What is journalism? Who is a journalist?

When I first entered this class, I said that journalism should be "an unbiased record of events."  I have found that my opinion has evolved.  Now I know so much more about journalism.  Transparency, verification, truth, ideologues, religion, objectivity, independence and so many other elements factor in to journalism.  It's not enough for a journalist to record events.  A journalist has to have a passion and a commitment to the truth.  This passion both defines journalism and journalists.  Anyone who has this passion, who tells the whole truth as unbiasedly as possible, who doesn't sensationalize for attention, can be a journalist.

Journalism is about truth.  Its first responsibility is to truth.  Journalists must be dedicated to the pursuit of it and it must fuel any news outlet.  There are so many other factors that contribute to journalism, but this is by far the most important.  Journalism protects the public by informing them.  Ultimately, journalism is a check on our society.  News outlets let public figures and the government know that every action they make will be brought into the public eye and that they will be held accountable.


I once said that journalism is a promise.  I still believe this.  Journalism is a promise to the public.  As a developing journalist, I want readers of my articles to know that I will deliver unbiased, impartial information to the best of my ability, and I want to have the trust of the public.  That's what journalism is.  It's an agreement between the public and journalists.  The public trusts us to bring them the news and to inform them and that is a responsibility that journalists need to take seriously.  It’s a lot of weight.  Journalism isn’t just a job and anyone who treats it or thinks of it that way isn’t a real journalist.  It’s about passion—a passion for the truth and a passion for what is happening in the world.  Staying informed is great, but it goes deeper than that.  Journalism requires dedication because you can’t be successful at it without complete commitment. 

So journalism is a promise.  Journalists are those with passion for the responsibility that comes with this field.  As a journalist, my first responsibility is to truth because through truth, I inform and protect people, and that’s not just a job.  That’s something I want to commit to.

Comprehensive and Proportional news is kind of important.

Certain stories get seriously hyped up in order to sell.  That's the problem with news today.  It's all about ratings.  News outlets care more about money than actually providing news.  That's all good and well because without money a news outlet can't function, but it does compromise the integrity of news itself.  The generation growing up now and becoming adults care much more about the latest celebrity scandal than uprisings in the Middle East.  It's not that there aren't people who care, it's just that when you walk into a grocery store, the industry knows that you're more likely to grab a magazine with a cover that blasts Teen Mom stars for getting plastic surgery than a cover that talks about an oil crisis.

As journalists, we have to try not to hype a story in order to get readers.  It is our responsibility to deliver news as it is as opposed to a hyped up version that will produce more dollars.  A good journalist doesn't have to hype up a story, but rather tries to deliver the hard facts of a story in an interesting and entertaining way.  It's hard to do and it's becoming a dying art, but I still firmly believe that this is the mark of a truly accomplished journalist.  A journalist should write or report on a story and be able to capture interest without hyping it up or cheapening it with misleading statements meant to sensationalize the story.

We need to focus on making our news comprehensive; there should not be one niche of stories reported on because of the dollars generated.  More money comes from celebrity stories, but that lets too much real news slip through the cracks.  News needs to be proportional.  It needs to meet many aspects of life and events in order to truly inform the public.  That's our job: inform the public.  Without proportionally and comprehensively covering all of these stories, we might as well just all be celebrity bloggers who never change out of our pajamas and dropped out of high school sophomore year.  It's important to report with integrity and part of that, I think, is reporting on stories that might not generate the most dollars simply because they are important to inform the public about.  Journalists have a responsibility to simply cut the hype as much as they can.

Engagement and Relevance in Journalism. This title is in no way engaging, but it's pretty relevant.

"When you're bored, you stop learning and communication fails." I think this is the truest statement I have ever heard.  This should be doctrine.  Can I say that?  Whatever.  It totally should.

Anyway, that quote doesn't just apply to people, but to the news. You have to have an entertainment factor or else no one will read articles or watch the news.  At the same time, you have to have stories that matter and are relevant.  Unfortunately, sensational and purely entertainment oriented news is becoming more and more prevalent in major news outlets. It's a shame, really, because a lot of news that ought to be reported on slips through the cracks so that the American public can learn how much Justin Bieber is SO IN LOVE with Selena Gomez. 

There are people who have scrutinized various news sources or reporters for sensational stories but I think that in general, the American public just likes to be entertained more that it likes to be informed.  That's a wide generalization, of course, but the sheer number of gossip columns and magazines attests to this.  Despite condemnation of entertainment journalism, it still thrives.

