To expose a fundamental conflict in journalism between newsworthiness and objectivity (or novelty and authority) this monograph first examines the parallel between news environment and physical environment. Objectivity is defined here not as a description of the environment, but as symbols in the minds of significant publics, or…

This paper describes an episode in the history of journalism that reveals a continuing tension in news reporting. Dating from the invention of the telegraph in the late nineteenth century, news reports have been increasingly patterned after either a "scientific" or a "literary" model. The scientific report is based on irreducible facts, high-speed…