Description
As immigration, technological change, and globalization reshape the world, journalism plays a central role in shaping how the public adjusts to moral and material upheaval. This, in turn, raises the ethical stakes for journalism. In short, reporters have a choice in the way they tell these stories: They can spread panic and discontent or encourage adaptation and reconciliation. In Murder in Our Midst, Romayne Smith Fullerton and Maggie Jones Patterson compare journalists' crime coverage decisions in North America and select Western European countries as a key to examine culturally constructed concepts like privacy, public, public right to know, and justice. Drawing from sample news coverage, national and international codes of ethics and style guides, and close to 200 personal interviews with news professionals and academics, they highlight differences in crime news reporting practices and emphasize how crime stories both reflect and shape each nation's attitudes in unique ways. Murder in Our Midst is both an empirical look at varying journalistic styles and an ethical evaluation of whether particular story-telling approaches do or do not serve the practice of democracy.
Table of Contents
Chapter One: IntroductionPart 1: The Protectors: Sweden, the Netherlands, and GermanyPreface to The Protectors SectionChapter Two: What the Protectors ProtectChapter Three: Threats to and Benefits of the Protective PoliciesChapter Four: Protectors' AccountabilityPart 2: The Watchdogs: England, Ireland, Canada, and the United StatesPreface to The Watchdogs SectionChapter Five: What the Watchdogs Watch, Why, and Why Watching MattersChapter Six: Risks and Challenges for The Watchdogs: Competition, Demonization, and Productive ExaminationChapter Seven: Accountability: Resistance and ReconciliationPart 3: The Ambivalents: Portugal, Spain, and ItalyPreface to Ambivalents SectionChapter Eight: Ambivalent Behavior in Portugal, Spain, And Italy: The Commitment to MaybeChapter Nine: Threats, Harms, And Benefits: At a Crossroads or in a Crossfire?Chapter Ten: Is There a Way Forward for Ambivalent Journalists? Yes, No, and MaybeChapter Eleven: ConclusionAppendix: List of Interview SubjectsBibliographyNotes
