ABSTRACT
This chapter describes culture, cultural beliefs, values and norms, aims to understand the influence of standpoint on journalism, and explains how the concept of ingroups and outgroups applies to sources and reporting. Culture describes socially transmitted behavior patterns in a fairly large group of people. People learn about culture through interactions with family, friends, teachers and others in their community. A culture provides its members with knowledge about how to communicate with others and how to interpret their behaviors. Cultural norms influence the way many Americans dress; eat; greet one another; and communicate. Accuracy of perception requires understanding a culture well enough to understand its complexities. Certainly cultures share important commonalities, but they also contain subgroups and differences. Journalists must think about the perspective inherent in their questions when interviewing sources from different cultures. Journalists need to understand ingroups and outgroups because group membership influences perceptions, perspectives and people’s definitions of truth.
