Page 175 - Communication Theory and Research

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It could be said that newspeople cannot be motivated by altruism as they
frequently manifest contrary tendencies, such as spite, vengefulness and deceit.
My answer to this is that these are malpractices which are uniformly condemned
while there is an ongoing vigorous debate about the ethical boundaries media
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people must observe in the pursuit of their calling. It could also be argued that
the press is not held in high esteem by the general public and indeed some social
surveys seem to confirm this (Harris, 1984; Lambeth, 1986: vii), while others do
not. For instance Kepplinger and Köcher report that ‘the German public today puts
greater trust in journalists, when assessing nuclear energy, than in experts ...’
(1990: 305) and that ‘in the United States ... the population ascribes a higher
degree of effectiveness and integrity to the different mass media than to the dif-
ferent political institutions’ (1990: 286). Summarizing the findings of a number of
researchers examining changing values in western industrial nations,
Kepplinger and Köcher conclude: ‘Because of the general significance of the
mass media, journalists are important, if not the most important, transmitters of
changed values’ (1990: 289). Perhaps the integrating and sacred functions of the
mass media are best demonstrated by the status of American network television
anchors who seem to have established a standing even above politicians (Robinson
and Kohut, 1988). This could account for the pronounced irreverence with which
established broadcasters frequently treat members of the political elite. 13 The
profound shaking of the House of Windsor by the UK mass media is particularly
noteworthy in this context.
[...] [T]he introduction of computers will drastically alter the working conditions
[...] of journalists and other mass communicators. Jaspin (1989) demonstrates how
the skilful handling of computerized information can dramatically add power to
the watchdog role of investigative journalism. In the short or medium term, it
seems to me that the computerization of journalism might well speed up the pro-
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fessionalization of the occupation, depending on how well journalists meet the
challenges of the new technology. In the long term, however, as newsgathering
expert systems become available to the general public, the gate-keeping function of
newspeople will diminish and, as a group, they will probably experience deprofes-
sionalization, or even worse:

If journalism does not give persuasive and compelling reasons, it may
become obsolete in the coming ‘every person an editor’ era when we can
dial up information without the benefit of trained reporters who select and
interpret to help make sense of things. (Dennis, 1989: 119)

Or, in Durkheim’s words: ‘... there is no institution where deterioration does not
set in at some point in its history’ (1958: 23).

Conclusion

The central argument in this paper has been that only those occupations that are
perceived to serve the vital needs of the human race, as well as possessing
esoteric knowledge, qualify for the designation of ‘profession’ and, further, that