Emotion in Journalism

Editors: Borchard, G.

Publisher: Sage Publications, Incorporated

ISBN: 9781544391151

Abstract:

The relationship between journalism and emotion has always been fraught, and never more so than in today’s social media environment of fake news, popularism and polarized opinion. On the one hand, deeply embedded normative values of Anglo-American journalism that can be traced back to the second half of the nineteenth century dictate an ideal of detachment, fact-based journalism and impartiality, concepts often grouped together as an objectivity paradigm. On the other hand, journalism is a contest for attention and every reporter and editor knows that without raw emotion readers and viewers will find their stories boring. This chapter examines how how over the first two decades of the twenty-first century news has progressively become more openly emotional. It examines the cultural, social and technological reasons behind this rise and the challenges this poses to today’s journalism.

Source: Manual