Pack Journalism is an often derogatory term used to describe the tendency of news reporting to become homogeneous when a group of reporters covering the same topic are required to spend large amounts of time together. A word or phrase is pejorative or derogatory (sometimes misspelled perjorative) if it expresses contempt or disapproval; dyslogistic (noun: dyslogism) is used synonymously (antonyms: meliorative, eulogistic, noun eulogism). ... News is essentially new information or current events. ... Homogeneous is an adjective that has several meanings. ... A journalist is a person who practices journalism. ...
Pack Journalism occurs because the reporters are often reliant on one another for news tips or are all similarly dependent on a single source for access (which is quite often the very person they are covering). A type of group-think occurs, as the journalists are constantly aware of what each other are reporting and an informal consensus emerges on what is newsworthy. Groupthink is a term coined by psychologist Irving Janis in 1972 to describe one process by which a group can make bad or irrational decisions. ... For other uses, see Consensus (disambiguation). ...
The media coverage of the 1972 presidential election campaigns is the most famous example. The coverage of the campaigns was deplored in depth by both Timothy Crouse in his 1973 book The Boys on the Bus, and by Hunter S. Thompson in Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail 1972. Presidential electoral votes by state. ... Son of Russel Crouse and brother of Lindsay Crouse, Timothy Crouse is the author of The Boys on the Bus, a book about the journalists who covered the 1972 US presidential campaign. ... 1973 was a common year starting on Monday. ... Hunter S. Thompson (Photo by Allen G. Arpadi) Hunter Stockton Thompson (July 18, 1937 – February 20, 2005) was an American journalist and author. ... A collection of articles covering the 1972 presidential campaign serialized in Rolling Stone and later released as a book, written by gonzo journalist Hunter S Thompson and illustrated by Ralph Steadman. ...
But collaborative forms of participatory journalism — forums, newsgroups, chat rooms, group weblogs and publishing systems — are more complex because they must balance the tension between the group and the individual.
The result, he says, is bland news anchors, magazines that more closely resemble catalogs, timid packjournalism, and celebrity/cult-of-personality coverage overload.
In the next chapter, Implications of We Media, we explore the potential impact of participation journalism on mainstream media and its relationship with advertisers, sources and the audience.
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