The Two W's of Journalism The Why and What of Public Affairs Reporting LEA'S COMMUNICATION SERIES Jennings Bryant/Dolf Zillmann, General Editors Selected titles in Journalism (Maxwell McCombs, Advisory Editor) include: Bunker • Critiquing Free Speech: First Amendment Theory and the Challenge of Interdisciplinarity Garrison • Professional Feature Writing, Fourth Edition Heider • White News: Why Local News Programs Don't Cover People of Color Merrill/Gade/Blevens • Twilight of Press Freedom: The Rise of People's Journalism Merritt • Public Journalism and Public Life: Why Telling the News is Not Enough, Second Edition Wanta • The Public and the National Agenda: How People Learn About Important Issues For a complete list of titles in LEA's Communication Series, please contact Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers at www.erlbaum.com The Two W's of Journalism The Why and What of Public Affairs Reporting Davis Merritt Author "Public Journalism and Public Life: Why Telling the News is Not Enough' Maxwell McCombs University of Texas at Austin li& LAWRENCE ERLBAUM ASSOCIATES, PUBLISHERS 2004 Mahwah, New Jersey London Copyright © 2004 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by photostat, microform, retrieval system, or any other means, without prior written permission of the publisher. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Publishers 10 Industrial Avenue Mahwah, NJ 07430 Cover design by Sean Sciarrone Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Merritt Davis. The two W;s of journalism : the why and what of public affairs journalism / Davis "Buzz" Merritt and Maxwell McCombs. p. cm. (LEA's communication series) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8058-4730-8 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN 0-8058-4731-6 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Journalism—Political aspects—United States. 2. Journalism—Social aspects—United States. I. McCombs, Maxwell E. II. Title. III. Series. PN4888 2003.P6M39 07T.3—dc21 2003046233 CIP Books published by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates are printed on acid-free paper, and their bindings are chosen for strength and durability. Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 21 To Libby, for all the reasons she knows —Davis Merritt For Betsy and my children, Molly, Leslie, Max, and Sam —Max McCombs This page intentionally left blank Contents About the Authors xiii Preface ix Introduction xi PART I 1 The Why 3 2 Why We Have a First Amendment 9 3 Conflicting Visions of Democracy 19 4 The Evolution of Journalism 31 5 What the Public Needs to Know 40 6 Three Publics for the News 50 7 Technology and the New Millennium 60 PART II 8 The What 69 9 Sampling the News 72 10 Framing Stories and Positioning Citizens 80 11 Positioning Ourselves as Journalists 91 12 Deliberation 106 13 Elections 119 vii VIII CONTENTS 14 Polling—Use and Abuse 132 15 A Map of the Future 146 Author Index 151 Subject Index 155 About the Authors Davis "Buzz" Merritt was a reporter and editor for Knight Newspapers and Knight Ridder Inc. for 43 years, retiring after 23 years as editor of The Wichita Eagle. Since leaving The Eagle, he has taught media ethics and a seminar on journalism and democracy at the University of Kansas and Wichita State University, consulted with news organizations and written ar- ticles, newspaper columns, and books. He wrote the seminal book on public journalism, Public Journalism and Public Life: Why Telling the News Is Not Enough, published by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. The 1996 second edition received a citation from Pennsylvania State University for media criticism. Maxwell McCombs, who is internationally recognized for his research on the agenda-setting role of mass communication, holds the Jesse H. Jones Centennial Chair in Communication at the University of Texas at Austin and is a professor on the associated faculty of Catholic University in Santi- ago, Chile. Prior to joining the Texas faculty, McCombs was the John Ben Snow Professor of Research at Syracuse University and also served simul- taneously for 10 years as director of the News Research Center of the Amer- ican Newspaper Publishers Association. McCombs has been on the faculties of the University of North Carolina and U.C.L. A. and a reporter for the New Orleans Times-Picayune. IX