ABSTRACT

This chapter prods us to take public arguments about journalism seriously. If journalism is not static or a fixed entity, if it can be said to change and adapt over time and if it is prone to competing visions, then these narratives cannot be ignored. Instead, their role in the larger struggle over the evolving practices and meanings of journalism deserves clarification, elaboration and engagement both from scholars and from the larger public. In many places around the world, the social role and continued relevance of contemporary journalism are subject to scrutiny. In this environment of uncertainty, even the most hackneyed normative appeal to the value of journalism – trite as it may sound to critical ears – is an expression of a felt belief presented as a justification for the continuing power of journalists to represent reality back to us. Non-journalistic voices need to be included as well, given the ample discourse produced about news performance – including from journalism scholars. The news does not exist in isolation, but as a discourse embedded within a larger metadiscourse seeking to make sense of journalism.