What is Journalism? A Look at What We've Learned

What Is Journalism?

Journalism today is evolving, to be a journalist you no longer have to work at a newspaper corporation. The internet has allowed for all kinds of new ways to publish and share your information. The internet has also brought about a new aspect to journalism, a visual aspect. Because a 2x3 inch black and white picture is not longer deemed exciting, journalists are able to take digital photos and video and put them straight on the internet for all to see and enjoy. The basic idea of journalism, however, has not changed entirely. Journalism is a written art form; it must be accurate and truthful, it must be unbiased, and it must be interesting.

            Accuracy and truthfulness in journalism are what deem the information credible. To be a credible journalist is to be a successful journalist. Being accurate and truthful can be difficult at times, especially in this world filled with the need to know now, it is difficult to get out accurate information quickly.  In an article titled “Writing Follow-Up Stories” By Tony Rogers he says, “…many news stories are not simply one-time events but rather ongoing topics that can last for weeks or even months,” here Rogers describes the reason for writing follow-up stories. Because people want to know news as it’s happening, the accuracy and truthfulness can get confused in the beginning, a follow-up story helps bring clarity to the situation further down the road when more of the facts have been figured out.

Truth gets tricky when a journalist is asked to write on religion. Who’s to say what is truth and what isn’t when there are millions of different views on religion. The Deseret News highlighted difficulties on faith and journalism in January when they ran a story called, “Conflict and Politics Again Highlight Most Important Religious Stories of the Year,” written by Lane Williams and referring to historian, Dough Underwood. One portion of the article states, “Maybe this simplistic way of approaching religion [mix of politics and religion] in the news can't be avoided, Underwood writes. Journalism is tied to current events. Concerns like salvation and baptism rarely change, nor are rarely tied in directly with newsy events….And there are no easy solutions to this problem because a focus on controversy and dissent is an important part of what journalists do in their quest for truth.” This is one of the things that make journalism an art. Journalists must find ways to accomplish these hard tasks through their skillful writing and careful selection of word choice.

            While media corporations today are known for their political or emotional slants, the ideal form of journalism is to be completely unbiased. Journalism is the collecting of information and passing of that information on to the citizens. The information passed should be hard facts so that the citizens can form opinions and make decisions of their own. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines journalism as, “writing characterized by a direct presentation of facts or description of events without an attempt at interpretation.” Interpretation is left for the reader to decide, the journalist uses their skills to give interesting facts to the public, allowing them to make inform decisions about the happenings of the world.

            By looking at the above definition of journalism, one might wonder why can’t anybody be a journalist? That question is answered in the last bit of the definition of journalism; it must be interesting. News can very often be bland and not very engaging to the general public. As a journalist that works for the news industry, it’s crucial to get readers to buy your stories. Journalism must be interesting enough to everyone that they buy a copy of the newspaper, or subscribe to a magazine, or watch broadcast videos over and over again. Lucky for the rising generation there are all kinds of new and interesting ways to engage the audience, not only textually but visually as well. This is where the bloggers are separated from the journalists; when a journalist can write an article that is accurate, truthful, and unbiased while engaging their audience in an interesting and enigmatic way, that is journalism.

INFOtainment

 Engagement and Relevance

 

Don’t think of a red truck, ready? Go! Thought of a red truck didn’t you? It’s difficult not to in a situation like that, much like it’s difficult to not want to know a secret when someone tells you they have one but then teases you by saying they aren’t going to tell you what it is. Well surprise surprise, the news industry has discovered that people like to be in on the secrets. The concept called “infotainment” has taken entertainment and made it news, as a way to reveal the “secrets” to its viewers and readers.

As presented in class the idea of infotainment had a negative connotation associated with it because of the way news was portrayed by it and how it might be difficult to gain credibility after having worked in infotainment. But to me, the idea of presenting news in an entertaining and catchy way seems like the right way for the industry to lean. Now that news is everywhere constantly talking to us through TVs, the internet, portable devices, everything…industries have to come up with unique ways to catch the reader’s attention. If it’s secrets they want, give them secrets.

