crowding out how reporting is now done and distributed.
The format and delivery of media and news offerings changes constantly. There is a tendency to want to just let it happen and try to assess the value of the various offerings later. One assumption is that in this digital marketplace, the strongest forms will eventually emerge and the public can sample (and support) them as they come along.
Why Some News is Suspect
As we have seen in recent elections in the US and the UK, information with questionable sources doesn't always work in the best interests of the voting public.
Misinformation (which is content that is inadvertently mistaken and just plain wrong) and disinformation (which is a deliberate attempt to convey wrong information) are able to penetrate the public marketplace of ideas. Reliable journalism is needed to help identify what can be trusted. The consequences of information that is “unmediated” – without a journalistic check – have proven to be damaging to society. In Nazi Germany in the 1930s, a lie could be repeated as often as required in order for the public to accept it as true.
As you work through the chapters, we will explore various themes regarding the essential nature of the news and its various expressions. We will see how the news is the basic building block of interpersonal communication at every level of society. We will examine how news and the media are central to our functioning as citizens because they allow us to experience the world in all of its complexities, whether it is through traditional media, mass media, or, perhaps most significantly, social media. The revolution brought on by digital culture and its impact on the news is being felt now more than ever.
Why is this important? Why is reliable and literate news essential? Because of one basic human quality: people like to talk in order to communicate.
We like to exchange everything from ideas, to culture, to arguments. We especially love stories, humor, and jokes. It is who we are as a species, and it has been that way for as long as people have lived in communities. It's what makes us human, and if we are deprived of that connection for too long, like every other living creature deprived of an essential need, we weaken and lose our capacity for being part of something larger than ourselves. It is unnatural to live without that human‐to‐human contact. It is the news, in the broadest sense of the word, which binds us together.
“Surprise” and “Delight”
It's worth exploring these two simple, yet complicated and interconnected notions.
“Surprise” in the news indicates a range of complexities: it includes reading, hearing, viewing, or downloading something that is relatively unknown to you as a news consumer. It can be benign (as in “it may rain later today”) or be more significant or ominous (as in “a tornado is approaching”). It can be a slight delay in your morning commute or a massive 10‐car pile‐up on the freeway.
“Surprise” can also have more immediate consequences. It can be the election