I think there definitely has to be a balance between entertainment an journalism but I also think that there's way too much sensationalism of news.  We talked in class about how some news outlets make a story appear to be way more interesting and relevant than it really is when advertising.  I think that's just an accepted part of journalism now but I also think that it proves that we need more informative reporting. 

Religion in Journalism

I think journalists definitely need to put more of an emphasis on faith.  That's not to say that they need to declare their faith or even write from a faithful viewpoint.  I'm just saying that it is a basic and enduring component of life for every single person on the planet.  Every person has some kind of belief.  Even an atheist or agnostic believes in those views.  Therefore, religion shouldn't be such a taboo subject.  I feel that it can "enhance coverage of almost any topic" as this article states.  I feel like religion needs to be less of a topic that is an occasional factor in a story and instead focus on it more often.  Religion and beliefs often drive people's actions.  Even politics has a place for religion that needs to be reported on.  A candidate's faith may influence his or her actions and a voter's faith may influence his or her vote.  Denying this fundamental element of human life is detrimental to the field of journalism and to journalists as a whole.

There are many solid reasons why religion stories need to be covered.  This article points out a few, one of which I would like to share:

6 in 10 Americans say that journalism is very important in their lives.  Clearly, this shows that there is a need for reporting on religion.  Newspapers report regularly on sports and business and other aspects of life, so it makes sense that religion needs to be covered as well.  I think that a lot of papers and news outlets do a good job of reporting it sometimes, but I do feel that it needs to be more instrumental in our articles as journalists.

There does need to be balance in journalism which covers religion, it's true.  But it's also true that without a focus on religion, there is really less for people to connect to.

Beckham Lecture Impressions

I attended Dr. Nicholas Mason's lecture entitled “The Rise of Mass-Media Puffery and the ‘Death’ of Literature in Georgian Britain.”  I am glad I went because it was definitely worth the time I spent there.  I have often considered going into the field of writing myself and hearing this lecture definitely made me think more about advertising in our modern world.  Something that really struck me was that the puffery and buttering up of advertising goes on on websites like Amazon.com.  I checked out this website after hearing the lecture in an attempt to focus on Dr. Mason's point and apply it to real life.  I also looked at Barnes and Noble.com, which was very interesting to me since I am a writer for that company.  I even looked at Sparknotes.com, which is the website I write for.  I found that there was some of this going on as there were reviews from editors and readers on all of these websites.  I don't know that I condemn it so much, though.  I think that these are lucrative industries and there isn't anything wrong with advertising or in trying to make a work look good.  It's up to the consumer to make a good buy.  All in all, I was interested in the idea that advertising does have this puffery involved and I'm definitely on the lookout for it now, especially being bombarded with it the way that I am.  I hope I can use this information to further my understanding of writing, publishing, and even advertising in journalism.

Journalism as a public forum. Everyone has a freakin' opinion.

With new technology being introduced basically every other week, journalists have become like foreboding soothsayers of doom and destruction.  Actually, so has everyone.  If I ever tell anyone that I'm going into journalism, they immediately start up with the, "But it's a dying field" and "I never read the newspaper" and "I care very little about you and your life choices" types of comments.  But I can't agree with them.  I think that technology is a tool that journalists can use, and I think open forums are one of the best ways to use that tool.

A universal truth about every person on the planet is that they all have an opinion, and they ALL want to share it.  The internet has made it incredibly easy for everyone, from the level headed normal citizens to the crazy psycho nut jobs who believe that Ford is a conspiracy, to post their opinions.  A LOT.  The best thing journalists can do with this phenomenon?  USE IT.

As journalists, we can use Twitter, blogs, niche websites, actual forum sites, video hosting sites, and more to spread the news, report unbiasedly, and open up discussion with citizens.  We don't HAVE to be bound by a newspaper company anymore.  It's an entirely different course and career from professional journalism, and yet at the same time, it's journalism at it's core.  Providing an unbiased, fair view of current events, independently and unhindered by so many market and time pressures.  I definitely think this is something we can use.  I mean, look at the Associated Press's Twitter feed.  People can retweet, comment on it, etc.  Newspapers online even have a sense of community because people can comment on any article.  They can talk about the paper itself, about the article, about how Ford is a conspiracy, ANYTHING.  That's the beauty of this time.

