News Values: Ideas for an Information Age

Fuller, publisher of the Chicago Tribune and a Pulitzer Prize winner for editorial writing, offers a stimulating and often hard-nosed look at the issues newspapers face today. His first concern is truth: he thinks newspapers should be far more forthcoming about corrections (though he doesn't mention the institution of the ombudsman); he thinks reporters should resist spin doctors and, in investigations, avoid deceptive practices such as impersonating others. A newspaper, he notes, should both reflect and challenge its community. He favors a tough-minded staff diversity that contributes to the ""personality of an institution,"" but he avers that a paper should be led by a strong-willed editor. An author of five novels, Fuller is skeptical of New Journalistic excesses yet believes that the practicing of fiction can provide journalists with a valuable ""tragic sense."" Journalistic training, he suggests, should be revamped to provide intellectual grounding over practical skills. While Fuller thinks newspapers should be more involved in public issues, he touches only briefly on the new vogue of ""public journalism."" He also muses on the future design of an ""electronic newspaper."" (Apr.)