This book attempts to show how the relationship between the American daily press and other social institutions determines the press's definition of news, where it seeks news, and how that news is presented. Chapter 1 discusses news as a force of information, examines news as a sociological problem, and describes the difficulty of defining news. Chapter 2 discusses the evolution of news content in the American daily press and examines the difference between reprinting and reporting and the diverse meanings of "objective" news. Chapter 3 discusses newsmaking as a social process and examines the basis for selecting news beats and news sources and "being a news source vs. becoming a news source." Chapter 4 discusses news content as a social product, examines the effect of social values on news values, and measures the limits of media competence. (TS)