Helpfulness as Journalism's Normative Anchor

Abstract

This article addresses two blind spots related to normativity in journalism studies. First, the digital journalism literature has led the field too far away from what journalism does for people and offers a shallowly-theorized and technocentric conception of journalism’s social objectives. Second, the emphasis on reporting and the journalism/democracy framework has privileged particular forms of journalism over others and led to a thin conception of journalistic normativity. While the journalism/democracy framework should not be abandoned, it should be resituated as part of a more expansive treatment of journalistic normativity. These blind spots mean that normativity in journalism studies must be both re-centered and broadened. To this end, this article argues that helpfulness ought to be considered journalism’s “normative anchor”—that is, the foundation upon which journalistic normativity rests. It follows, then, that the fundamental objective of journalism is to be helpful. Understanding helpfulness as journalism’s normative anchor satisfies the demand of re-centering journalism’s public goods while also satisfying the demand of broadening the horizons of journalism studies with regard to the range of journalistic specialisms.

KEYWORDS:

• choice architecture
• everyday life
• helpfulness
• journalism and democracy
• journalism studies
• normative anchor
• normative theory
• normativity

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The author would like to thank the anonymous reviewers, who provided thorough, constructive, and challenging feedback. The author is also indebted to Amanda Hinnant and Tim P. Vos for providing excellent, helpful feedback on an earlier version of this article.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.