In an era of technology-supremacy and machine awakening, post-truth has entered the house, algorithmic recommendations are popular, and information cocoons abound. The market, capital and power collude, and digital feudalism is rampant. This book is a comprehensive summary of Professor Du Junfei's research on "journalistic humanism", aiming to analyze the conceptual syndrome of this news era, and answer the urgent question of "where is journalism going" from the standpoint of intellectuals and "journalistic humanism". The author tries to promote the critical consensus of the media society and the formation of the values of journalistic intellectuals with the "humanistic turn of journalism". —— Editor's Choice
The rise of journalistic humanism
By Du Junfei
ISBN：978-7-100-23498-6
Price: 68.00 yuan
The Commercial Press will launch new books in June 2024
Journalism is the study of people, and the spirit of journalism is the spirit of humanity
Higher Will (2024), Du Junfei/Picture
Journalism is people, and journalism is people
Excerpt from the "Preface" section of "The Rise of Journalistic Humanism" (by Du Junfei, Commercial Press, May 2024).
In the past, in the history of humanism and our gradual distancing, we may have noticed that in fact, what news promoted should have been a combination of instrumental rationality and value rationality. However, it is a pity that with the gradual development of media technology, what we can see is the emergence of instrumental rationality. Max Weber once said that the proliferation of instrumental rationality will inevitably lead to the weakening of value rationality. To be honest, today's situation in our media is about a clear proof of this. The "professionalism" refreshed by the technological revolution will further exacerbate the weakening of the humanistic spirit. In fact, many of us are well aware of this. Jurgen Habermas has his own clear concept of communicative rationality, he emphasizes the understanding and communication between communicative subjects, and emphasizes that we human beings need to interact with society and others, and only this kind of panoramic interaction will be the only law for us to overcome instrumental rationality in the machine age. Michel Foucault has a quote that can also be used as a framework for our thinking, he said: power is not just oppressive, it is also committed to production. Obviously, he goes deeper into the critique of power than Ralf G. Dahrendorf, who explains the rebellion against power. In fact, the most terrible thing about power is that it has the power to encourage us to enslave and produce for it. That's why we talk about journalism today to liberate ourselves from the schema of the past, because we need to make a fundamental response to this objectified power as soon as possible. The current dilemma of journalistic professionalism consists of four "generalizations", including: the generalization of news itself, the generalization of media boundaries, the generalization of the identity of journalists, and the generalization of news utility. For journalists, the clear creed of the past has mostly been blurred, and the rights obtained in the past have been lost; For journalism, individual will begins to give way to statistics, human freedom begins to give way to the stability of the network order, privacy begins to be unconditionally invaded, ethics begins to give way to algorithms, and writing begins to give way to programs. In the face of all this, how should we deal with ourselves? All my opinions lie in this: only by reconverting to the belief of humanism can we return to the basics of journalism; Because, only by returning to the spiritual origin of our human beings, can people become a self-dominated race.
Since the Hutchins Report, the theoretical teachings of journalistic professionalism have been roughly the spirit of service, independence, democracy, professional discourse, etc. The "imagination of fame" discussed by Pan Zhongdang and Lu Ye more than ten years ago focused on the correspondence between the professional prestige of journalists and their theoretical teachings. However, in today's journalism, to a considerable extent, the imagination of fame is no longer possible, as evidenced by the decline of traditional journalism; Even "professionalism" itself is faced with a deviation from ideals and reality. Wilbert E. Moore identified "professionalism" as having several progressive hierarchical characteristics: full-time work, commitment to a mission, formal organizational certification, specialized education, service-oriented, and autonomy limited by responsibility. In this sense, pure journalistic professionalism is not so much the practice of social service as the realization of self-worth. Over the years, journalistic professionalism in China has become a set of discourses for various journalistic concepts. The ideal journalistic spirit should take into account the tasks of intellectuals who have social convictions, such as fighting for social power, objectively expressing value appeals, and practicing for the liberation of people. This kind of ideal type is the ultimate goal of our journalistic pursuit. Once the ideal is betrayed by reality, when techno-supremacism makes the ideal impossible, we must make a serious choice of path: either we stick to the journalistic profession and abandon "professionalism", or we completely iterate on the professional norms. Either way, the philosophy of journalism is about to undergo a seismic shift. I believe that in this conceptual transformation of journalism, the "imagination of fame" should give way to the "return of faith", which is the humanism of journalism.
