ABSTRACT
Journalism is the art of tele-visualization; it constitutes, and then renders visible, distant visions of order. Journalism is a philosophical discourse on what Derrida has called the heliological metaphor. It is therefore the social practice of heliography. Journalists as 'playing a key role in constituting visions of order, stability and change, and in influencing the control practices that accord with these visions'. Journalism is flawed, making truth claims that are at odds with its ability to deliver; it would be easy to charge journalism with professional hypocrisy or at least wilful blindness to its own shortcomings. The speculum of science is trained on the material world; the speculations of journalism are addressed to the social world. Appropriately for the art of visualizing order, one of the earliest regular journals was called the Spectator. It will serve to show that some of the preoccupations of journalism are very persistent.
