Journalism has a variety of social functions, such as disseminating news and communicating; reflecting and guiding public opinion; advocating science and introducing knowledge; providing entertainment and enriching life; publishing and broadcasting advertisements, serving the economy, etc.
Among the diverse functions of journalism, reporting news and guiding public opinion are its basic functions; among the two basic functions of journalism, reporting news is the main function.
Reporting news is the main function of journalism, based on the following reasons:
First, reporting news plays a dominant role in various functions of journalism, and other functions often This is achieved by spreading news.
Expression and guidance of public opinion are achieved by reporting and evaluating news; it is unimaginable to form and organize massive public opinion without news dissemination. As for the functions of journalism in advocating science and introducing knowledge, most of them rely on news reports. The role of journalism in enriching people's cultural life is also inseparable from news reports that provide policy information, appreciation guidance and dynamic news. Advertising directly serves economic life. There are strict boundaries between news reports and advertising dissemination, and news reports are not allowed to be used to achieve advertising effects. But it must be affirmed that the advertising of news media is dependent on news dissemination. Under market economy conditions, everyone knows that only news media with high credibility can attract more advertisers. The reason why news media has high credibility is mainly because the media’s news reports are of high quality, highly authoritative and attractive, have a wide audience base and a high market share. Therefore, even the function of journalism in publishing advertisements is controlled and restricted by the main function of news reporting.
Second, news media must focus on disseminating news information.
Although the functions of journalism are diverse, as long as it is a news media, reporting news must be the first priority. Reporting news and guiding public opinion are the main functions of news. Although other functions are also indispensable, they are still auxiliary functions in comparison. If the cart is put before the horse and the main function of reporting news is weakened, journalism will not be worthy of its name and it will not be a news organization. Newspapers are newsprint, so of course they should focus on publishing news, using the most important space and the largest page capacity for publishing news. Newspapers must focus on issues and in-depth reporting, but newspapers cannot be turned into magazines and should try to publish as much news and communications as possible that mainly report facts. The space occupied by advertisements in foreign newspapers is dozens or even hundreds of times that of the news page, but what readers value and prefer is the news reports provided by the news page.
Radio and television are more entertaining than newspapers, and news programs generally occupy no more time than other programs combined. However, in addition to professional stations and professional channels, news programs must occupy prime time and cannot leave out the major news of the day. Moreover, we should try our best to take advantage of the strong timeliness of electronic media and adopt a rolling broadcast method, broadcasting hourly news or half-hour news every hour or half an hour. Among all programs, news programs should be made the most popular among the audience.
Third, the use of other functions has a certain degree of novelty and plays a certain supporting role in news promotion.
The public opinions expressed and guided by journalism are closely related to the current situation. The current nature of the function of public opinion is self-evident. News media introduce scientific knowledge, often in conjunction with major news reports. The contents and themes of literary works published by the news media are often related to real-life struggles and are also of a certain current nature. Even advertising campaigns often have a fashionable feel. There is some truth to this statement, and it is an intuitive sense of the newness of the content conveyed by the news media.