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.
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