The Press Grew More Interpretive

This chapter discusses the growing pressure for news to become more interpretive. The Left worries about commercial and public relations influences, and the Right about reporters' biases, but both sides call for news that gives more context. They say the press should also do a better job of explaining where information comes from. News content producers want to supply more and better interpretations and have called for more context that “makes the complex coherent and meaningful,” decried a growing tendency of science news reports to manipulate facts, and warned against surrendering “their functions of analysis and explanation”. A closer look at news stories shows a broad interpretive turn toward modern news, with explanations along with judgments and opinions increasing in the news content of daily papers, network television, public radio, and mainstream sites online.