Final Look: What is Journalism? Who is a Journalist?

            At the beginning of the semester, I thought I knew quite well what journalism was and who a journalist is.  But as I read The Elements of Journalism by Bill Kovach & Tom Rosenstiel and The Mind of a Journalist: How Reporters View Themselves, Their World, And Their Craft by Jim Willis, I reevaluated my views of journalism and journalists.  At first, I defined journalism to be the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues, and trends to a broad audience to inform the citizenry.  It represents the presentation of information to citizens so that they can become free and self-governing individuals.  I thought that summed up what journalism is but that definition is superficial.  In fact, journalism involves even more than that.

            Journalism doesn’t have a clear definition.  People over centuries have battled trying to pin down what journalism is but all they never get any farther than where they started.  Although journalism doesn’t have an exact definition, it has elements that are considered crucial in order to function as journalism.  Aside from telling the truth and getting your facts right, journalists and citizens need to recognize these elements that are imperative in journalism.

            Journalism’s first obligation is to the truth and its essence is a discipline of verification.  Many will argue just as much the definition of truth as they wrestle with the definition of journalism.  But many will agree on this part that the truth is more than just getting facts.  It’s taking into consideration timing and proximity when you gather the information.  It’s recognizing both sides of the story.  It’s always heard that one needs to give equal treatment to both sides but sometimes that’s not the case because that could be skewing the discovered truth.  Also, rather what pinning down what is truth, the methods on discovering “truth” are more important.  Journalists need to verify what they have gathered by never adding anything that was not there, never deceive audiences, being as transparent as possible about methods and motives, relying on one’s original reporting, and exercise humility.

            Journalism must be comprehensive, proportional, engaging, relevant, and act as a public forum for criticism and debate.  Journalism needs to cover what we need and what we want.  Every story whether it’s relevant or not to our views, we must make it engaging so we can satisfy both needs and wants for our audiences.  It must be comprehensive and proportional because journalism aims to reach as many audiences as possible because we are all affected by each other in some way, big or large.  When one excludes a community, there is a lack of information and communication.  Therefore, people become mislead and misrepresented.  When journalism acts a public forum for criticism and debate, new ideas are weighed against each other, different sides to a story are revealed, and people come closer to knowledge as they listen to others debate sources of truth.  All of these elements make journalism reach out to many people and can unite and bring people closer to understanding what is happening in the world.

            Now that journalism has been revealed on what it consists of, the next big question is who is a journalist?  Before, I considered journalists to be those who practice the profession and maintains a job in a news network.  At first, I considered real journalists to be the ones who attended journalism school, graduated with a degree, and practiced at a news organization because they’ve been trained to be transparent and know how to optimally obtain information from difficult sources.  As I have watched news reports, some of the footage and writing have come from untrained individuals who happened to be at the right moment with a camera and report it on the internet.  Even some of the most well known anchors and reporters received no degree or training in news gathering.  That changed my idea of a journalist completely.  To find out that some of individuals in the business have had no or little training and that much of our news we get from witnesses from events that report their experiences on the internet.  Having a degree in journalism makes one official and credible.  However, just as there are good journalists with degrees and average Joe citizens who aren’t talented in news gathering, there are also a handful of terrible, boring journalists who have graduated from school and talented citizens covering major events with their smart phones and digital cameras.  So it’s not the degree or title you have, it’s your methods of gathering that makes one a journalist. 

            A couple weeks ago I attended a lecture from a journalist for the Salt Lake Tribune who worked as a military analyst for our government.  He agreed that many of us will fall out of the profession but we can still do journalism.  Anyone can do journalism, regardless of a degree, if they use the right methods and have the right motives.  Journalists must maintain an independence from those they cover and they must have an obligation to exercise their personal conscience.  Journalists must maintain independence from those they cover means that one does not let their opinions or biases get the better of them.  Journalists are not propagandists or activists where the message is constantly pushed.  True, journalists have opinions and biases but it can’t get in the way of reporting events and seeking the truth from others.  They must exercise their personal conscience recalling upon a code of ethics instilled by the organization they work for.  Each news organization is different when it comes to ethical codes but each journalist can adapt these to be in their personal conduct:  seek the truth and report it, minimize harm, act independently, and be accountable. 

