Word.ws English Dictionary

pack journalism

Syllables: pack jour·nal·i·smUK/ˈpæk ˈdʒəːn(ə)lɪz(ə)m//ˈpæk ˈdʒɝnl̩ˌɪzəm/

pack journalism noun: a tendency of reporting to become homogeneous due to the reporters' habit of relying on one another for news tips, or being dependent on a single source for information.

Noun

pack journalism (uncountable)

  1. (derogatory) A tendency of reporting to become homogeneous due to the reporters' habit of relying on one another for news tips, or being dependent on a single source for information.
    • The press likes to demonstrate its power by destroying lightweights, and pack journalism is never more doughty and complacent than when the pack has tacitly agreed that a candidate is a joke. As soon as a candidate shows his vulnerability by getting flustered, or by arguing when he shouldn't argue...1973, Timothy Crouse, The Boys on the Bus, New York, N.Y.: Random House, →ISBN; republished New York, N.Y.: Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2003, →ISBN
    • Problems of pack journalism [heading] […] I think the herd instinct expression is one that I would use, too. I frankly try deliberately to find out which way the herd is going and run the other way.1973 May 23, “The Role of the News Media: An Interview with Howard K[ingsbury] Smith and Peter Lisagor [transcript]”, in United States of America Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the...

Origin of pack journalism

Coined by the American journalist and writer Timothy Crouse (born 1947) in his book The Boys on the Bus (1973) about the activities of journalists during the 1972 United States presidential election: see the quotation.

Words formed from pack journalism

Questions about pack journalism

What does pack journalism mean?
Pack journalism means a tendency of reporting to become homogeneous due to the reporters' habit of relying on one another for news tips, or being dependent on a single source for information.
What part of speech is pack journalism?
Pack journalism is a noun.
How do you pronounce pack journalism?
Pack journalism is pronounced /ˈpæk ˈdʒəːn(ə)lɪz(ə)m/ (UK).

Words near pack journalism in the dictionary

  1. pack hounds
  2. pack ice
  3. pack ices
  4. pack in
  5. pack it in
  6. pack journalism
  7. pack journalist
  8. pack journalists
  9. pack lunch
  10. pack lunches
  11. pack mentalities

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pack journalism (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-pack journalism.flac, en-au-pack journalism.ogg.

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