News trade
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The terms news trade or news business refers to news-related organizations in the mass media (or "information media") as a business entity —associated with but distinct from the profession of journalism.
The "news trade" may include professional journalists, it also includes non-professionals from various trades, including spokespersons, spokesmodels, television personalities, news anchors, television reporters, televison producers and related technical support crews.
And while various entities in the news trade may depend on the skills of professional journalists, the business entity's purpose, functions, and ethics are fundamentally distinct from the professional ethics of journalism.
The notions of hard news, soft news, and infotainment represent both different types of content that news businesses produce, and different attitudes about what content and what standards are appropriate for the enterprise.
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Roles
The "news trade" may include professional journalists, it also includes non-professionals from various trades, including spokespersons, spokesmodels, television personalities, news anchors, television reporters, televison producers and related technical support crews.
"Hard news" and "soft news"
Hard news and soft news are terms for describing a relative difference between poles in a spectrum within the broader news trade —with "hard" journalism at the professional end and "soft" infotainment at the other. Because the term "news" is quite broad, the terms "hard" and "soft" denote both a difference in respective standards for news value, as well as for standards of conduct, relative to the professional ideals of journalistic integrity.
The idea of hard news embodies two orthogonal concepts:
- Seriousness: Politics, economics, crime, war, and disasters are considered serious topics, as are certain aspects of law, science, and technology.
- Timeliness: Stories that cover current events - the progress of a war, the results of a vote, the breaking out of a fire, a significant public statement, the freeing of a prisoner, an economic report of note.
The logical opposite, soft news is sometimes referred to in a derogatory fashion as infotainment. Defining features catching the most criticism include:
- The least serious subjects: Arts and entertainment, sports, lifestyles, "human interest", and celebrities.
- Not timely: There is no precipitating event triggering the story, other than a reporter's curiosity.
Timely events happen in less serious subjects - sporting matches, celebrity misadventures, movie releases, art exhibits, and so on.
There may also be serious reports which are not event-driven - coverage of important social, economic, legal, or technological trends; investigative reports which uncover ongoing corruption, waste, or immorality; or discussion of unsettled political issues without any special reason. Anniversaries, holidays, the end of a year or season, or the end of the first 100 days of an administration, can make some stories time-sensitive, but provide more of an opportunity for reflection and analysis than any actual "news" to report.
The spectrum of "seriousness" and "importance" is not well-defined, and different media organizations make different tradeoffs. "News you can use", a common marketing phrase highlighting a specific genre of journalism, spans the gray area. Gardening tips and hobby "news" pretty clearly fall at the entertainment end. Warnings about imminent natural disasters or acute domestic security threats (such as air raids or terrorist attacks) are considered so important that broadcast media (even non-news channels) usually interrupt other programming to announce them. A medical story about a new treatment for breast cancer, or a report about local ground water pollution might fall in between. So might book reviews, or coverage of religion. And of course people find hobbies and entertainment to be worthwhile parts of their lives, make "importance" on a personal level rather subjective.
Concerns and criticisms
The label "infotainment" is emblematic of concern and criticism that journalism is devolving from a medium which conveys serious information about issues that affect the public interest, into a form of entertainment which happens to have fresh "facts" in the mix. The criteria by which reporters and editors judge news value - whether or not something is worth putting on the front page, the bottom of the hour, or or is worth commenting on at all - is an integral part of this debate.
Some blame the media for this perceived phenomenon, for failing to live up to ideals of civic journalistic responsibility. Others blame the commercial nature of many media organizations, the need for higher ratings, combined with a preference among the public for feel-good content and "unimportant" topics (like celebrity gossip]] or sports).
A specialization process has also occurred, beginning with the rise of mass market special-interest magazines, moving into broadcast with the advent of cable television, and continuing into new media, like the Internet and satellite radio. An increasing number of media outlets are available to the public that focus exclusively on one topic - current events, home improvement, history, movies, video games, women, Christianity, country music, the weather, etc. This means that consumers have more choice over whether they receive a general feed of the most "important" information of the day, or whether they get a highly customized presentation that contains only one type of content, which need not be newsworthy, and which need not come from a neutral point of view. Some publications and channels have found a sizable audience in the "niche" of featuring hard news. But controversy continues over whether or not the size of that audience is too small, and whether or not even those outlets are diluting content with too much "soft" news.
What counts as journalism?
Some journalists define "journalism" to include only report on "serious" subjects, where common journalistic standards are upheld by the reporter. The larger "news business" or news trade encompasses everything from professional journalism to so-called "soft news" and "infotainment", plus support activities like market, advertising sales, finance, delivery, etc. Professional journalism is supposed to place more emphasis on research, fact-checking, and the public interest than its "non-journalistic" counterparts.
External links
- "Soft news and critical journalism eroding audiences" [1]
- "Tough times for hard news, but good journalism goes on" [2]