Popular Culture Review Vol. 4, No. 1, January 1993 | Page 24
22
Popular Culture Review
But what are the real dangers of this demon, subjectivity, that
must be exorcised at all costs? If the journalists themselves are unable
to face these dangers, then, perhaps, critical scholars of the media
can confront them. These scholars could, if they wished, leave the
tired issue of objectivity behind and turn the line of inquiry on its
head by undertaking the study of subjectivity in journalism. They
could acknowledge that subjectivity exists as an important component
in journalists' work and that an analysis of subjectivity in journalism
is of crucial importance to an honest understanding of the journalistic
endeavor.
Their inquiry into subjectivity could include a reexamination of
the historical development of journalism that builds on Dan
Schiller's implications concerning the positive aspects of subjectivity,
an examination of non-traditional journalistic forms such as literary
journalism which incorporates subjectivity into its texts, an
exploration of the use of subjectivity in texts created by women
journalists and others whose work has often been rejected or ignored in
traditional journalism. Perhaps, by undertaking such an inquiry,
these critical scholars could create a new approach to the practice of
journalism that would prove far more defensible for the next
generations of journalists than the concept of objectivity has provided
the last generations.
Millersville University
Paul Belgrade
Works Cited
Becker, Samuel L. "Marxist Approaches to Media Studies: The British
Experience." Critical Studies in Mass Communication 1 (1984): 66-80.
B lu m ler, Jay G. and M ichael G urevich.
"P olitician s and
the Press: An Essay on Role Relationships." Handbook of Political
Communication. Ed. Dan Nimmo and Keith Sanders. Beverly Hills:
Sage, 1981.467-493.
Gans, Herbert.
D eciding What*s N ews.
New York:
Vintage
Books, 1980.
Gitlin, Todd. The Whole World is Watching: Mass Media in the Making
and Unmaking of the New Left. Berkeley: University of California Press,
1980.
Gurevich, M. and J.G. Blumler. "Linkages Between the Mass Media and
Politics." Mass Communication and Society. Ed. J. Curran, M. Gurevich
and J. Woollacott. Beverly Hills: Sage, 1979.