TABLOIDISATION : DUMBING DOWN OR REACHING OUT - Essay Example

What do they gain from such work? Do journalists maintain control over the production and evaluation of news? How are journalists able to maintain the public perception that they are authoritative or credible? How do journalists convert cultural authority into other opportunities, such as jobs, political influence, and prestige? How do journalists respond to threats or challenges to their cultural authority? Admittedly, this study is just a start in this line of research. Journalists assert that they have the authority to perform an important function in our democratic society: to truthfully report the news and to inform the public.

This authority depends on the trust of the publics that the news media serve. American journalists say the defining characteristics of their work are that it is true, accurate, and in the interest of the audience--yet these are irrelevant unless audiences believe in the truthfulness and accuracy of journalistic accounts. If the public believes in the accuracy of tabloid journalism, then journalists gain authority the authority to tell the news (Sparks, 2000). Other culture-producing mass media institutions, such as the advertising, public relations, and entertainment industries, also communicate to the masses.

When these institutions and industries produce messages that appear similar to tabloid journalism, journalists interpret these events as threats to the boundaries and authority of tabloid journalism ( Stephenson and Bromley, 1999). The cultural authority of the institution of tabloid journalism depends on the ability of people to distinguish between it and other kinds of mass communication. It is useful for us to examine what sociologists of science call boundary-work rhetoric: the rhetorical strategy of one group wishing to distinguish itself from another ( Engel, 1996).

For example, medical doctors