We are in an age of communication.  Might as well use it to our advantage instead of trying to preserve the old ways of journalism.  Or anything, really.  Except, like, electricity.  We should probably stick to that formula for a while.

And now here is a series of interesting links that has absolutely nothing to do with the link requirement on the grading rubric.  I assure you, these are all relevant.

Ethics: Because Printing a Photo of a Dead Body on the Front Page is Generally Frowned Upon.

The subject of ethics is one widely discussed by journalists and journalist students.  As well it should be; I think it could be argued that an  unethical journalist cannot be a good journalist.  What are ethics, though?  There is room for a whole lot of debate in this area.  I think that there are facets or principles of ethics wherein there can be room for interpretation.  There are many hard and fast rules for ethics in journalism, though.  Every newspaper has a code of ethics, such as the New York Times.  These codes can largely be found on this list of freaking everyone's code of ethics.

Everyone has their own idea of ethics.  Everyone has their own limit to how far they will go to cover a story.  I think one of the most interesting aspects of ethics in journalism is whether or not the benefit of the story counteracts the harm done.  The Society of Professional Journalists says that "Ethical journalists treat sources, subjects and colleagues as human beings deserving of respect."  The Society goes on to explain several rules such as treating children with compassion, providing fair coverage of trials, being discreet about names of victims of sex crimes, etc.  There is some amount of specificity, clearly, but the above statement and even some of the rules can be somewhat vague.  In the end, as journalists we have to decide ourselves what is and isn't ethical.

I really think that an ethical journalist is a trustworthy journalist.  As journalists, we need to be sensitive and compassionate as well as honest and willing to investigate.  That is part of our chosen profession.  I think that anyone who disregards ethics in reporting clearly does not understand the field of journalism and what it means to be a reporter in this field.

Watchdog journalism is dying slowly.

In our last class we discussed watchdog journalism.  Which is the best way of saying "investigative journalism" ever, except for a term I have coined: super spy reporting 2.0.  This term has not caught on.  Yet.

Anyway, investigative journalism sounds awesome and exciting and all that, but what I learned is that it isn't.  Why?  Because it doesn't really exist anymore.  Investigative reporting used to be incredibly interesting because it brought to light political scandals and important secrets being hid from the public.  Now, as we discussed in class, it brings to light malfunctioning washing machines.  The fact is, it just isn't interesting or exciting or ANYTHING like that anymore.

There just isn't money to put a team of investigative journalists on a story that will take a lot of time to uncover.  We live in a society where people want their information ten minutes ago.  Uncovering something WORTH investigating takes a lot of time and time is money, as the old saying goes.  So it's pretty safe to say that watchdog journalism is on the decline, and plenty of internet sources will back me up on this.

For example: this article and this article and this article all point out the decline of watchdog journalism and attempt to figure out WHY it is declining.  There are a lot of different opinions out there, but I still have to think that it's the fact that a good investigative article takes time and no one wants to put in that much time when the focus of journalism right now increasingly has become keeping up with the internet.  Newspapers are worried about circulation, not how in-depth their stories are.

Basically the problem is all about money, which is actually what every problem in journalism is these days.  Good thing we've chosen a field so rich with opportunity.

Journalism, independence, and a terrible metaphor involving a lemonade stand.

Journalism ought to be independent.  As far as I know it should be, anyway.  You have advertisers, politicians, readers, and basically everyone else in the world offering their take on events, and as journalists, there's a balance.  We have to be separate from all these people and groups in order to report fairly and without bias (which, by the way, has also been called into question in class.  Can you report unbiasedly?  Do biases show through your writing no matter what?  Should we just accept our biases and declare them openly as journalists? WILL I EVER GET TO HAVE A PET KOALA?  These are the questions that haunt me).  But seriously, though, if news outlets are constantly worried about what the sponsors say and what the politicians say and what the readers say then the news gets distorted.

