Degree Discipline

Philosophy and Practice of Personal Journalism with Moral Concern in the Twentieth Century (open access)

Philosophy and Practice of Personal Journalism with Moral Concern in the Twentieth Century

This study seeks to show that a tradition exists of personal journalists who, more than supporting a partisan position, have moral concern and desire reconciliation. Between the First World War and the Hutchins Commission report of 1947, Walter Lippmann and other media critics theorized that journalistic objectivity is impossible, but recognized journalists' responsibility to interpret events to their publics. In the 1930s these new theories coincided with historical events to encourage journalists' personal involvement with their subjects. The work of the best personal journalists, for example, George Orwell and James Agee, resulted from moral concern. This tradition is furthered today in the journalism of Bill Moyers.
Date: December 1989
Creator: Surratt, Marshall N. (Marshall Nash)
System: The UNT Digital Library