ABSTRACT
This chapter examines a journalistic onion composed of three layers of influence. Starting at the outside, these layers are the practices and policies of news organizations, the values and individual differences of journalists, and the traditions of journalism as a genre of mass communication. The third, innermost level represents the core of journalistic traditions, practices, and values. The chapter begins to peel the onion with an examination of how news organizations impact the daily news report. The news is produced by news people, not by computers or other machines. The news is an intellectual product. News is the commodity of journalism and a sense of newsworthiness, the core professional instinct and talent of the journalist. Socialization means learning the values of the profession so well that they become an intellectual reflex when confronting the events of the day. The behaviour of individual journalists and the behaviour of news organizations do significantly influence the final shape of the daily news report.
