CHAIN REACTIONS IN THE NEWSROOM Factors affecting journalistic action

Public journalism has been termed the best-organized movement in the history of the American press, but the movement has implications for news reporters-and researchers-stretching far beyond a restricted period in time and a limited spatial context. The formation of the movement has, namely, accentuated universal aspects of journalistic practice that in various ways can affect the actions of news reporters. In this sense, the popularization of public journalism serves as a critical incident, which offers news reporters and researchers a new framework for understanding journalism. This framework consists of six distinct, but interconnected factors that affect journalistic actions, and when connected in what in this context is termed the news chain, they essentially help news reporters and researchers gain a better understanding of the problems and potentials that confront contemporary journalism.