Think about it.  Let's say Timmy has a lemonade stand.  His lemonade is awesome, unbiased lemonade (?) and everyone is all, "TIMMY.  YOUR LEMONADE MAKES ME WANT TO DIE BECAUSE IT IS SO GOOD."  Well Timmy is makin' bank.  Then an economic miracle occurs (I'm a journalism student.  Don't judge me.) and Timmy needs to have enough money to buy, like, lemons.  So Timmy gets Mr. Dodson, his piano teacher, to pay him for advertising.  Well now all of Timmy's cups say "TAKE LESSONS FROM MR. DODSON BECAUSE HE IS AWESOME AT PIANO" and all is well cause Timmy has enough money to sell his lemonade AND to make money doing it.  But his mom gets all up in his business because, noticing that all the neighborhood kids come over to the stand to sip lemonade in the afternoon, she starts urging Timmy to tell all his friends that they must wear bicycle helmets, lest they die on their way to the stand in a horrible and gruesome accident.  Timmy doesn't want to because he isn't lame, but if he doesn't, his mom will ground him.  And now Mr. Dodson is all, "YOUR LEMONADE NEEDS LESS SUGAR BECAUSE I HAVE DIABETES AND IF YOU DO NOT LEAVE OUT THE SUGAR I WILL NOT ADVERTISE" and his mom is freaking out because he won't tell all that they need helmets to purchase lemonade, and all the kids are ticked cause suddenly there is no sugar in the lemonade and nobody is happy and then Timmy has a nervous breakdown and doesn't go to college and becomes a traveling hobo.

Are you happy now, MR. DODSON??

What does this have to do with journalism?  Well, as my clever metaphor demonstrates, when separate parties get involved, even out of necessity, things are gonna change.  You HAVE to please people from different groups, otherwise no one buys your lemonade.  This is a unique situation with Journalism because journalists don't just have to sell lemonade, they have to make that lemonade unbiased and it has to tell the truth, despite what Dodson or Mom or the neighborhood kids say.  But how do journalists become independent of advertisers and politicians and readers?  Well, I'm not sure.  I feel like I'm just discovering a lot about journalism as an unbiased news outlet AND a business AND a forum for the public.  How to balance these elements is definitely at the root of this issue.

We all have our resources that we THINK are independent.  We all have our own perceptions of what "independent" really means.  For example, I trust The Drudge Report pretty freaking explicitly.  I feel like the news I get there is unbiased and unaffected by too many outside parties.  But is that just my perception?  CNN International is known for straight reporting, but CNN America panders to a culture obsessed with "soft" journalism and celebrities.  In fact, even now as I looked at these different web pages, I see that International has a story about revolution taking place across the world.  On the U.S. page, the headline is about the "snowiest, craziest" winter ever.  Also, 6 rebellious women in history.  I weep for America.  Not really, we have soft pretzels and Jimmer, so I actually figure we're in good shape, but still, you get my point.

So basically what I'm trying to say is that independence in journalism is a pretty difficult topic.  I mean, there are funds dedicated to this stuff.  I think journalism needs to be as independent as possible, but at the same time, I realize that it kind of can't be.  Without money for lemons, you don't have lemonade.  (Notice how I cleverly incorporated my incredibly clever metaphor involving a business niche that has rarely been explored in metaphors previously.)

Who the heck is a journalist?

Personally, I think there are many forms of journalism.  Twitter, online news sources, bloggers...all contribute to the big magical world that is journalism.  Some of these forms of journalism are less reliable (I don't consider Kanye West's tweets to be particularly groundbreaking in the field of journalism) but I don't think it's right to discredit them too quickly.  Journalism is changing; newspapers aren't as prevalent as in years past.  It's also important to keep in mind that blogs, twitter, and the like are fairly new innovations and that we may not be able to consider their journalistic merit completely for many years to come.  Then again, I do think it requires more than a whim to become a journalist.  Anyone can wake up and say, "Hmmm.  Today I want to educate the public on the news of the world.  AWWWW YEAHHH!" but that does not a journalist make.  There needs to be something there to give credibility.  I'm not positive whether I think a degree is required to make a good journalist; the training certainly can't hurt.  However, I'm also pretty sure that journalism is a field in which "amateurs" can be just as truthful, or even more so, as "professionals."  I've personally learned a lot about the situation in Egypt from Twitter.  In short, journalism can always benefit from new outlets, yo.  Also, I'm pretty sure Twitter is going to take over the world one day, so we might as well practice Twitter-nalism while the art is still young.  Just sayin'.

Who do journalists work for?