Today, people's anxiety about journalism is divided into two levels: one is the physical level, we see the gradual depression of journalism, the departure of old journalists, and the reduction of the added value of journalism; Second, on the invisible level, there is a kind of anxiety from the inner world, and people have begun to doubt what news is, what good news is, where journalism is going, and what is the value of news. Therefore, what old journalists and traditional journalism are most unable to adapt to is not the collapse of circulation and ratings, but the collapse of the entire news values and news operation system. The most important of these is that journalism has become increasingly impossible to achieve professional independence and self-imagination, which is oppressed by technology, power, capital, and "groups" in the Internet age. So, under these four pressures, what are the tools of resistance? I believe that only humanism can maintain the self-sufficiency of journalism, and only humanism will be the spiritual shelter of journalistic ideals, and it is expected that journalism will return to the "intellectual industry". Returning to the original relationship between news and people, the people that journalism talks about include those who are the subject of reporting, those who are journalists and gatekeepers, and those who are the audience and the public. In fact, humanistic care in the sense of journalism is the care for people in the process of journalism. The Professional Journalists Association (SPJ), which is widely recognized by the Western press community, has developed a Code of Professional Ethics, which clearly states: "The duty of a journalist is to enlighten the public by pursuing truth and providing a comprehensive and fair narrative of events and issues." "In this world, it's not just events that are news, not only extraordinary words that are opinions, and not only changes that are history. This ordinary world is full of ordinary people like us. Those immutable histories may be the histories we need to report, because we need to face up to the truth of history; Those simple and plain remarks may be the opinions we need to report, because we need our voices; Those quiet events may be the news we need to report, because we need to see real and concrete people. In this sense, I agree with the view that the interview is not only a restoration of the matter, but also the arrival of the person. It's only when we get to the people that we can really get to the news.
Introduction
This book is a comprehensive summary of Professor Du Junfei's research on "journalistic humanism" at Nanjing University, and includes the ideological achievements of the past six years under this proposition. As a summary of a long period of research, this publication systematically revises the chapters that were previously published as journal articles. This book points out that journalism should maintain a critical spirit, strive to promote the shift of journalistic values to humanism, and analyze the current problems faced by journalism around the concepts of "fair communication", "digital communication", "value algorithm", "journalistic professionalism" and "journalistic humanism", and emphasize the professionalism of journalism with journalistic humanism. The book also appendices two conversations between Professor Du Junfei and Shi Jianhui and Zong Yixiang, reiterating that only by returning to the intellectual nature of creation, criticism and care can journalism maintain its raison d'être, especially in the current era of digital communication, it is necessary to pay more attention to the humanistic orientation, emphasize the "law of man", and strive to fully realize the development of technology for good, social progress and civilization in the dual use between norms and freedom.
Table of Contents (scroll to read)
Generations · Journalism is people, and journalism is people
One · The Shingle Effect of Journalism
Two · The rise of journalistic humanism
Three · The advent of the social community
Four · The mission of Value Algorithms
Five · Revisit professional journalism
Six · Go back to the legacy of Blad
Conversation 1 · Arrive at the value of people
Talk 2 · Digital White Bid
index
postscript
About the Author
Du Junfei, Professor, Nanjing University, Doctoral Supervisor; He is a member of the Journalism Teaching Steering Committee of Colleges and Universities of the Ministry of Education, and the founding chairman of the New Media Communication Committee of the Chinese Journalism History Society. Research Interests: Internet Communication, Journalism Theory, Communication and Chinese Issues.