Through complete and systematic perusal of Robert E. Park’s nine published works about journalism and communication, we found two keywords which have been frequently overlooked in the existing scholarship: public opinion and common life. Public opinion is the necessary juncture connecting news and social control. It is developed through news and accompanied discussions, and functions conditionally on social stability or social change via its connoted collective power. Common life is, on the one hand, the foundation upon which news can become the major source of social consensus. On the other hand, it is the ultimate concern of news, public opinion and social control. The major contents about the common life constructed in journalism are local news and human interest stories. By establishing connections between the common life constructed by journalism and individuals’ daily lives, local news helps community members to re-build up the sense of intimacy and personal participation in common life. Human interest story holds a unique position in the past and the future common life by virtue of its symbolic meaning transcending time-space and historical context. As such, public opinion and common life are the critical concepts to understand Park’s thoughts about journalism. The two concepts articulate ideas like news, social consensus and social control, which have become the important concerns of the sociology of news.