Journalism: New Challenges

Edited by: Karen Fowler-Watt and Stuart Allan

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Reporting politics:
enlightening citizens
or undermining democracy?

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“The press and politicians. A delicate relationship. Too

close, and danger ensues. Too far apart and democracy
itself cannot function without the essential
exchange of information”
Howard Brenton and David Hare,
Pravda, Act 1, Scene 3

“Journalism is to politician as dog is to lamp-post.”

H.L. Mencken, The Oxford Dictionary of
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The challenge to the democratic role of political journalism

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Has political coverage ‘dumbed down’?

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Is political journalism tainted by bias?

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Challenging Questions
} Debate the argument that political journalists should be
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or ideologies in their reporting.

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‘dumbed down’.

} Are spin doctors ‘Machiavellian manipulators’ or ‘essen-

tial party servants in a political environment dominated
by the mass media’?
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Recommended reading
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References

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