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The Mind of a Journalist
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The Mind of a Journalist
How Reporters View Themselves, Their World, and Their Craft



July 2009 | 264 pages | SAGE Publications, Inc

Written by veteran journalist and noted professor Jim Willis, with an epilogue by Marilyn Thomsen, this book introduces journalistic decision-making into the classroom, alongside discussion of reporting and writing techniques. Students peer inside the minds of a cross-section of print, broadcast, and online journalists by way of exclusive interviews and additional research that provide a deep, broad glimpse into how they perceive themselves, their world, and their craft. Ultimately, this provocative text provides added insights into how journalists think and why they do what they do.

Features and Benefits

  • Original interviews with contemporary journalists at varying career stages. Offers a rarely seen, inside look at the world of journalists from media outlets such as the Los Angeles Times, the Boston Globe, CNN, the Memphis Commercial-Appeal, KUSA Television in Denver, and The Oklahoman.
  • Anecdotes involving how journalists work. Translates abstract thinking into the reality of everyday journalism.
  • Interviews with several war reporters. Portrays the impact of covering war on those reporting from the field.
  • An example of how different journalists approach traumatic stories such as 9/11, the Oklahoma City bombing, and Hurricane Katrina. Illuminates different orientations to conveying truth and dealing with ethical dilemmas involved in such disaster coverage.

Seasoned journalists examine the following areas

  • Factors that lure young people into journalism as a career
  • The stance journalists take toward the world they are assigned to cover
  • Ethical dilemmas
  • How close to get to a story or how far to distance themselves from it
  • The socialization of journalists and the role their own personal ideologies may play in their work as reporters and editors
  • How one's faith might influence the coverage of a story
  • The mixing of news and entertainment

The Mind of a Journalist is an appropriate and innovative supplement for a variety of media studies courses, including Introduction to Journalism, News Writing and Reporting, Advanced Reporting, Journalism and Society, and Ethics, among many others.


 
Foreword: The Thinking Journalist
 
Chapter 1: The Lure of Journalism
The Love of Reading and Writing

 
An Intense Curiosity

 
A Desire to Contribute

 
The Independence Factor

 
Being on the Inside

 
The Challenges of Going Deeper

 
 
Chapter 2: The Priesthood of Journalists
Journalism as the Fourth Estate

 
Learning the Ropes

 
The Separated Journalist

 
Journalists as Advocates

 
Feeling the Pulse

 
Granting Confidentiality

 
Legal Ramifications of Confidentiality

 
Editors Discourage Confidentiality

 
Anonymous Sources in Washington

 
 
Chapter 3: The Journalist's View of the World
The Journalist and Worldviews

 
The Importance of Time

 
News as a Reflection of the World

 
The Concept of Ethnocentrism

 
Cultural Immersion

 
The Risk of Involvement

 
The Concept of Ambiguity

 
Diversity Among Journalists

 
The Socialization of Journalists

 
Beliefs, Attitudes, and Values

 
 
Chapter 4: Journalists, Theory, and Ethics
The Pragmatics of Journalism

 
Media Effects

 
A Primer in Media Theory

 
The Question of Objectivity

 
Ethics and Journalists

 
Fabricating News

 
Credibility as "Currency of the Realm"

 
Encouraging Ethics in Politics

 
Diversity in the Newsroom

 
Separating Business From Journalism

 
 
Chapter 5: The Journalist as an Ideologue
Revisiting Objectivity

 
The Subjective Prisms of Cultures

 
Enduring Values

 
Journalists and Politics

 
What the Data Reveal

 
Serving as the Victims' Voice

 
Reports, Inferences, and Judgments

 
Where Passion Enters In

 
Op-Ed News

 
 
Chapter 6: The Journalist and Faith
A Reluctant Story

 
Top Religion Stories for 2007

 
Resources for Religion Writers

 
An Interesting Study

 
A Journalist's Own Religion

 
Faith-Based Journalistic Organizations

 
Faith-Based Media

 
Stepping Into Another's Faith

 
An Ongoing Tension

 
A Final Thought

 
 
Chapter 7: The Journalist as Celebrity
An Obsession with Celebrity

 
USC Targets the Issue

 
Celebrity Journalists

 
Critics From Within

 
A Double Standard, an Expected Deference

 
Katie Couric's New Persona

 
Cooper's Emotional Journalism

 
A Possible Distortion

 
The Latest in a Trend?

 
 
Chapter 8: Questions Vexing Journalists
A Young Journalist Weighs In

 
One Frustrated Anchor

 
Rays of Hope

 
Some Stay, Some Move On

 
 
Epilogue: Reporting From Iraq: Journalists Talk About Covering War
 
Afterword: A Personal Odyssey
 
Appendix 1: Covering Katrina: On Taking It Personally
 
Appendix 2: Thirteen Unique Journalists
 
Selected Bibliography
 
Index
 
About the Author

This book will be essential for the level 3 course, it has so much in depth information explaining how students need to behave

Miss Rachael Rodgers
Digital media , Doncaster College
January 10, 2014

For instructors

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ISBN: 9781452213033

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This title is also available on SAGE Knowledge, the ultimate social sciences online library. If your library doesn’t have access, ask your librarian to start a trial.