 Infotainment was defined as “playing to the strengths of other media and not your own.” But I the news industry can play to the strengths of other media while also producing a good story, now that would be infotainment to its best! I like the way Wikipedia defines infotainment more, they said that it was, "information-based media content or programming that also includes entertainment content in an effort to enhance popularity with audiences and consumers."  Changing the way we view the news doesn’t have to be bad, the world is changing so why don’t we go with it instead of being left behind.

Mapmakers

Comprehensive and Proportional

Mapmakers of the world unite! In writing news articles? That’s right, because a great analogy to describe journalism is mapmaking. I like this quote that describes mapmaking, but in a sense describes the art of journalism at the same time, “Map making requires not only precision and talent, but accuracy in order to be an effective tool for the user.” A mapmaker must be EXTREMELY accurate in their art because if they’re off by just a little bit on a map, it could throw the reader off by a lot. Parallel that to journalism and if you’re stories aren’t very accurate, it could throw the reader off. If a map is wrong a person ends up in the wrong place and doesn’t know where they are, if a story is wrong the reader ends up with false knowledge both of which lead to utter confusion.

 Another parallel of the two is that when a map is wrong the reader of that map will follow it blindly, end up somewhere they don’t like, and then throw that map away never to use it again. For journalism if a story is wrong, the reader will follow it blindly, end up with incomplete knowledge, and possibly never come back to that writer again. This one mistake can cause a journalist their credibility.

Mapmaking can also be an analogy to the idea of targeted demographics. Oftentimes in journalism this is used with a negative connotation as in to beware of targeting demographics because stations that cover a wider range of topics will have more of an audience. However, in an article speaking of mapmaking it states that, “No single map can show everything, so the features portrayed on each map are selected to fit a particular purpose.” (to read more Click Here). I believe that this can be related back to journalism in the same way. No one story can tell everything, so some stories may be targeted more towards certain groups at certain times.

Faith and Journalism

Journalism and Religion a Difficult Combination

Religion and journalism are very difficult to put together. It’s hard to get correct facts concerning the religion, it’s hard to cover stories that make the religion look bad, it’s hard to write about your own religion without being biased, and sometimes its hard not to loose your own religion when you have to cover a story on it. William Lobdell showed the world of journalism in his book “loosing my religion” that it can be too hard to keep a religion when you have to cover stories of the scandalous things that occur within them.

A big question that comes up within the topic of religion and journalism is whether or not a journalist should be able and allowed to cover their own religion? Will a journalist be too biased, and turn the story into more of an activist story? Or will they be the best person to write that story because they know more about the religion then the average Joe would? My solution to this inquiry goes off of a subject we covered in class last week of journalistic forums. Perhaps religion should be covered by forums, that way all sides and all information on the matter can be brought to attention by whoever wants to write something.

There are many places that are geared towards the religious side of things in general. A few brought up in class were CBN, The Christian Century, and Christianity Today. These news stations are straightforward about their views in religion and can therefore have the journalists write about their own religions because it’s a known fact that there will be a bias.

As far as religious journalists go I think it’s important to remember that the core of your religion is the truth of it, and not to let stories about human flaws change or effect the way you feel about a certain religion. Also, any journalist covering any religion be it their own or not, they should cover that religion the way you’d want your own to be covered.

Beckham Lecture

I had the privilege to attend the Beckham Lecture at BYU today that focused on the becoming of literature and advertising. Some sections of his lecture that I enjoyed were the birth of advertising and his example of Amazon, and the rise of puffery. He spoke about the rise of the internet and how it allowed for the world’s largest book store. Amazon was created in 1995 after the internet really took hold. And it was Amazon that then began a new type of marketing; selling their books as if they were other kinds of everyday merchandise. The makers of Amazon knew that we use the same cognitive process to choose books as we do to choose which brands to buy, which cereal to eat, etc. So they used the same ideas from ads for everyday things to sell their books online.

