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Facts Of The Moment: The Study Of News *
Author(s) -
Tuchman Gaye
Publication year - 1980
Publication title -
symbolic interaction
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.874
H-Index - 47
eISSN - 1533-8665
pISSN - 0195-6086
DOI - 10.1525/si.1980.3.2.9
Subject(s) - presupposition , epistemology , mass media , moment (physics) , sociology , work (physics) , political science , philosophy , law , physics , classical mechanics , thermodynamics
Reviewing past research on news and mass media, this article charges it is “administrative” research which accepts the presuppositions of the media being studied, particularly their emphasis on “facts” as discrete and objective phenomena. It also suggests that there are epistemological problems implicit in such concepts as “bias” and “refraction” used in gate‐keeping studies. The article offers an alternative paradigm, described as “serious work on the sociology of knowledge as a junction with the sociologies of organizations and occupations and professions.” Some studies using that paradigm are described.