Page 48 Questions Chapter 2

Questions- Page 48 'The Daily Miracle'

1. There is no one most important media function. The functions of informing, educating and entertaining are all interlinked and media could not be effective without all three. A newspaper article which informs and educates will not be read if it fails to grab attention and entertain despite its content. A balance between the three must be sought.

2. Journalists should be concerned about the readership figures of their publication in order to know what to write about and who the target audience is. A journalist writing for a popular blue collar paper would not have as much success writing for a white collar audience. The readership of a publication determines what content must be put into it. Age, gender, occupation etc are things which must be take into account. The employers profitability is a reflection of the journalists work and determines the success of their organisation. Knowledge of this will also prevent corruption.

3. Media barons such as Rupert Murdoch have been known to set the direction of editorial policy and other areas, often to the displeasure of the publications. The owner has the right to determine some of the direction but the company executives should also have their say. No one person should have the right to determine the direction of the publication. 'Freedom of the press' should be acknowledged in some capacity. The media has the ability to persuade the general public. Precautions should be taken to ensure media barons are unable to prescribe a biased view in place of balanced coverage.

4. Investigative journalism has its place but it is restricted by its relatively expensive and time consuming nature. There is rarely time in modern day journalism to conduct in depth investigations. It is time consuming but when properly explored can uncover insightful information in great detail. If a story uncovers something previously unknown about an issue it can sell more copies of the publication. Most news stories rely on media releases as opposed to investigation. When the New York times attempted to write all their stories based on investigation rather than media releases they failed and had to revert to the media release approach within a week. This illustrates its more difficult nature.