Media Systems and Communication Technology
Journalistic Values Notes
Gans’s Basic Journalistic Values.
There is more to the bias argument than the liberal-versus-conservative issue. For example, some observers charge that the media have a bias toward attractiveness or charisma. There can also be a bias toward making money or attracting an audience. Political scientist and media scholar Doris Graber argued that when it comes to selecting stories for coverage, the strongest bias is for those that will have the greatest appeal to the publication’s or program’s audience. 87 (Links to an external site.)
Rather than looking for examples of bias in the news, media sociologist Herbert Gans set out to find the actual values exhibited within the stories themselves. He asked what the values—the biases—of journalism were. To find the answer, he studied the content of the CBS and NBC news programs, Time magazine, and Newsweek.
Gans found eight enduring values in the stories he studied: ethnocentrism, altruistic democracy, responsible capitalism, small-town pastoralism, individualism, moderatism, social order, and leadership. These values were not stated explicitly; rather, they emerged from what was presented as good and normal and what was presented as bad. 88 (Links to an external site.) Let’s look briefly at each of Gans’s values:
1. Ethnocentrism is the idea that your own country and culture are better than all others. This shows up in the U.S. media in stories that compare other countries’ values to American values. To the degree that other countries live up to American ideals, they are good; if they are different, they are bad. Therefore, enemies of the United States are presented as evil because they don’t conform to our values. Stories can be critical of the United States, but they are criticizing deviance from basic American values, not those values themselves.
2. Altruistic democracy is the idea that politicians should serve the public good, not their own interests. This leads to stories that are critical of corrupt politicians. By the same token, citizens, as voters, have the same obligation to work for the public good and not for selfish interests. Special interest groups and lobbyists are suspect because they are not working for the common good. This was perhaps best illustrated by the Watergate hearings in the 1970s, which revealed the corrupt behavior that occurred in the White House so that President Richard Nixon could stay in power. President Bill Clinton was criticized for his affair with Monica Lewinsky in part because he was serving his own interests rather than working for the good of the American public. President Donald Trump has been criticized for maintaining a controlling interest in his global business empire while being in charge of American foreign policy that could affect the value of that business.
3. Responsible capitalism is the idea that open competition among businesses will create a better, more prosperous world for everyone. But by the same token, businesses must be responsible and not seek excess profits. The same is true of labor unions. Hence the news media tend to be harsh in their coverage of greed and deception by big businesses, yet they still tend to praise people who develop and grow companies. This is why there has been so much negative coverage of banking and investment companies following the stock market crash and recession in the late 2000s.
4. Small-town pastoralism is nostalgia for the old-fashioned, rural community. The agricultural community is where all goodness is rooted, while big cities are dangerous places that suffer from numerous social problems. Suburbs, where many people live, tend to be overlooked entirely.
5. Individualism is the constant quest to identify the one person who makes a difference. People like the notion that one person can make a difference, that we are not all cogs in a giant machine. Reporters like to use a single person as a symbol. That explains in part why journalists focused on the actions of Emma González following the Parkland school shooting. Instead of trying to talk about the gun control movement as a whole, the press used González as a symbol to represent all the protesters. 89 (Links to an external site.)
6. Moderatism is the value of moderation in all things. Extremists on both the left and the right are criticized. Although the media attempt to present a balance of opinions, they tend to report on views that are mildly to the left and right of center. One of the strongest criticisms the media can make is referring to an individual as an extremist.
7. The value of social order is seen primarily in the coverage of disorder. When journalists cover stories that involve disorder, such as protests, floods, disasters, or riots, the focus of the story tends to be on the restoration of order. Once media coverage of the Flint water crisis got started, social order was a big issue, and the press focused heavily on how that order, in the form of clean, running tap water, might be restored.
8. Finally, the media value leadership. The media tend to look at the actions of leaders, whereas the actions of lower-level bureaucrats—which may well be more important—are ignored. This is in some ways an extension of the bias toward individualism, the difference one person can make.
Overall, Gans argues that there is reformist bias to the media, which tend to advocate “honest, meritocratic, and anti-bureaucratic government.” 90 (Links to an external site.) Journalists like to argue that since both sides criticize the press, they must be doing a good, balanced job. 91 (Links to an external site.) Perhaps a better explanation for why both conservatives and liberals charge the media with bias is that the eight values Gans found within the media reflect a combination of both liberal and conservative values—again illustrating why people holding a particular viewpoint will see bias in the media’s attempt to be neutral and balanced.