What is Journalism? Who knows?

“Journalism is the presentation or description of facts, but as more and more citizens become authors through technological mediums, this dedication to the traditional role of a journalist will change.” This is how I started my essay at the beginning of the semester. Coming into the class, I felt that journalism was a dignified profession limited to professionals who had learned the trade and gained the respect of the people by eliminating biases. I have grown to realize (through study and discussion) that journalists cannot be completely objective in their work. It is near impossible to leave out biases. You should a lack of objectivity by showing your feeling, what makes the story/what doesn’t, who you interview, what sides you show, and even at times what stories you write about. Even with this, a journalist should do everything that they can to present what happened (in their eyes) as correctly as they can. As I hinted to in my first essay, with the growth of technology allows people throughout the world to allow their voice to be heard. Does that make them a journalist? A former reporter who was one of the first to really apply blogging into his work, Dan Gillmor, gave his take on are all these people who can post, tweet, write their views through the world wide web answering, “some are (journalists), some aren’t…but some of them are creating journalism.” The traditional role of journalism is still alive in the world today. Many receive training, but it would be inappropriate to exclude those who are using the technological resources of today to become journalists. Some are good journalists, and again some are not. In the end when it deals with who is a journalist and what journalism is, it is the responsibility of the reader to determine it for themselves and see conclude what is real journalism.
What is journalism?
This seems to be an often asked question, but no one really seems to have an answer for it. Now I realize that this is perhaps not the most trusted source, but through the encyclopedia website Wikipedia, we find the view of what most accurately describes journalism today. “Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues, and trends to a broad audience. Although there is much variation within journalism, the ideal is to inform the citizenry,” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journalism). To me this is what journalism is. Reporting facts and events, presenting the trends of our day, and when it comes down to it, informing the citizens that hear or read the work.
This definition showcases a broad array of what journalism could be. This makes the person who tweets about their date a journalist. The person that blogs about how boring their lecture was, is a journalist (never the case in Comms. 239 of course). And perhaps even storytellers are journalists. All of these people inform others about what is going on in the world today.
I realize that many of these people may not be considered journalists by some. Some have voiced concerns that, “there is no merit in handing out awards to papers which do not seek to publish truth- telling serious journalism,” (Hagerty 2005). We can realize the differential of who is a serious journalist; who is relaying important information that is crucial to the public. Once again it is up to the audience to decide who falls into these categories.
Who is a journalist?
Social media allows the role of who is a journalist to expand. Social media is crucial to the success of a journalist because it allows a journalist to expand their audience throughout the world. It is also as helpful to journalists as, “It is essential to begin by understanding various social media sites and the ways they can enhance the work journalists do,” (Overholser, 2009). A journalist is anyone who fits the description from the previous paragraph, and can now do so through many technological mediums. So is Chad Johnson or excuse me, Chad Ochocinco are journalist? He tweets and has a large following. He even tried to establish an amateur news organization for celebrities who wanted to share news with the world. To a few, he probably is a journalist. Is Anderson Cooper a journalist? Yes to a larger number. Was Walter Cronkite? Yes to an even larger number. Is Jay Leno? He reports world events? Perhaps also to some as they are learning about the world around them, although in a less serious manner. All of these people report news to inform the public. They do it in different styles and ways but they do it nonetheless. In any of these cases, it is up to the public to determine 1. If they are journalists and 2. If they should be taken seriously and how they should take the information they receive from them.
Some may disagree with me. In fact I know of two who fall into what I describe as a journalist that would disagree with me. On one of the final episodes of Crossfire, Jon Stewart relayed that he is not a journalist and had no responsibility to society. As he put it, “the show I follow are puppets making prank phone calls.” To him he is not a journalist, but he shapes the way many people-especially young see the world today as he relays information. Additionally, Glenn Beck also does not feel that he is a journalist. He took on the daunting task of taking on the ladies of the View and told them that he was merely a “commentator.” He saw that he was only taking his views and relaying them to the public, not feeling that he was reporting anything. As we know, Beck has also influenced and relayed a great deal of information to the public.
What is journalism? Who is a journalist? These are tough questions. I thought I had these questions somewhat answered coming into this class. Perhaps as I have gained my feelings through this class I have gone farther away from the truth. As I can tell, journalism is relaying information and bringing it through the public. It is done by many ways and a journalist is someone who does this process. Ultimately, it is the responsibility of the public to realize the effectiveness of the person they are getting this information from, noting their legitimacy, and realizing that biases that they possess. By doing so, the individuals form and decide who a journalist is and what is journalism.