Week 9: Codes of Practice - Overton Window - Podcasting

Mid Term projects?

Overton Window

Digital journalists report political issues and provide analysis that helps people make sense of their worlds. On area of journalistic interest concerns the framing of  acceptable political discourse. What can we talk about, what is taboo, how do issues move from one category to the next? Overton proposed a framework for analysis described as the Overton window which helps to explain and predict patterns of social and political behavior. 

This window serves two functions: first, it lays out the process by which social reform movements move from the fringes of society to influencing whole segments of pop culture. Secondly, it explains why politicians are limited in the range of policies they can push. (Maeli, 2016)

As with most theoretical propositions the Overton Window idea has been the subject of  criticism. See, for example, The Flaws of the Overton Window Theory (Marsh et al., 2016).

Ethics and Codes of Practice

Journalism Ethics and the Law by Glen Gatin

Anchor Podcast app

Maeli, J.-P. (2016, April 1). Today’s Radicals are Tomorrow’s Moderates: Effects of the Overton Window. Retrieved March 13, 2018, from http://thepoliticalinformer.com/the-overton-window
Marsh, L., Vyse, G., Ford, M., Shephard, A., Dayen, D., Abrams, A., & Shephard, A. (2016, October 27). The Flaws of the Overton Window Theory. The New Republic. Retrieved from https://newrepublic.com/article/138003/flaws-overton-window-theory