JOUR
4321
Spring
2007
Assignment #1: Self-Censorship and Under-Reporting
The term self-censorship is often used to refer to influences on the media that come from a variety of social institutions: churches, schools, corporations, lobbying organizations, etc. Such practices are discussed by Sue Curry Jansen in her essay on “Nongovernment Censorship” in the Encyclopedia of Communication. Jansen discusses the variety of mechanisms by which media organizations suppress coverage of particular stories or kinds of stories:
Media
self-censorships are enforced by organizational reward systems, hiring, firing,
promotions, professional prizes and awards, and so on; by work routines that
socialize practitioners to pursue some subjects and ignore others; and by
marketing decisions that emphasize some material and markets and ignore others.
p. 251
Consider the term “censorship” as it is used by Jansen, and as is used in chapter five of Croteau & Hoynes, where it is not applied in the sense of government restrictions on press freedom. Rather, the term focuses on news that may be under-reported for reasons other than direct government influence. Many critics suggest that media concentration induces greater self-censorship. The authors Croteau and Hoynes quote Andrew Jay Schwartzman, director of the Washington, DC-based Media Access Project, who claims that the issue is “not a question of mis-reporting. It’s not a question of false reporting. It’s a question of not reporting” (p. 179).
For this assignment, you should select a story that was named by Project Censored as one of the “Top Censored Stories” for the year 2007. (Contact me if you wish to propose researching a story from a previous recent year’s list.) The current list of the “Top 25 Censored Stories,” as well as the archive of the “Top 25” from previous years, can be found at: Project Censored: The News that Didn’t Make the News. According to the Project Censored website:
Between 700 and
1000 stories are submitted to Project Censored each year from journalists,
scholars, librarians, and concerned citizens around the world. With the help of
more than 200
Once you have selected a story, please provide a brief (maximum 250 words) summary of the story/issue. You will also need to do additional research that will help you to answer the following questions:
1. Do you agree that Project Censored is correct in claiming that the story was under-covered prior to the time that the article(s) they provide were published? What evidence would you use to support the argument that the story was under-covered? Or that it was sufficiently covered?
2. One principal argument made by advocates of a “public service” responsibility for journalism is that commercial interests and goals should not become a barrier to the dissemination of knowledge about news of vital public importance. Make an argument as to why the story you have chosen is or is not of sufficiently vital public importance to have warranted greater coverage than it did receive.
Date due: Tuesday, February 13
Maximum length: five double-spaced pages
Have fun.