Puffery (click here for an example) essentially means that the publisher attempts to sell their book in an unusual or new way, but the word puffery is generally used with a negative connotation. People presume it to be an advertisement in disguise and publishers are just trying to talk up something that is not as good as they same it is. This idea of puffery then leads to literary criticism which was a way for people to find out about book without having to read everything. However, much like a disease puffery encrypted this too and authors would then become their own literary critics and just rave about their book, once again hoping to get more sales.

I enjoyed the Beckham Lecture, he was very professional and had interesting points that through all my studies of communication I hadn’t heard about before.

Journalism As a Public Forum

Technology Changes the Public Forum

In class this week we discussed journalism as a public forum and how technology has completely changed this idea. There are many different kinds of forums including radio call-In shows, TV talk shows, editorial pages, blogs, chat rooms, and public polling. Technology however has reinvented a few of these forums. With the internet, information is spread much quicker than it ever could have been before, and there is the ability to have instant audience feedback.

Wikipedia is an example of a public forum, it’s an online encyclopedia that anyone can write articles for, edit, and access for information. There is a much debated discussion between students of this new technological age and their teachers and professors concerning Wikipedia. Most teachers do not allow for students to use this online encyclopedia as a source for any kind of written assignment due to the possibility that the information is incorrect. Students on the other hand, have grown up using the internet for everything, any time we had a question we wouldn’t walk to the library we’d turn on the computer. While Wikipedia may have some articles that have incorrect information, the ratio between correct and incorrect information within Wikipedia versus within what our search engines bring up is much larger in terms of correct information.  

Professor Cressman made a comment about Wikipedia during our discussion and he mentioned the idea that Wikipedia and technology like it has made it redundant for teachers to actual lecture. The way the world is turning these days students can get information very easily and very quickly. There is no reason for a teacher to lecture about things that a student can just bring up on their computer and learn themselves. Public forums have created a whole new way to learn, and gain an education.  I would venture to guess that in the next thirty-five years all schooling will be able to be done on a computer. Much like Wikipedia has done, many more forums will open up online where people can edit, and share their information. Discussions and peer to peer teaching will be able to be done through chat rooms, blogs, and other forums that are all online. The world of learning will literally begin at our fingertips.

Risky Business

Risky Business

Investigative reporting; are you getting the whole story? Is the reporter in charge agenda setting? Or have you been put into a situation where you are actually stunting and not doing real investigative reporting? These are a few reasons why investigative reporting is risky business.

 You may not have to put your life on the line, or travel far from home to do it, but investigative reporting takes a lot of work. It’s important to be persistent in getting the entire picture, which is difficult when you’re reporting on something that’s not entirely yours. Agenda setting, which is “the theory that the mass-news media have a large influence on audiences by their choice of what stories to consider newsworthy and how much prominence and space to give them”, is easily done and can go straight over your head if you’re not careful. Investigative reporters must have an eye for what is important and should definitely always know what’s going on in the world. Stunting is publishing faux investigative reports designed to generate ratings, and it is called stunting for a reason, it’s not real investigative reporting. It is reporting to make the company happy, not the reader.

There are also a few pitfalls to be aware of when choosing to do investigative reporting. First is becoming biased. Because investigative reporting has to do with searching out a single subject, and delving deeply into that subject, it can be easy to form an opinion or sway to a specific side. This is especially true in the instances of crime, political corruption, or corporate wrongdoing.

Investigative journalists have come to find that to be a balanced journalist they must provide sufficient room for alternative views. This is a good rule to write by since there is always going to be some kind of human bias, this rule however allows for that because even if you have that bias you make sure that you’re allowing for the article to contain alternative views. Computer Assisted Reporting has also become a large tool for investigative journalists allowing them to verify the information they get from other sources. Both of these tips allow for the “Risky Business” of investigative reporting to remain in check and headed toward their top most important technique, getting the actual documents.