News Values: Ideas for an Information Age

News Values is a concise, powerful statement of the fundamental issues, ethical and practical, confronting newspapers today. Chicago Tribune president and publisher Jack Fuller tackles the most pressing questions facing journalists in the nineties: What kind of truth do they claim to communicate? To what end? Should journalists lead or follow their communities? How are decisions about what makes "news" related to marketing? What is the future of newspapers? Drawing on thirty years of experience, from police reporter to editorial writer, war correspondent to editor, Fuller looks at what journalism should do in a free society and why. Focusing on tensions central to modern-day newspaper publishing - the duty to truth vs. the obligation to sources; the push for diversity vs. the need for coherence; the responsibility to reflect and, when necessary, oppose the community one serves - Fuller argues that intellectually honest "news values" do exist and can continue to guide journalists even in today's competitive marketplace. Finally, Fuller examines advances in digital technology merging text, audio, and video and asks whether the new interactive electronic media will hasten newspapers' demise or stimulate their revival.