TY - JOUR
T1 - Good news from a bad neighborhood
T2 - Toward an alternative to the discourse of urban pathology
AU - Ettema, James S.
AU - Peer, Limor
PY - 1996
Y1 - 1996
N2 - This study analyzes the language through which journalists comprehend the nature and meaning of the urban community. It employs content analysis and interviews with reporters to critique the discourse of urban pathology - that is, the conceptual system often used to think and write about economically distressed neighborhoods. Rather than suggesting that all the "bad news" from these neighborhoods merely be balanced with "good news," this study promotes a vocabulary of community assets - a set of terms that can enhance the power of journalistic language to describe the community. Such a vocabulary, the study concludes, would make a useful contribution to the practice of civic journalism.
AB - This study analyzes the language through which journalists comprehend the nature and meaning of the urban community. It employs content analysis and interviews with reporters to critique the discourse of urban pathology - that is, the conceptual system often used to think and write about economically distressed neighborhoods. Rather than suggesting that all the "bad news" from these neighborhoods merely be balanced with "good news," this study promotes a vocabulary of community assets - a set of terms that can enhance the power of journalistic language to describe the community. Such a vocabulary, the study concludes, would make a useful contribution to the practice of civic journalism.
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U2 - 10.1177/107769909607300406
DO - 10.1177/107769909607300406
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0001474830
SN - 1077-6990
VL - 73
SP - 835
EP - 856
JO - Journalism and Mass Communication Quaterly
JF - Journalism and Mass Communication Quaterly
IS - 4
ER -