Advocacy Newspapers

Jon Bekken

Often passionate and fiercely opinionated, advocacy journalism rejects the separation of news and opinion that characterizes contemporary journalistic norms. While still rooted in gathering, organizing, and presenting reliable information, the advocacy journalist is openly trying to make a case, rather than affecting objectivity. Advocacy journalism has often been linked to political parties or social movements, serving as part of a broader mobilization effort intended to bring about social change (or sometimes to hold it at bay). However, advocacy journalists would insist that they are as committed to accuracy as any-one—perhaps more so, given the need to build credibility with readers accustomed to a different style of reporting. Advocacy journalism is one of the two founding strains in modern journalism (the other being the provision of the commercial and political news essential to societal elites). Most early newspapers were closely tied to political and religious factions; although some were explicit campaign ...

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