Objectivity and commercial news: An examination of the concept of objectivity in North American journalism

The thesis argues that the concept of objectivity was historically linked with the commercial press. It also identifies journalistic conventions such as factuality, balance and impartiality as journalistic practices that have been historically privileged as the dominant version of the objectivity ideal in the context of the commercial media system.;The thesis further argues that, as the hegemonic ideology of the commercial news media, objectivity is not only constantly being redefined by the press itself in facing emerging forms of journalistic consciousness and practice, but also actively constituted by different forces in the society at large. It acts as a political instrument in the struggle over the power of social signification through the media.;The thesis is mainly based on a critique of contemporary literature on mainstream North American journalism. It disputes two simplistic versions of objectivity: the liberal pluralist version that tends to take the current practice of objectivity at face value and the radical critique of objectivity that tends to view the concept as a closed, monolithic ideology of the capitalist press. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...