It is not always common practice to analyze only a few chapters out of a book. Usually if you are going to draw an
understanding from a piece of literature, you would go through the reading in
its entirety. This is especially the
case in books that are meant to encompass an entire subject. Fortunately for us, the way Blur has been organized allows readers
to grasp a full understanding of each piece of journalism in the media age
individually, and put them together along the way like a jigsaw puzzle. To see the purpose of the reading,
it is important to take a look at the two men who wrote the book. Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel, the
co-authors of Blur, are two well-respected
men in the journalism community.
Kovach grew up in Tennessee in the
1940’s. Upon graduation of high school,
Kovach joined the Navy for four years, until realizing that his true passion
was journalism. In his career, he worked
for papers such as the Johnson City Press
Chronicle (Tenn.), the Atlanta
Journal Constitution, and most notably The
New York Times, where over the course of 18 years he climbed the ranks to
hold such positions as deputy chief editor and Washington Bureau chief. He also worked at Harvard University, where
in 1997, he and 24 other journalists met to form the Committee of Concerned
Journalists (CCJ).
One of the other journalists on
that committee was Tom Rosenstiel.
Rosenstiel also has made a nice career in journalism for himself. After growing up in California, he attended the
Columbia School of Journalism, and went on to write for The Peninsula Times Review (Palo Alto, CA), The Los Angeles Times, and Newsweek
Magazine. The same year the CCJ was
formed he also founded the Project for Excellence in Journalism, which
originally worked with the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, and
later affiliated with the Pew Research Group.
The CCJ was formed because of their
concern for the future of the profession of journalism. The 24 members were trying to comprehend how
to deal with the expansion of media in the ever-changing field that they worked
in. Kovach and Rosenstiel then traveled
the country, asking journalists everywhere, “What’s the purpose of journalism?” From their personal knowledge of the field
and drawing on the massive response of other journalists, the two men then took
this question and turned it into three books over the course of the next 13
years.
The first book they wrote, entitled
Warp Speed: America in the Age of Mixed
Media, focused on the how media was changing the means of which people
needed to report, especially after the Monica Lewinsky scandal, and their
second book, the critically acclaimed The
Elements of Journalism: What Newspeople Should Know and the Public Should
Expect focused more on an explanation of what journalism is itself. Blur:
How to Know What’s True in the Age of Information Overload is the most
current, and is a combination of their first two books, showing us what modern
day journalism has become in the rapidly growing media age that is upon us, and
how we should approach it.
The topics
of the specific chapters from Blur this
week, entitled “Completeness: What is Here and What Is Missing” and “Sources:
Where Did This Come From?” are explained in their titles. In these chapters, Kovach and Rosenstiel walk
us through why completeness and sources are important while talking about
journalism in todays society, and also give helpful definitions and examples
for specific terminology related to both of them. The information that Kovach and Rosenstiel
give us is very clear-cut and well organized.
The chapter about completeness
begins with the story of John Crewdson’s reporting on airline medical safety
features, a real world example that shows how a story with complete thoughts
could prove to be more persuasive. The
authors then walk us through completeness more thoroughly, speaking on the five
W’s, H, and the Q of a story, and also look at the use of facts and how to
determine their birthplace, their importance, and their reliability.
The following chapter on sources
also starts in a similar fashion, considering the reporting done on Steve Jobs
while he faced health problems near the end of his life. The chapter continues with an analysis of
different kinds of sourcing, as well as the factors that need to be taken into
account when trying to analyze the validity of these sources.
Both chapters of the book were
divided up in a way that created a fluid understanding of the concepts that
were being considered. The relatable real
life examples presented at the beginning of each of the chapters were useful
tools in showing the reader the importance of the two ideas, and the extended
examples within each subsection of the chapters also helped provide a clearer
border between concepts.
Kovach and Rosenstiel truly believe
in the ideas of completeness and sources when speaking on the topic of
journalism. They present that to the
reader with their careful craftsmanship of Blur,
and it would be hard arguing against their importance with the experience
that the authors share in the field.
Overall, it is clear to see that the two have written this book in order
to spread their wealth of knowledge in journalism, and hopefully create a
smooth transition into the rapidly changing media society we live in today.
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