            Throughout the semester and perhaps in the future, the definition of journalism and journalist will continue to be difficult to clarify.  However, journalism has elements that are necessary in order to be a useful tool for citizens and future generations.  Anyone can be a journalist, but it is the methods they use and the motives they posses that makes me them stand out as a watchdog for the world.  Those who wish to be in the journalism field must understand the requirements that make journalism successful.  They must also practice like a journalist to be useful to the audience they represent, or even the world.

Comprehensive and Proportional

Journalism should keep the news comprehensive and in proportion.

            “Journalism is our modern cartography.  It creates a map for citizens to navigate society.  That is its utility and its economic reason for being.  This concept of cartography helps clarify the question of what journalism has a responsibility to cover.  As with any map, journalism’s value depends on it completeness and proportionality” (Kovach & Rosenstiel 208). 

The Fallacy of Targeted Demographics

            “If we think of journalism as social cartography, the map should include news of all our communities, not just those with attractive demographics or strong appeal to advertisers.  To do otherwise is to create maps with whole areas missing” (Kovach & Rosenstiel 209).  News organizations tend to cater to their audiences through demographics.  The good side to using demographics is that you’re providing what matters most to your audience, therefore, ratings and viewership goes up.  The down side to using demographics is that it leaves communities out and it doesn’t include all of the news that is out there that is still important for citizens to know.  Therefore, targeted demographics make audiences misinformed.  When citizens are misinformed, they will tend to make poor decisions.  As journalists, we must find ways to serve a wide range of audiences and communities.  In 1998, the Project for Excellence in Journalism found through studies that stations who covered a wider range of topics were more likely to be building or holding on to their audience than those that did not.

The Pressure to Hype

            “We’ve reached the point where the entertainment divisions are doing the news and the news divisions are doing entertainment.” – ABC News correspondent Robert Krulwich.  This part mostly pertains to the broadcast and radio networks, but a main part of how a news organization stays in business is based on ratings.  Therefore, if it appeals to viewers whether it seems interesting or important, people are compelled to watch.  Some organizations feel this pressure to get more around the world to watch their station.  Some organizations will sensationalize their content though most will deny that they sensationalized any of their material.  A popular technique is that those who are released/kicked off a reality TV show will be the main story for a network the next day.  How many of us tuned into watching the contestant’s response on American Idol, The Apprentice, Survivor, The Biggest Loser, etc.?  Is this really considered news necessary for the public to function and make decisions for themselves?  Or are these stories that will generate ratings to keep businesses in business?

Marketing

            How new organizations are able to target their audiences is through marketing and research techniques.  While marketing has proved to be helpful in finding out what is currently concerning our citizens, it makes citizens seem as customers or numbers.  We see them as satisfying what they want, asking what products they use, etc.  Instead, journalists “need to stop using market research that treats our audience as customers, asking them which products they prefer.  We need to create a journalism market research that approaches people as citizens and tells us more about their lives” (Kovach & Rosenstiel 219).  Just ask the people what they’re doing and what’s important to them rather than what do they prefer.  Asking their preference does not present their full judgment.  It only gives their opinion on such as short range.  You are only giving them 2 options when, who knows, there could be many factors in their opinions. 

            Besides using effective marketing methods and including a wider range of communities, journalists must treat each story with great story telling techniques.  A good journalist can make any story, whether relevant or not, of great importance depending on how they handle the story.  In fact, storytelling is key in marketing, reaching more communities, and letting audiences know that your story is of worth to the world. 

            In conclusion with some remarks from Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel’s book, The Elements of Journalism:  “The answer is not to return to a day when journalists operate purely by instinct.  We hope we have spotlighted a group of new cartographers who are developing tools to chart the way people live their lives today and the needs for news these lives create.  They are providing one of the most important tools a news organization needs to design a more comprehensive and proportional news report that attracts rather than repels the audience.  Now it is up to journalists to try.”