ABSTRACT
The American news media have an identity problem. It springs from their curious dual role: On the one hand they are expected to be detached observers of society, serving as its watchdog and conscience; on the other hand they are expected to be participants in that society, in which they are among the leading institutions. Newspapers and broadcast stations are social critics, but they are also employers and members of chambers of commerce. The result of these two roles is a collision of values and a conflict of interest. Although the alternative journalists spiritedly admonish the media for not living up to their public responsibilities, they usually restrict their criticism to community concerns not covered by the conventional media. Like all journalism reviews, the Honolulu-based Hawaii Journalism Review has a strong local bias–although it is more evident here, even to the point of parochialism, because local issues in Hawaii rarely emerge as national issues on the mainland.
