CJUS 740 Week 3 Discussion thread: Research Design
What if you were a professional journalist? Do you think your chief goals
would be the same as that of a social scientist? Should they be the same?
Why or why not?
Professional Journalist and Social Scientist
Professional journalism and social sciences have continued to maintain a vague
relationship for many years. The misfit and ambiguity constantly create conflict between
journalists and media staff or reporters. The media or journalistic approach usually pursues
novelty than scientific approaches that would otherwise be perceived as over-theoretical if
applied in journalism. Studies and experienced researchers claim that journalists and social
scientists take different paths because the former focuses on digestible headlines without
complexity while the latter emphasizes knowledge generation. Therefore, this examining how
similar or different the goals of journalists and social scientists are could significantly contribute
to this discourse.
Journalists and social scientists aim to obtain information and make the news available to
numerous users from diverse fields. The changing media environment profoundly influences
professional journalism, requiring individuals to be more innovative and unique to attract and
maintain a vast audience. Media houses are constantly looking for and hiring talented, dynamic,
and intelligent individuals who possess the ability to read the immediate surroundings and adjust
their goals accordingly (Kramp & Loosen, 2017). Journalism is no longer founded on prior and
similar goals pursued several decades ago because many media houses are constantly devising
tactics to stay ahead of the competition. Leading media houses package themselves by building
teams comprising talented journalists who equally appear as their own brands. Social scientists
must adhere to the standards of scientific research, implying that any experienced inquirer could
meet the objective whether they are reputable or not (Kramp & Loosen, 2017). Social scientists
and journalists both seek to share stories broadly to reach a larger audience, but professional
journalists deviate from this goal by ensuring that the media houses they work for and
themselves stay within the news cycle for the longest time possible (Gans, 2018). While social
science and professional journalism both focus on obtaining and sharing news and findings, the
former does not aim to build and maintain steady traffic. Thus, a highly marketable professional
journalist is one who is capable of driving traffic on traditional and digital channels.
Aside from providing the public with information to empower their decision-making,
journalism inadvertently and deliberately tries to sway people’s decisions about a product,
policy, organization, or government. In other words, journalists frame headlines and package
information in such a way to influence the decisions of the audience, which is the opposite of
social scientists goal when it comes to sharing findings. Evidence shows that sociologists or
sociological researchers criticize journalists for embellishing, distorting, and sensationalizing
results for clicks and driving traffic (Gans, 2018). The goals should not deviate from the
acceptable methodological requirements because this would eventually undermine the quality of
information. Professional journalists do not pay considerable attention to procedures, which
ultimately leads to methodological shortcomings (Kramp & Loosen, 2017). For example,
journalists are expected to conduct credible surveys using relevant sampling and participant
selection methods to ensure the findings are devoid of bias. However, anecdotes and samples of
as little as one or two people are used as the basis for making inferences about a large
population.
Therefore, the goals should be the same because professional journalists and sociological
researchers are bestowed with avenues and tools for obtaining and sharing meaningful
information. Sociological researchers struggle to improve decision-making, objectivity, and
knowledge status in society, all of which are retracted by contemporary journalism (Gans, 2018).
Besides, the goals should be similar because journalists and social scientists both examine
phenomena and other areas in society and publish the findings. Evidence reveals that
sociological researchers and journalists are identical in several ways and occasionally rely on
each other when conducting research (Gans, 2018). Both should seek to find patterns and
structures when generating knowledge. The research activities for journalists and social scientists
should collectively investigate unique events instead of limiting the studies to recurring acts or
events only. Journalists should not just narrow their analysis and reports to unique or distinctive
pieces of information or direct emphasis on something small and ultimately overlook the bigger
picture.
In conclusion, the biblical view shows how the scripture widely addresses
communication and media. Journalists and social journalists should ensure that their goal exudes
content, process, and purpose, as demonstrated by the creation story. The scripture explains the
story of creation, which has been interpreted to fit diverse contexts over the years. The first
chapter notes, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was
God” (John 1:1-3). The quote explains initial activities that were documented in Genesis to
explain any missing gaps about the origin of life. The text also highlights the subjectivity of
journalism by saying that the tongue is small but could mislead and cause harm to many people
(James 3:5). Thus, social scientists and journalists should deviate from the chief goal of
objectivity in generating and sharing knowledge.
Respectfully,
Al
Reference
Gans, H. (2018). Sociology and journalism: A comparative analysis. American Sociological
Association, 47(1), 1-8. http://doi.org/10.1177/0094306117744794
Kramp, L., & Loosen, W. (2017). The transformation of journalism: From changing newsroom
cultures to a new communicative orientation? In: Hepp, A., Breiter, A., Hasebrink, U.
(eds) Communicative Figurations. Transforming Communications – Studies in Cross-
Media Research. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65584-
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