No, really.  Who do journalists work for?  The obvious answer to that question would be the people!  Of course!  Hurrah, hurrah, preserving liberty through the fair and unbiased reporting of the truth and all that jazz.  But is that just a concept that ought to be true but isn't?  Sure, journalists should serve the people first, but in this day the money is what it's all about.  Personally, as a future journalist (hopefully), I am pretty freaking serious about my duty to the citizens.  They deserve to know the truth.  However, the decline of the newspaper has made a serious dent in income for many respectable publications, so the reality is that journalists are encouraged more and more in their own line of work to be loyal to the corporation of journalism.  I very strongly believe that a journalists first duty is to the people, but I also think that recently there is more pressure on journalists to bring in money.  This means that being a watchdog comes second.  What a sad, sad, truth.  Oh well.  At least I can distract myself by watching Star Wars for six hours straight tonight.

Truth and Journalism

Truth is defined as, "The true or actual state of a matter" on Dictionary.com.  As far as I'm concerned, that's a pretty difficult phrase to understand.  The literal meaning of the words isn't hard to decipher, but when you actually begin to decide what that means, that's when there's a problem.  In class, we discussed whether truth is really something that a journalist even is able to publish.  We talked about whether or not something is true if we don't have all the information about the event at the time of publishing.  Truth is a tricky subject all around, not in the least because what is true to one person may be false to another.  Does that mean that an opinion can be true, even if it has opposition?  As journalists, we are told not to involve opinion in our articles and research, but is it even possible to get rid of every bit of bias?  And if it is, does that alter the truth?  Does the context of the event or the context of the writer's opinion add to the truth or detract from it?  The more questions you ask, the easier it is to see that a dictionary definition of truth cannot grasp exactly what truth is. 

Truth is what we, as journalists, much search for.  That means that we always have to ask ourselves what the truth is.  Truth is different in journalism.  To tell events in a true, fair fashion means providing relevant context while still knowing when context tampers with the ability of the reader to form an opinion.  That's our job.  To provide information in order to let readers decide what they think about a story.  That mission requires the truth, which is why there is so much talk about "spin" and bias.  People want to know the absolute truth about an event.  The fact is, truth is hard to share.  We all have our own views and they directly influence our writing and researching of a story.  The best we can do is share what we know to be true about a story at any given time.  We write about what is actually a hard fact about a case, and then we have to make a judgment call about how much context is necessary to help the story make sense.  Just like the swimsuit at the beach conversation that we had in class, context can make or break the truth to a reader.  So I would say that a lot of the truth lies in context.

Truth is not an opinion.  Truth is not something that you can decide arbitrarily and without thought.  You have to ponder it, detach an event from yourself, and give the plain facts.  You lay those facts out on the table and piece them together, picking out as much bias as you can.  Then you fill the gaps in between with context.  That's the only way we can get at the truth, is to look at is as something to be figured out and put together.  There really is a formula for discovering truth, in my opinion.  It isn't always obvious or blatant, and if we are being fair to the public, as journalists we must commit ourselves to reporting truth only with the utmost care and thought.

What "journalism" means to me

I've always loved the paper.  Call it cliche, but it's true.  I love the lingering smell of the ink, the way I can never refold a paper correctly after reading it, the neat columns and pictures.  I read and read and learn about wars and conflicts, a local cupcake business, a review of the newest Disney movie, and political endeavors.  Naturally, I registered for a journalism class in high school where I learned to edit, write, report, take a good picture, layout a page, and conduct an interview.  I learned all of these, but I also became aware of bias. 

Journalism should be an unbiased record of events.  Too often today journalists and newspapers push agendas throughout their writing, printing articles clearly spun to the left or right of the political spectrum.  Even articles that aren't blatantly biased are often printed only because they support a paper's agenda or are printed instead of an article that would challenge that agenda.  This is the corruption of Journalism, in my opinion. 

When I pick up a newspaper, I want to know that I can trust these reporters to bring me news of events without any withheld information or without an emphasis on information.  What I mean is that I shouldn't have to figure out which trick an article is playing on me.  I shouldn't have to wonder whether the information on the page is completely credible, or whether it has been taken out of context.  Journalists should have a fundamental passion for the truth.  They shouldn't accept any deceit, even if it isn't outright.  News outlets should NOT be another tool in any candidate's political campaign.  Rather, they should provide the public with an honest and relevant insight into these candidates and the circumstances surrounding them.  There should be no lying by omission, no careful selection of articles designed to subtly support one politician or another.  This is true not only of politics but is certainly most prevalent in that field.

To me, journalism is a promise.  When you open a paper, you should be able to trust that you are getting accurate, unbiased information.  A good journalist doesn't try to censor anything in order to support any agenda but has an unwavering commitment to the truth at all times.