News Reporting and Writing: 9th Edition

Author: Melvin Mencher
Translator: Zhan Jiang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-08-01
Features: Perhaps you choose to start your career in newspapers, magazines, radio, or television. Or maybe you have a special interest that leads you to thousands of specialized publications, such as newspapers and magazines. Or you might choose to report and write for online media. One sign of the growth of the online news industry is its recognition by the Pulitzer Prize Committee, which decided to include newspapers in the Public Service category starting in 1999. The Chinese edition of News Reporting and Writing can provide students studying journalism in China with some fundamental knowledge and insights into the field, which serves as a starting point for a journalist's growth. News Reporting and Writing shows students how to analyze events and integrate these analyses into news reports. A responsible journalist should understand how to place events within their specific social context and recognize the importance of uncovering their causes and consequences. This means that journalists must not only continuously develop their interviewing and reporting skills but also broaden their understanding of people, culture, and society.
This is a classic textbook in American journalism, used by over 300 universities in the United States. News Reporting and Writing by Melvin Mencher, translated by Zhan Jiang.
I hope the Chinese edition of News Reporting and Writing can provide students studying journalism in China with some fundamental knowledge and insights into the field, which serves as a starting point for a journalist's growth. News Reporting and Writing shows students how to analyze events and integrate these analyses into news reports. A responsible journalist should understand how to place events within their specific social context and recognize the importance of uncovering their causes and consequences. This means that journalists must not only continuously develop their interviewing and reporting skills but also broaden their understanding of people, culture, and society.
Preface by Zhan Jiang
Melvin Mencher
In today's view, communication studies are often seen as more theoretical and academic, while journalism focuses on practical skills such as reporting, writing, editing, and criticism. As a result, when people mention journalism books, especially those on journalistic practice, some might think of them as operational-level materials—can they really be considered academic? This is a question that requires a serious and responsible answer.
While News Reporting and Writing may not be known for its theoretical construction, it clearly tells us: the growth of journalism is supported by disciplines such as political science, economics, law, sociology, ethics, and literature, but it is itself an independent field.
(1) If communication studies have a distinct academic focus today, then journalism is not merely a summary of practical experience. As James W. Carey, another honorary professor at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, and Australian political scholar John Keene (author of Media and Democracy) have noted, the essential role of mass media and the journalism industry lies in promoting democracy and the rule of law in society. Journalism primarily explores the relationship between news and democracy, making the focus on political power and rights, democracy and the rule of law, the core of the field.
Specifically, early journalism texts were indeed largely about the practical operations of newspapers and magazines—reporting, writing, editing, and criticism—and early journalism educators were mostly practitioners from these fields. Later, the research field expanded to include the history and evaluation of the journalism industry. In this sense, journalism is a product of the traditional newspaper and magazine industry, with its research based on the traditional "study of newspapers," which seems to lean toward operational or "technique" research, making it difficult to break free from narrow and "substantive" constraints. However, behind the surface of journalism practice, there is a unique advantage and domain of inquiry.
According to Schramm's study, American journalism research from 1937 to 1957 showed three main trends, one of which was research primarily within the scope of political science, including the relationship between newspapers and government, freedom and responsibility, public opinion and national policy. Schramm called the relationship between newspapers and society, ethics, and press freedom "ancient topics" in journalism. Today, how to handle the relationship between newspapers and government, and how to ensure press freedom—these "ancient topics" of journalism—are still focal points of academic research in the United States, and even of broader societal concern. These focal points are closely tied to journalistic practice.
In China, communication studies are on the rise, gradually becoming a "prestigious discipline" through interdisciplinary research on human and social information exchange. However, replacing journalism with communication studies is also inappropriate. We find that the two fields have significant differences in focus and basic discourse. Classic discourses and major issues related to developing socialist democracy and the rule of law, such as "objectivity," "fairness," "press freedom," "press reform," "the right to know," "public opinion," "public opinion supervision," "public opinion guidance," "press infringement," and "journalistic ethics," have historically, currently, and will continue to be primarily within the scope of journalistic research.
Professor Carey insightfully points out that the development of communication studies is one of the extraordinary achievements of the 20th century, enabling a group of intellectuals to engage in an increasingly important work. However, journalism remains important because it is linked to politics and helps people understand democratic life and democratic systems. Based on this, he proposed three principles for journalism education:
(1) Journalism and journalism education are not equivalent to or inclusive of advertising, communication, media studies, public relations, or broadcasting.
(2) Journalism, as an independent social practice, should not be confused with communication or media.
(3) Journalism is another expression of democracy, or in other words, there is no democracy without journalism.
Of course, how to interference from non-professional areas and avoid simplistic summaries of operational techniques, and to form an independent disciplinary system, remains an effort that Chinese journalism scholars should strive for.
(2) Melvin Mencher (1927-01-25), born in New York, is currently an honorary professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He received his Bachelor of Arts in Literature from the University of Colorado in 1947. Mencher served as a reporter for the United Press (1947-1951), the Albuquerque Journal in New Mexico (1952-1954), the Fresno Bee in California (1968-1962), and a correspondents for the Christian Science Monitor (1962). From 1952 to 1953, he conducted research at Harvard University as a Nieman Fellow, and from 1958 to 1962, he served as an assistant professor of journalism at the University of Kansas and Humboldt State University. He began teaching at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1962, serving as an assistant professor (1962-1965), associate professor (1965-1975), professor (1975-1990), and honorary professor (1990–present). In recognition of his contributions to journalism education, the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication awarded him the "Distinguished Educator" award.
Roy Peter Clark and Cole Campbell, two senior faculty members at the Poynter Institute, have the following evaluation of Professor Mencher: "No journalism professor treats the work of journalists with the same seriousness as Melvin Mencher. He has trained a generation of journalists at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism."
In 1978, Professor Mencher himself stated a lifelong philosophy: "As a journalist, my primary interest lies in political reporting and investigative journalism. As a journalism professor at the University of Kansas and Columbia University, I have continued this interest. I realized early on that responsible journalists cannot operate in a value-neutral vacuum. I have always strived to demonstrate in my work and teaching what constitutes excellent journalism and the highest achievement of journalists—those who are passionate about revealing the fundamental truths of the world in which people live."
This book is a classic textbook in American journalism, first published in 1977. Before the eighth edition was released in 2000, the textbook had been used by over 300 universities in the United States and had been printed 295,635 copies. The ninth edition was released in 2003, adding many new content related to events such as 9/11.